BOOKS: The Lessons of History in Snow Country
In Snow Country, a new novel by Sebastian Faulks, readers learn about love and consciousness in Austria’s interwar chaos.
In “Motley Stones,” Adalbert Stifter Describes the Allure of Nature
The Austrian writer’s enchanting short stories reveal his love of nature in elegantly simple prose
In “The Fiume Crisis,” Dominique K. Reill Explains How a Citizens’ Uprising Established a Free State After the Fall of the Habsburg Empire
While the Great Powers wrestled over the fate of the Adriatic city-state of Fiume, its residents had their own sense of who they were, argues historian Dominique K. Reill.
Sylvia Petter’s All the Beautiful Liars Details the Hunt for Answers in Postwar Vienna
In Sylvia Petter’s debut novel All the Beautiful Liars, Katrina Klain arrives in Vienna in search of the lost pieces of her life.
Martin Rady’s “The Habsburgs” Recounts The Family’s Rise and Fall
Martyn Rady’s new history of the Habsburgs argues that their empire was undone by the very things that once made it mighty.
Book Review | The Painted Face
Love and Desire, War and Human Suffering in Ingeborg Bachmann’s Malina.
Reconsidering Thomas Bernhard
On the 30th anniversary of his death, the Austrian author’s acerbic wit still cuts through the pomposities and pettiness of a society hiding from itself.
Who Owns Kafka’s Legacy?
The struggle over a rich literary inheritance opens questions of identity regarding the seminal writer, a Czech who was also Jewish but wrote in German of Habsburg-era Prague. At four in the morning on March 15, 1939, Max Brod crossed …
FPÖ’s Vilimsky tells ORF’s Armin Wolf: ‘This is the last straw!’
Colleagues and opposition politicians defended ORF star journalist and anchor Armin Wolf after a contentious interview with Freedom Party general secretary Harald Vilimsky led to sustained attacks and calls for his resignation. Vilimsky appeared on Wolf’s evening news program ZIB2 …
FPÖ’s Vilimsky tells ORF’s Armin Wolf: ‘This is the last straw!’ Read More »
The Ironies of History
In Éric Vuillard’s award-winning historical novel The Order of the Day, an absurd and tragic encounter seals Austria’s fate. The hour grows late and Austria’s dictatorial Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg arrives at the Eagle’s Nest, Adolf Hitler’s mountaintop retreat high above …
“You’re a Young Guy” | Kurz Meets Trump
Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz described his meeting with United States president Donald Trump Wednesday as “very disputatious” in an interview with ORF’s Armin Wolf. Kurz flew to Washington D.C. earlier this week in order to meet with Trump, becoming the …
Culture Books | November
Anna Seghers’ Morality Play Available in English for the first time, The Seventh Cross addresses the damage and deep divisions of ordinary life under the Nazis Seven political prisoners escape from the (fictional) Westhofen concentration camp in the Rhineland in …
Saving the White Stallions
How the US Army helped preserve the famed Lipizzaners in the final days of WWII.
After Europe | Ivan Krastev’s Doomsday Prognosis for the EU
In After Europe, Ivan Krastev argues that the refugee crisis is Europe’s gravest threat
Edith Sheffer’s ‘Asperger’s Children’ Reveals ‘The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna’
Edith Sheffer updates the record on the famed Austrian physician to chilling effect
Florentin 1090 is the Newest Addition to Vienna’s Israeli Restaurants
Florentin 1090 joins the growing number of Israeli restaurants, but remains behind the competition.
Michael Köhlmeier’s Yiza Looks at the Refugee Crisis from a Child’s Perspective
In Yiza the Austrian author Michael Köhlmeier looks at the refugee crisis from a child’s perspective.
Books | Mayerling Revisited: Rebuilding the Story of Crown Prince Rudolf’s Murder-Suicide with his Lover
Debunking myths of the murder-suicide of Crown Prince Rudolf and his lover
Books | Discover Arthur Schnitzler’s Forgotten Novella: Late Fame
Arthur Schnitzler’s forgotten novella is released in English, in a stylish translation by Alexander Starritt
Britwurst Brings British Breakfast Sausages to Vienna
An expat has made a tidy business out of delivering tasty traditional British breakfast sausages to hungry Viennese
