Androsch’s Mission Impossible
“It was clear from the beginning that this was a mission impossible,” commented Hannes Androsch on ORF Radio, Sunday, 20 January, as the early returns were announced in Austria’s first nationwide non-binding referendum, held earlier that day supporting a continuation of mandatory military service. The result had not come as a surprise to the 74-year-old [...]
Seeking Sanctuary: Refugees Protest Asylum Law
It was freezing outside the Votivkirche in mid-January as a small group of journalists waited for the Caritas social workers to open the doors. “You’ll have to wait about an hour,” we were finally told. “There are just too many journalists in there now.” The security guards, hired by Caritas, turned away a few unknowing [...]
Dancing With the Chimney Sweeps
As the day of the Ball der Wiener Rauchfangkehrer approached, I wasn’t all that up for it. Vienna is the City of Balls and, of the 150 soirées to choose from, a reception for the Association of Chimney Sweeps at the Austria Trend Park Hotel Schönbrunn didn’t quite seem the apotheosis. I wanted to feast [...]
Christmas Market(ing) Off the Beaten Path
With the holiday season upon us once again, many dread navigating the bustling mid-town shopping streets like Kärntner Straße or Mariahilfer Straße, looking for the right gift, or even wondering where to get a hot Glühwein (mulled wine) or Punsch without having to deal with the tourist-crowded Rathausplatz, Karlsplatz or Schloss Schönbrunn. While Vienna’s many [...]
Let it Glow, Let it Glow, Let it Glow!
For many English-speaking expats in Vienna, we remember the return of Christmas decorations to our home cities as an annual prompt for derision and complaints of: “They seem to come earlier every year…” Just one more commercial come-on. But in this, our adopted home, the transformation of what is already one of the crown jewel [...]
Visiting Life On the Run
It’s a bright Friday in October on Karlsplatz in Vienna’s 4th District, and tourists and students from the nearby Technical University are lounging around the artificial pond reflecting the oriental-looking dome-roofed Karlskirche. It’s a familiar Viennese scene, but today everything is a bit different. Across the pond from the church, a third-world refugee camp has [...]
Eric Kandel: Insight and Reconciliation
“It’s remarkable how Austria has grown up in the last few years,” Eric Kandel declared to a packed auditorium at the Austrian Academy of Sciences on 9 October. The occasion: a presentation of the Viennese-born neuroscientist and 2000 Nobel Prize Laureate’s most recent book, The Age of Insight (see “Eric Kandel: Nectar for the Mind” [...]
The Fable Of Frank Stronach
He has an image many politicians would die for: Small town boy who goes off to make his fortune and comes back a wealthy and successful man; he invests, he flourishes, and now in his golden years, he wants to “give back” through public service. “I’m a man of the people,” billionaire Frank Stronach proclaimed [...]
The Dance of Diversity
The subway doors opened at Landstraße as passengers stepped out, and headed up the dusty stairwell toward Maxergasse. Construction at the Wien Mitte U-Bahn station had been going on for a decade, and jackhammers still echo off thick concrete walls. On this hot day in late May, they were swallowed up by the energetic drumming [...]
