Forget Sissi, Schönbrunn and Apfelstrudel: According to the Viennese, their humor is the city’s most remarkable accomplishment.
It is a hot summer day on Vienna’s Donauinsel, where an elderly couple is enjoying the sun and paging through an U-Bahn tabloid.
“Have you heard?” the wife reads, raising an eyebrow. “Vienna has been ranked again as the world’s most livable city?” “Are...
Austria may sometimes appear frozen in time. But below the surface, its people power one of the most vibrant globalized economies in the world
Skis, steel and tobacco – that’s what Austrians need to make you fly. But not on two planks, dashing downhill, nor bungee jumping from a towering bridge; and not with a deep drag of nicotine from...
Conversations with Viennese architects reveal the secrets to creating a liveable city
Everything is Architecture,” wrote the Pritzker prize-winning architect Hans Hollein in 1968. Frustrated by the dreary functional blocks that filled Vienna’s craters left by WWII bombs, Hollein knew architecture had to be about much more than concrete walls. We may be drawn to a city for work, study,...
The Viennese love their pets under and their meaty schnitzel on the table. A report on the animals we cuddle and those we devour
An elderly lady is walking by Schwedenplatz, followed closely by her golden retriever. She stops at a sausage stand to buy a Käsekrainer sausage in a bun and sits down on a shady bench to enjoy...
The mighty river is the lifeblood of the entire southeastern flank of Europe. Cultures flourish, empires fall and ideologies shatter on its shores.
The cyclists hurtling down the Danube track near Baja barely catch a glimpse of a small black plaque with gold lettering beneath the road bridge.
“At this point on 1st November 1921,” reads the text, “Charles IV the...
Austrian restaurants are proud to cook with local fare. It’s all about knowing your suppliers and helping your customers understand the difference.
Cooking is easy. You take the best ingredients and try not to spoil them, Austria’s legendary chef, Reinhard Gerer, would tell people. Obviously, it’s not that easy, but the message is clear: If you don’t start with good products, you won’t get good results.
Today this seems like...
With the Straßenbahn in their DNA, the Vienneseare abandoning their cars for public transport and looking forward to robot chauffeurs.
Bumper to bumper, the motorcade makes itstortured way forwardalong Vienna’s Gürtel, dividing the inner nine districts from the rest of the city. Packed into three or sometimes four lanesin one direction, motorists curse and shout, as all the frustrations of the day come pouring out. As the...
On this centennial of the deaths of four Viennese masters, the city looks back on the birth of modernism and a vision of the “total work of art,” an enduring impulse of creative excellence.
By Sam Jackson & Dardis McNamee - With additional reporting by Teodora Weyr
By the time Ernst Fuchs and Arik Brauer arrived at Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts in...
From Proporz to Verhaberung, participation and influence in Austria go far beyond the walls of Parliament to find an "Austrian solution".
By Margaret Childs & Benjamin Wolf
We just moved in,” she said, ushering me into the freshly-painted headquarters of Austria’s youngest political party, Liste Pilz. Underneath a wild head of curls and bubbly enthusiasm, Stephanie Cox is just as new...
