A century ago, the city of Vienna played host to Hitler,
Trotsky, Tito, Freud and Stalin.”
>full text with more photos & a map (c) BBC, 2013
>audio file (interview with Charles Emmerson & Dardis McNamee)
(the same facts are also mentioned in the German 1913 book by Florian Illies)
“Eric Hobsbawm (1917-2012), the great historian, travels from his native Vienna to Bratislava (formerly Pressburg). A train journey of a mere 35 miles takes him through a tiny landscape that has seen some of the most turbulent political changes of the century – from the lost world of the Habsburgs to Europe’s newest state, Slovakia. ‘Nationalism is not compatible with the progress of history,’ says Hobsbawm.” video portrait (c) VIMEO, 2012
This is a gastronomic map of European “taste” hanging in a French hospital:
Interestingly, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, and the rest of CEE don’t seem to exist here. Photo (c) Sabine Burg, 2013
“Four decades ago, the southern German state of Bavaria became the birthplace of a film genre like no other: the Lederhosen Porn. The alpine meadows were rugged, the men wore leather trousers, the porn was soft — and Germany was hooked.” Today, these films tell us much about zeitgeist, sexuality and gender in the 1970s >full text (c) DER SPIEGEL INT’L, 2013
“The Skandalkonzert of March 31, 1913 was a concert conducted by Arnold Schoenberg in the Great Hall of the Musikverein (Vienna Concert Society). “The audience, shocked by the expressionism and experimentalism of the Second Viennese School, began rioting, and the concert was ended prematurely. The fight between a concert organizer and Oscar Straus led to a trial.”
(c) WIKIPEDIA >more Illustration: caricature from DIE ZEIT, 6 April 1913
“The Austrian composer bridged the transition from writing music for patrons to writing for a paying audience” and “became one of Europe’s most respected composers in his day.” >text from THE EUROPEANS series (c) THE IRISH TIMES, 2013
Sylvia Plath (1932-63) seems to be the Ingeborg Bachmann of North America. Her “relationship with her most famous work was not easy, but it retains its power after five decades.” In terms of today, she would be a writer with an Austrian/German “migration background.” >full article (c) THE IRISH TIMES, 2013
Another article: Who is Sylvia Plath? “Her role as a ‘casus belli’ in the battle of the sexes has also obscured the genius of this much-mythologised poet.” (c) FT 2013
“A snapshot in time: Vienna Today 2012 documents a thriving community.”
>full text (c) VIENNA REVIEW, 2013
Austria commemorates again its – less forced than desired – “Anschluss” to Nazi Germany. Continue reading
“Germany’s Annexation Of Austria 75 Years Ago Remembered As ‘Darkest Time’.” >full text (c) HUFFINGTON POST, 2013
delirium clemens 