Maggie Childs
Margaret (Maggie) Childs is the CEO and Publisher of METROPOLE. Originally from New York, Vienna has been her home since high school. She is known for non-stop enthusiasm, talking too fast, inhaling coffee and being a board member of AustrianStartups, where she helps entrepreneurs internationalize. Follow her on Instagram @maggie_childs and twitter @mtmchilds.
General
Publisher’s Letter | One for the Road
Once upon a time in my Vienna history, I was working as a travel writer and as a waitress. This combination is particularly tricky in a town like Vie...
Fall 2021
Michael Häupl and The Spirit of Spritzwein
Michael Häupl is a living legend. He shares his thoughts on his 24 years as mayor, Vienna’s culinary trinity, staying authentic, and why a Weiß g’spritzt is the best choice.
General
Mosquito Coast
Paradise is not always what it seems when nature takes her revenge
on the innocent.
Features
Paul Pizzera’s 5 Quirks of the German Language
The cabaret performer writes the music and lyrics for Pizzera & Jaus. He spoke to Metropole about black humor and the benefits of therapy – he also told a few dirty jokes.
Print Editions
Maggie Childs Reflects on Language
Metropole's publisher introduces the summer issue, which is all about multilingualism, learning German and political correctness.
Ad
How the OPEC Fund Helps Where the World Needs It Most
The OPEC Fund for International Development (the OPEC Fund) finances development projects in low- and middle-income countries and is currently expanding its team in Vienna.
Interviews
Kurt Bayer’s Top 5 Austrian Corruption Scandals
From the Finance Ministry to the World Bank and Transparency International, Economist Kurt Bayer sniffs out all kinds of corruption.
Although sometimes, it just presents itself.
Print Editions
Margaret Childs Reflects on Austrian Corruption
Metropole's publisher introduces the spring issue, which is all about corruption.
Interviews
Grande Dame Susanne Widl Explains Coffeehouse Culture and the View of Vienna through Café Korb
Viennese legend Susanne Widl discusses her Café Korb upbringing, her illustrious past and the future of how we spend time together – inside the 'Kaffeehaus' and out.
Print Editions
Margaret Childs Reflects on the Viennese Coffeehouse Culture
Metropole’s publisher introduces the winter issue, which is all about the “Kaffeehaus.”
Fall 2020
Star Designer Thomas Kirchgrabner Spills the Secrets of His and Lena Hoschek’s Success
The head of Lena Hoschek’s couture atelier, designer Thomas Kirchgrabner describes demanding clientele, recounts his rise in Austria’s fashion scene and how he met his boss.
Fall 2020
Clothes Make the Metropolitan
Our publisher Margaret Childs introduces our fall issue, which is all about fashion in Vienna.
Opinion
I’m Viennese and I can’t vote here
Our publisher and CEO has been living in Vienna for 24 years but she can’t vote in the city she calls home. Time to change that.
Publisher's Letter
Rediscovering the Village
Who’s to say what would have happened had Austria’s government not taken swift action in March and isolated the country? As the world grapples with a...
Coronavirus
How the Coronavirus Will Affect Your Business in Austria
Over the mid-March weekend, the Austrian government put together a €4 billion relief package for companies and the self-employed, who have suffered massive losses due to the coronavirus.
Coronavirus
Why Austrians Struggle so Much with Self-Isolation
Self-isolation goes against Austrian culture. Viennese society is built around interaction, which is a big part of what has won the city best Quality of Life for 10 years running.
Interviews
Meet Gerhard Hirczi, Vienna’s Head Hunter
No stranger to challenges, the general manager of the Vienna Business Agency, Gerhard Hirczi is placing the city’s assets front and center.
Publisher's Letter
Let the Great Minds of Vienna Stay Humble
Our publisher Margaret Childs introduces our spring issue, which is all about research, development, innovation and science – we present the Minds of Vienna.
Opinion
Should the Viennese Really Take that Much Pride in Being Unfriendly?
No one can say Vienna is a sore loser. After Austrian media picked up the Expat Insider study’s City Index ranking Vienna the second least friendly city for expats, the “news” spread like wildfire.
Culture
Thomas Schäfer-Elmayer | The Baron of Ball Season
Austria’s own Mr. Manners, Thomas Schäfer-Elmayer spills the beans on upholding traditions, ball season’s allure and gender equality.
Publisher's Letter
Publisher’s Letter | We’ve Heard It All Before
I have one very vivid memory. I was a teenager traveling with some friends on the coast of Italy. We were in a dumpy motorboat, puttering along with a boombox.
Ad
Emission-Free to Alpbach
Living in Austria, you learn that Alpine vistas can be gorgeous from the train, but due to all the tunnels, sometimes it can also mean you miss some o...
Publisher's Letter
Publisher’s Letter | Thank You, Whiners, Gripers and Busybodies
In Vienna, as the dog days of summer give way to cool breezes and falling leaves, Metropole turns its focus to the clockwork behind the city on the Danube.
Fall 2019
The Good Life by Design | Interview with Vienna’s Mayor Michael Ludwig
Mayor Michael Ludwig shares the secret to Vienna’s top ranking for smarts and livability: Planning with people in mind by Margaret Childs.
Interviews
For Love of the Game
At a gaming café outside Vienna, Monika Racek, the CEO of the Admiral Casinos and Entertainment AG talks addiction, legislation and why old ladies pla...
Publisher's Letter
Publisher’s Letter | A Lucky Hand
I’ve lived in Vienna long enough to know when a situation will allow a certain, shall we say, bending of the rules. The famous solution titled “des kr...
Interviews
The Vienna Stock Exchange | A Piefke Takes Stock
The CEO of the Vienna Stock Exchange, Christoph Boschan, on financial literacy, sharing the wealth and north German Gemütlichkeit.
December/January 2018/2019
Publisher’s Letter | This Is How We Do It
Imitation. It’s the secret to winning over any group you want to be part of. I know. I speak from experience. As a restless 14-year-old, my mother inf...
December/January 2018/2019
Michael Haider | Culture Club Austria
The new director of the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York on diversity, connecting artists and putting discovery over instruction.
Interviews
Otto Jaus | The Bright Side of Bleakness
Pop star and comic Otto Jaus waxes poetic about fame, being funny and attempts to define the many meanings of the word Schmäh.
General
Publisher’s Letter | Schmäh Eats Sarcasm for Breakfast
Some people say that when you begin dreaming in a foreign language you have mastered it. That may be, but I say, it’s when you begin telling jokes tha...
Interviews
Martin Foussek & Thomas Niss of Own Austria are Making Everyday Investors
With the platform Own Austria, founders Martin Foussek and Thomas Niss aim to help people make better investments through trust and familiarity
Few Au...
General
Publisher’s Letter | The Best Kept Secrets
We live in one of the most globalized countries in the world, the fourth richest country in the EU and one of the top funders of research and developm...
September 2018
The Art We Live In
Often appreciation is just a question of perspective. As a high school student in Vienna, I spent warm afternoons riding my bike down th...
Interviews
Wolf Prix | The Deconstructed Architect
We spoke to Wolf Prix, one of the founders of the Deconstructivist movement.
At Coop Himmelb(l)au, Wolf Prix’s 5th district Architecture studio, the w...
July/August 2018
We Privatized a Zoo | A Chat with Tiergarten Schönbrunn’s General Manager
The director and general manager of the Schönbrunn Zoo, Dagmar Schratter, spoke to us about activism, animal husbandry, why some frogs wave and the tr...
July/August 2018
Publisher’s Letter | Puppy Love and the Cat’s Meow
At 14, I joined the ranks of the Viennese pet-owning public when – for a brief stint of six weeks – I adopted an adorable short-haired black and white...
Publisher’s Letter | A River Runs Through It
My first home on the European continent was in Bratislava, Slovakia. The city was still run down in 1994, but as an 8-year-old ragamuffin, the cha...
People
Schooling the Grown-Ups | A Chat with the Rector of Danube University Krems
The rector of the Danube University Krems on education reform, collaboration along the river and the benefits of studying in the countryside.
I...
May 2018
Publisher’s Letter | What’s Cooking this May?
Of all the things I have learned in Vienna, the art of enjoying food has been the most valuable. My family had taken me to nice restaurants back h...
People
Sohyi Kim | When Kim Isn’t Cooking
Vienna’s legendary chef Sohyi Kim about learning on the job, never being satisfied and why she can’t stand salmon.
When guests go to Sohyi Kim’s ...
Work
What You Need to Know to Get a Job at the United Nations
It often seems impossible for an outsider to get a job at the UN. But is it really?
“No,” said Linda Starodub, who recently retired from 30 plus ye...
People
Markus Kreisel | Emulating Elon? A Tale of Electric Entrepreneurship in Austria
One of three brothers, Markus Kreisel is at the forefront of innovation in e-mobility and energy solutions – in the Mühlviertel, of all places.
...
What Moves Us | April 2018
I remember the first time I sat in an electric car. It was at a sustainability event in Grafenegg. Tesla had used a lotus chassis for ...
People
Legendary Light Artist Waltraut Cooper at Cafe Landtmann
Light artist Waltraut Cooper’s installations have broken ground for decades. We spoke about digitizing the UN, the Biennale and world peace.
He...
Editors Letter | To Every Art its Freedom | March 2018
Art is always of its time, and the best of it, timeless. From classical portraiture to contemporary installations, visual art recreate...
People
Heinz Fischer and his Post-Presidential Life
For Heinz Fischer, loving his country means caring about peacekeeping, education and reviving the lessons of history.
Not many people know wher...
Opinion
Are we Losing Hope in Democracy?
In theory, it’s a great idea. We all join in and decide who we’d like to govern us. We get the leadership we ask for. But recent elect...
Editor’s Letter | The Way Things Used to Be | December/January 2017
It was all so much simpler then. Back when we were innocent, when we treated each other with respect, communicated without smartphon...
People
An Interview with Maria Großbauer, the Youngest-Ever Director of the Opera Ball
Maria Großbauer, Vienna’s youngest-ever Opera Ball director on sugarcoated memories, the importance of storytelling and why debutantes should wear t...
International
Cash, Secrets & Nobility: Liechtenstein
How well do you know your neighbors? We looked into the Alpine Republic’s special relationship with each of them
Ah, the mountainous ...
Editor’s Letter | My People are Your People | November 2017
A true Wiener says things like, “my dad is Bohemian and my mom’s from Hungary, which makes me as Viennese as it gets!” In language, ...
People
An Interview with Founder and Head of Stella Models, Roberta Manganelli
Roberta Manganelli, founder and head of Stella Models talks about Vienna’s 70s flair, the art/fashion balance and how being Italian in Austr...
Opinion
Opinion | Are you Voting on Sunday? I won’t be.
I won’t be voting in the Austrian election. In fact, I never have.
A few months ago, a media colleague asked if I had thought of entering politics. ...
People
Why City Council Renate Brauner Doesn’t Believe in the American Dream
Executive City Councillor Renate Brauner on living well, quotas for women, and why the American dream is nonsense
People notice when she ...
Editor’s Letter | Do you Know What Eudaimonia Means? | October 2017
When Aristotle taught the concept of The Good Life, he called it Eudaimonia, meaning the kind of life one would like to live, or simply, happi...
Interviews
Christoph Thun-Hohenstein on Design for the Neo-Biedermeier age
MAK director Christoph Thun-Hohenstein on the resonance of objects, digital humanism and how we can design our way out of the singularity
Every...
September 2017
Editor’s Letter | The Beef Between Art and Design | September 2017
Art and design are at the center of a semantic battle. Design can serve the purpose of making things attractive, easy to use, evocative, or si...
Recipes
Hotel am Brillantengrund and Proprietor’s Marvin Mangalino Recipe for Bistek
The feisty proprietor of Hotel am Brillantengrund runs a family restaurant and art space with a world-famous hipster hotel attached.
Marvin Manga...
Editor’s Letter | Designer Destinations | July/August 2017
Has the world gotten smaller? It feels as though I have an impression of every corner of the globe.
Whether it’s an image of someone backpack...
People
Marion Payr is Austria’s travel-blogging Instagram Pioneer Lady Venom
Austrian Marion Payr talked to editor-in-chief Margaret Childs on the evolving world of social media, trends in travel and why Vienna is the...
Recipes
Penne à la Vodka at Treubleiben Wien
A Persian New Yorker transplants Brooklyn grub to Kirchengasse
At Treubleiben, one of the more recent additions to the Kirchengasse gastro...
Editor’s Letter | Romancing the City | June 2017
As the Beatles said, when cynicism and sarcasm don’t get the better of us, that warm, gooey emotion – Love with a capital L – can really be all we nee...
People
A Drink with Julian Wiehl, Editor-in-Chief of Vangardist Magazine
Julian Wiehl is the mind behind Vienna’s “progressive men’s magazine”, Vangardist, showcasing the savoir vivre of the gay community
In 2015, Va...
Opinion
Opinon: Austria, Schengen and the New European Order
The fate of the grand European experiment seems forever in flux. It's time to rethink its foundations.
Unbeknownst to millions of ordinary Europe...
Food & Drink
On the Canal | Waterfront Dining, Where 1010 Meets 1020
Every year the Danube Canal promenade gets a little more sexy, with laid-back bars, delicious street-food-style eateries and the urban attitude to mat...
Sports
Sport | A Beginner’s Guide to Whitewater Rafting on the Salza River
Rafting in the Mostviertel may be a thrill, but to Rudi Scheiblechner, it’s business as usual
Braving the elements armed only with a paddle, ev...
Editor’s Letter | The Fast and the Frivolous | May 2017
What is it with the comfort zone? It sounds pretty good, so why are we constantly told to get out of it?
Whether we’re hurling ourselves out ...
Interviews
How Hermann Hauser Gets Lucky in Deep Tech
We spoke to the Austrian-born serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist Hermann Hauser about betting on the market, reading a team and digging into...
People
Cancer Specialist Dr. Christoph Zielinski on Viennese Health Care
Vienna’s most prominent cancer specialist, Christoph Zielinski, on precision medicine, unhappy doctors, and why social equality is the key to succes...
Editor’s Letter | April 2017
What’s in a Name
I’m terrible at Siezen. That fine art of gauging when to address someone formally with “Sie” and when to cross the threshold...
Pures Leben Chalets in South Styria | Country Life for Beginners
An out-of-town house experience with all the comforts of modern living.
I’ll be the first to admit it. City kids always look a little out of place ...
Vienna by District
Vienna’s Old University Quarter
A tradition of temptation
In medieval Vienna, the hilly streets of the northeast quarter – encompassed by Rotenturmstraße, Fleischmarkt, Stubenri...
Interviews
AMS Chief Johannes Kopf on Dream Jobs, Minimum Income and the Threat of Protectionsm
The head of Austria’s Public Employment Service (AMS), Johannes Kopf on the Chancellor’s Plan A employment ideas and why careers are like trees
...
Editor’s Letter | March 2017
A Penny for your Dreams
Ever heard the quote “Find a job that you love and you’ll never work a day of your life”? It’s Confucius. And in this...
Editor’s Letter | February 2017
You won’t read about it in the tourist brochures. They don’t allocate any of the marketing budget to it. But still, the visitors know. And the loc...
People
Oliver Rathkolb | The Historian and the Intelligence Paradox
We met with Cold War expert Oliver Rathkolb to talk about the city’s spy-filled past and how it’s impossible to keep a secret in Vienna
It’s ha...
Cafés and Restaurants
The Claws of Attraction – Crazy Lobster
High-end meets low-key at the new downtown eatery Crazy Lobster, offering more versions of the crustaceans than Vienna has ever seen
In all hones...
People
Norbert Kettner | Ambassador to Vienna’s Vacationists
The general manager of the Vienna Tourist Board, Norbert Kettner, shared his plans for “reputation management” and coined our new favorite phrase: L...
Editor’s Letter | December 2016/January 2017
We’re so fancy
Can you even define luxury? Is it the freedom to enjoy the finer things in life? Does luxury only mean money? Or is true luxur...
A Weekend in the Waters – The Styria Spa Region
As cold weather takes over, the thermal baths of Styria’s Spa Region beckon for weekends of peace and warmth
Vienna is often called a “Dorf” (a v...
Editor’s Letter | November 2016
Naked and Screaming
It was way too soon. When the phone call came from a close friend that his son was about to be born, I didn’t know what t...
People
Herrmann Nitsch | Life Lessons from an Anarchist
The controversial performance artist Hermann Nitsch invited us to visit in Prinzendorf to discuss art, nature, death and wine
“In art you don’t h...
Work
Leading the Crazy Ones
The creative industries need to be ever-fresh. Michael Conrad of the Berlin School of Creative Leadership talks about what it takes to create like a b...
Forever Learning
Life lessons
One of my earliest memories is something my father said. I was having a tantrum after a fight with a classmate. “She’s just stup...
People
Buse Özgöde | AIESEC’s Do-Gooder
Vice President of the Austrian National Board at AIESEC, Buse Özgöde tells us how international education changed her perspective – and the directio...
Is Vienna Smart?
Define smart
It’s hard to grumble in Vienna. Public transportation runs on time, a woman can safely walk home at night, the cycling paths make sense...
Sports
Champagne and Ponies
Spectators visit the Austrian Polo Open to witness the breakneck game and get a glimpse of the fanciful hats that make up the sport’s international st...
People
Greentech Guru & First Lady
We met Eveline Steinberger-Kern, former executive at Verbund and Siemens, now founder of a green energy investment company – oh, and wife of the Aus...
Cafés and Restaurants
Be My Guest: It’s All About the Meat, Baby
The creators of It’s All About the Meat, Baby share their plans for the future of Vienna burgers and how to make the best one
Resurrected from th...
July/August 2016
On Sale: Poetry in Motion
Two expat dancers, Stephanie Cumming and Katarina Meves warm up for Impulstanz in the Painting 2.0 exhibit at Mumok
Photos: Markus Thums
Styling...
July/August 2016
Editor’s Letter – Jul/Aug
Enter, stage left
The Irish dramatist Seán O’Casey once said, “All the world’s a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed.” As an exp...
Interviews
Sharon Booth | Dancer, Reloaded
We met Sharon Booth, an inpirational Canadian-born, Juilliard-educated dancer who found her way to Vienna, now teaching contemporary dance at the Staa...
June 2016
Editor’s Letter – June
It looks easy, being green
It was less a big lifestyle change, more a series of little tweaks. When my family moved from the U.S. to Austri...
Interviews
Stephan Sicars | An Aficionado with a Cause
We met Stephan Sicars, Director of the Environmental Branch of UNIDO, at Café Wortner, an old-school coffee house on a cobblestone corner of the 4th d...
Cafés and Restaurants
On the Menu: Basking at Buxbaum
Dine at your country house in the middle of the 1st district
All great cities have secrets. In Vienna, time and curiosity may reveal a hidden cou...
People
My Disruptive Hero: Lukas Zinnagl ☞ Markus Wagner
In our May issue, we teamed up with AustrianStartups to ask twelve Austrian founders to pick their local hero from the startup ecosystem.
Today w...
People
My Disruptive Hero: Travis Pittman ☞ Oliver Holle
In our May issue, we teamed up with AustrianStartups to ask twelve Austrian founders to pick their local hero from the startup ecosystem.
Today w...
People
My Disruptive Hero: Ali Mahlodji ☞ Matthias Reisinger
In our May issue, we teamed up with AustrianStartups to ask twelve Austrian founders to pick their local hero from the startup ecosystem.
Today w...
