The Vienna Philharmonic: An Orchestra, a ring and a past
In January, the buzz echoed across the globe: The Vienna Philharmonic, one of the world’s most renowned orchestras, had finally opened its archives to a team of historians. By the second week of March, a few days before the 75th anniversary of Austria’s Anschluss with Nazi Germany, the website of the Philharmonic was updated with [...]
An Austrian Mixologist Takes D.C.
The arts of Austrian gastronomy are unfamiliar to much of the wider world. Its cuisine and spirits are known mostly among connoisseurs, while its restaurants sprout gracefully from a wistful past that ignores faddish whims. But Austrian gastronomes – born with an epicurean fervor that courses through family veins – have flung this finesse to [...]
Rathkolb: Revisiting Interwar History
For much of early March, it was nearly impossible to get historian Oliver Rathkolb on the phone. He did better with emails, dashing off two-to-five word answers, with links or attachments. Signed characteristically, “herzlichst, OR”. When he was finally able to pry loose for a few minutes, he sounded harassed – but not unhappy. Leading [...]
Plamen Goranov – Martyr Of the ‘Bulgarian Spring’
In a desperate act of protest against goverment austerity measures, 36-year-old Bulgarian Plamen Goranov set himself on fire in front of the City Hall in Varna. He is one of six self-immolators in Bulgaria in the course of just one month, the most recent being a 41-year-old man from the village of Sitovo, he remains [...]
Latvia’s non-citizens
On 23 March, roughly 400 people formed a non-citizens congress in the Latvian capital Riga, demanding full political rights for so-called “non-citizens”. This resulted from Latvia’s Russian minority voicing its anger over escalating institutional discrimination. Nearly 300,000 people, 13% of Latvia’s population, have non-citizen status and as a result, have special passports and restrictions placed [...]
Italy in political deadlock
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano’s efforts to form a government remain fruitless after February’s election results. No party achieved a majority in Parliament. The President held a meeting with political leaders on 20 March, declaring it “an absolute necessity to give the country a government”. Pier Lugi Bersani’s Democratic Party gained 29.5% of the vote in [...]
Whistleblower website
An anonymous whistleblower website was launched in March by the Austrian Ministry of Justice, allowing users to call attention to alleged cases of corruption without having to reveal their identity. Three senior prosecutors will be in charge of pursuing new leads, says Ilse-Maria Vrabl-Sanda, head of the WKStA (Public Prosecutor’s Office against corruption). The virtual [...]
Kurz Cares About The Card
Say you’re from a non-EU country – America, say, or Singapore, or South Africa – and decide to study in Austria. Maybe you arrived here with your parents as a child, or you fell in love with an Austrian, or simply decided to study here because it was cheap. Whatever the reason, you’re here now, [...]
Cursing in style
A new “integration” course called Schimpfen in Wien (Swearing in Vienna) is being offered by the Volkshochschule Wien-Meidling. Course Instructor Marcha Kellner teaches her students what Viennese swearing is about and, more importantly, how to do it with style. The German language contains a number of animal-related swear words ranging from Angsthase (scared rabbit) to poultry: [...]
