Exploring the Austrians’ love for traveling
In early 2009, five months pregnant, I listened in astonishment as my Austrian guy announced he needed to travel to Tibet for a project that involved mountain climbing. I reported this to my British friend Dave.
Dave looked at me skeptically. “Austrian dude. Pregnant woman, climbing the Himalayas … Isn’t that Seven Years in Tibet?” I gasped. It was...
The LGBT scene has experienced a surge of acceptance in Austria, but it took a while to get here and equality is not yet a reality.
Tall and tan and young and handsome, the boys crowding the two floors of the Why Not club disco, hidden away in Vienna’s Tiefer Graben, eagerly await the Eurovision fanfare. The atmosphere is joyous and...
How Austria's taming the rush of death-defying adrenaline highs condition us to be more resilient.
In just one tenth of a second your brain goes into fight or flight mode when confronted with danger. Repeated exposure is the key to focusing during adrenaline spikes, a skill that fighter pilots train for.
Some experiences almost defy description. “Powder skiing is not fun,”...
The Austrian health care system covers you regardless of your wallet size or passport. But cracks are showing in this jewel of the welfare state.
By Nicolas Kristen & Benjamin Wolf
As he enters the monumental building, headphones in his ears, and heads for the green elevators at the end of the hall, Felix Wiesner is unruffled by the scenes of haste, pain...
Austrians appreciate a fair day’s work if it doesn’t interfere too much with their private lives. But as the economic heart of Central Europe, the country scrambles to redefine its relationship with work
“It’ll be like the Staatsvertrag,” scoffs 29-year-old Jan Stiglitz over the clinking of glasses. That is, the employment contract the young Czech will be signing the following...
Vienna has never tried to curb the activities of foreign spies. Over the past century, it’s become the go-to stage for the dramas of global espionage
The year was 2000. The setting: an inconspicuous office building on Heinestraße in Vienna’s 2nd district. A man appeared around the corner and hurried toward the building, looking over his shoulder to be sure...
Luxury retail is the lifeblood of the city center, but can Vienna manage to sustain its tradition of local craftsmanship with the demands of international tourism?
By Margaret Childs & Elisabeth Kling
When Markus Scheer was growing up in the 1980s, it was unheard of to stroll through the 1st district in jeans, much less shorts and flip-flops. It was simply...
Some Viennese may play down any special relationship with death. But, then again, it’s probably better not to take any chances...
It was a stunningly beautiful summer’s day on July 16, 2011, for the final farewell to Otto von Habsburg, the last Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary. And for this day of days, Vienna had pulled out all the stops. By two o’clock, an...
If our education decides our future, what happens to upward mobility and equal opportunity?
A democracy depends on citizens knowing what they are voting for, otherwise the X is as rationally placed as a bet on a roulette wheel. Many politicians this year are betting on “truthiness” – a polarizing platform of gut feelings over facts. “I love the uneducated!”...
