The nouveau-riche Austro-Canadian FRANK STRONACH buys himself into Austrian politics almost the same way he did with car manufacturing some decades ago. Will the banana republic in the Alps thus see the rise of a new Berlusconi? Or is it just another melodramatic act in the Austrian state farce?
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“Born in Austria in 1947, as a young man he got into bodybuilding and became the best in the world. He moved to Los Angeles at the age of 21. Within 10 years, he was a millionaire businessman. After 20 years, he was the world’s biggest movie star. In 2003, after just over 30 years in America, “Arnie” was governor of California and a household name around the globe.” A review of A. SCHWARZENEGGER’s memoirs Total Recall (c) independent.ie 2012; photo (c) Rolf Hayo, 1967
The Werkbund Estate in Vienna
“’Light, air and sun’ and ‘modern living with a maximum of happiness’ were promised by the Werkbund Estate in Vienna in 1932. Eighty years after its opening, the Wien Museum is staging an exhibition devoted to this architectural monument.” Text (c) wieninternational.at 2012
“So-called big history has been inhospitable to the questions of meaning and intention so central to intellectual history – isn’t it time for a reconciliation?”
Speech by David Armitage
(c) TLS, 2012
“The British Marxist historian (with Central European roots) reclaimed and popularised the value of popular culture – something so integral to our lives
today it seems bizarre it was ever denigrated.” >Arts Blog entry
>Obituary Hobsbawm
>Panel: the Hobsbwam legacy
(with Niall Ferguson, David Priestland, Catherine Merridale & Roy Foster)
All texts (c) THE GUARDIAN 2012
Today it is 72 years ago that Walter Benjamin committed suicide at the French-Spanish border. Stephan Wackwitz dissevers literature from science, holiness from genius in the legends of this literary critic who has served as pillar saint for many.
Text (c) DIE WELT / signandsight.com, 2010
Image: the monument Passages by Israeli artist Dani Karavan in Portbou, Spain, commemorating Walter Benjamin. Photo (c) picture-alliance / akg-images
Austrian French director MICHAEL HANEKE won the Special Award at the Cannes Film festival with his new movie Amour: see the review (c) NYT, 2012
“In a collection of his letters newly-translated and edited by [our dear young colleague] Michael Hofmann, Joseph Roth is given a new stage for his linguistic genius and vigilant criticism, as well as his inability to use that critical vision to save himself from himself.” Review (c) THE VIENNA REVIEW, 2012
“Most of the visitors strolling in the castle area of Buda(pest) probably don’t know that beneath their feet in the depths there is a strange and completely different world: the Sziklakórház, a network of caves which was used in Hungary’s turbulent past as a hospital, nuclear and civil defence bunker, air raid warning centre and headquarters of the German SS.” It has been turned into a speculative museum rather than into a memorial… Text (c) wieninternational.at 2012
“The funeral of germanist Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler in Vienna´s Zentralfriedhof. His lectures on Austrian literature at the university of Vienna were always crowded and a large crowd of friends, colleagues and students turned up to bid him farewell. Continue reading
delirium clemens 