In free times, in a room with a view on a 'buizerd' or a hawk, rabbits hopping, ' o schattig', pine tree bushes and grey clouds moving from left to right in front of piercing light air, I read in the book 'In Europe. Travels through the twentieth century', originally written in Dutch by Geert Mak, 2004. The version I read is translated in English by Sam Garret, 2007. I also heard this song, produced as a single in 1981, 'Vienna', by Ultravox ( lightgiving voice) in my head and I sms't with a phdgroup member who recently visited Vienna, by plane. He sms't 'was zeer de moeite waard'. What did he see? I wonder. I wrote about the airport of Vienna before and now I have this association with Dick Grace, the pilot who could crash on buildings, trees or on the ground, in front of the camera and live another day to tell about it. He also was the writer of the comicbook with the title 'Squadron of death . True adventurous of a MoviePlaneCrasher. 2001, two pilots, two highrise buildings, a lot of smoke, the falling man, in short: nine-eleven. Airplanes, originally a French innovation, have become the killing machine of 'the enemy' or of 'some guys who read the comic books and tried to do the same'.
Vienna is also the capital of Austria, but what is the name of the premier/ president again? Werner Fayman, federal chancellor. And to which Party is he/she committed? SPO, since 2008. Interesting political history on Wikipedia, including the Bohemian period of time, the battle of Austerlitz, the defeat of Austria, Napoleon III ( quite near the city and villages where I grew up). I had quite a few military neighbours. Austerlitz is a tourist attraction now, very nice re-designed, recently, in my personal opinion. If you are not sure how it looks like, you can Google, it is about one third of the pyramids of Gizeh, completely other material though, from the outside. It was made to keep the troops occupied, back then in the beginning of the 19th century. On top of all this I remember an article in one of the Dutch newspapers about and important banking rule, adopted by the banks of Vienna this year, after the banks of Switzerland all agreed on it, 2015. Something against fraude practises. Just before the second millennium Freddie Mercury died in Vienna, after being quite
seriously ill. In a documentary made on him, his illness and his death, one can see he died in great
pain, in the arms of his beloved and friend, who took care for him the last year. Beautiful isn't it? Vienna. Was it hot, in Vienna? The temperature, I mean, I stay factual. How many degrees? Daytime, nighttime? Celsius, Fahrenheit? How many elderly would have died in the hot summer of 1903, in Vienna?
G. Mak, In Europe. Travels through the twentieth century. Vienna, p.51-85. My notes.
The merry Apocalypse was what they once called this city, this odd mixture of creativity, middle-class normality, human suffering, power, complicity and schizophrenia.
In the centuries that went before ( before 1900, MAS), the dual Austro-Hungarian monarch had played a crucial role in Central and Eastern Europe ( really? Or a role that can be controlled, verified? MAS).
They had driven the Ottoman Turks from the gates of Vienna. They had made it possible for Germans, Hungarians, Rumanians, Italians, Rhaetians, Serbs, Croatians, Poles, Slovenes, Slovaks, Czechs, Jews and Gypsies to live together in peace.
1910. In the early twentieth century the empire was still seen as a superpower. With almost fifty million inhabitants in 1910, it was second in size only to Germany, with sixty-five million. After that
came Great Britain ( forty-five million) and France ( almost forty million) ( four nation with a total
200 million people, MAS).
Vienna in 1801 contained 230.000 people.
1910. Vienna was considered the Arcadia of the middle class.(proof?) More than 2 million people lived in this city.
1900-1910. For those who did not belong to the moneyed classes, life was hard there. The housing shortage in Vienna was worse than anywhere else (by what standard thinking? MAS). In 1910, barely one percent of all Viennese families had their own home, only seven per cent of the houses had a bathroom, and fewer than twenty-five per cent had a toilet.
To be continued.....Luke wants to play the ghost game.. A game with 60 cards and five objects! Each
with a different colour. In the end Luke won all the cards. Guess why? I am thinking, not looking fast
anymore Well, I have all night to practice. getting all my 'old' skills, looking and fast reacting, back.
Tomorrow, pay back time....
Vienna ( ultravox sound, imagine...)
Geert Mak, Page 53,
Along the Ringbahn, the entire history of European architecture is tipped-out over unsuspecting passers-by. This was the 'via triumphalis' of Emperor Franz Josef and the liberal moneyed classes, the eternal Ring along which every self-respecting flaneur took his daily steps between the Karntnerstrasse and the Schwarzenbergplatz, and along which today old ladies ( old ladies? Herman?just joking) show off their fur coats as the trams go crawling past. I know that is something my grandfather and grandmother did, in the 70s of the 20th century. I inherited a fur coat, 18 years ago. This particular fur coat, had been purchased in the city of Utrecht, in the 50s of the same century, there were three shops then, selling fur coats, in the city of Utrecht, in the street very close to the street where I attended some history schooling with my phd history Peers and the professori, last year and the year before. The buildings of the shopscare still there, no fur coats are sold there anymore. Maybe in Vienna? I worse this inherited fur coat, while teaching architecture students how to draw buildings in the city of Groningen, using their eyes, measurement estimating skills, counting streetmaterials, pencil and A3size thick blanco drawingpaper. And of course, I did some drawing myself now and then, on their papers, to inspire, to share the fact that making a drawing is something very nice to do and also to answer to the diversity of learning capabilities. It was in the winter of 1998. It was cold. Some of the readers of this blog probably remember this winter. They all succeeded the drawing classes. There were 12 students in the class.The fur coat was stolen, 6 years later, by people who needed it more than I, I like to believe. I never missed it. Last winter I purchased a dark green wintercoat, looking very Russian, for 25 euro, in the city of Groningen, in one of the warehouses.
Geert Mak, page 53
The Ring. A space 500 meters wide and 4 kilometres long was created and filled with hotels, the pal aces of both old and new wealth, expensive appartements for the rich and huge public buildings: the parliament, the town hall, and the Burg theater, the Royal Opera, the stock exchange and the university.
To be continued, tomorrow , the red wine from south Africa, red label, is calling...
The Ring served as area of transition (transition, a 20th century word?) to the suburbs and the working-class neighbourhoods that lay beyond. And, just as in Paris, the broad arterial had an important military ( military!!) function as well: in the event of rioting, (rioting!) troops could be brought in quickly everywhere. Barracks were built at strategic locations, as well as an impressive arsenal complex.
Mmmm, makes me think. NL, rechtsstaat, geldstaat, groenestaat. Nation of Law, Nation of Money, Green Looking Nation. Andandand, winwinwin? More than perfect? Generation 'nix' is in power, with Marc, Jet, Alexander, Marianne and Melanie.
Geert Mak continues: Around the turn of the century more than half of the population lived from the
proceeds of their small businesses, which they bitterly defended against outside competition. Until 1900, departement stores were banned in Vienna. P. 54
Somewhere I saw a group portrait by the painter Theo Zasche, painted in 1908 and showing all of Vienna's prominent citizens on the Sirk corner of the Ring.p.54
From no other nation were people so eager to emigrate: between 1900-19, 3,5 million Habsburg subjects left for America, more than from any other country. P.59
Today, on Sundaymorning, I am on my way to put a rose on the grave of the unknown waif.(waif?). Along the Danube, behind the neglected shipyards and the last dusty silos, lies the graveyard for bodies washed up from the river, the Friedhof der Namenlosen. Here lie all the unknown persons who jumped from bridges in desperation at the beginning of the twentieth century, a regular occurrence in the highly strung Vienna of that day. P.60
Victor Adler, founder of Austrian socialism, devoted himself to advocating all forms of adult education, public libraries, workers' groups and other social-democratic organisations. In 1905 he organised a general strike to force the introduction of universal suffrage. In 1907 the social democrats won eighty-seven seats on the imperial council.
A new wave in parliamentary movement was introduced, which, in practice focusses more and more on the welfare of the community as a whole. P.62. ( very interesting....). Are we talking 1910?
Vienna is also the capital of Austria, but what is the name of the premier/ president again? Werner Fayman, federal chancellor. And to which Party is he/she committed? SPO, since 2008. Interesting political history on Wikipedia, including the Bohemian period of time, the battle of Austerlitz, the defeat of Austria, Napoleon III ( quite near the city and villages where I grew up). I had quite a few military neighbours. Austerlitz is a tourist attraction now, very nice re-designed, recently, in my personal opinion. If you are not sure how it looks like, you can Google, it is about one third of the pyramids of Gizeh, completely other material though, from the outside. It was made to keep the troops occupied, back then in the beginning of the 19th century. On top of all this I remember an article in one of the Dutch newspapers about and important banking rule, adopted by the banks of Vienna this year, after the banks of Switzerland all agreed on it, 2015. Something against fraude practises. Just before the second millennium Freddie Mercury died in Vienna, after being quite
seriously ill. In a documentary made on him, his illness and his death, one can see he died in great
pain, in the arms of his beloved and friend, who took care for him the last year. Beautiful isn't it? Vienna. Was it hot, in Vienna? The temperature, I mean, I stay factual. How many degrees? Daytime, nighttime? Celsius, Fahrenheit? How many elderly would have died in the hot summer of 1903, in Vienna?
G. Mak, In Europe. Travels through the twentieth century. Vienna, p.51-85. My notes.
The merry Apocalypse was what they once called this city, this odd mixture of creativity, middle-class normality, human suffering, power, complicity and schizophrenia.
In the centuries that went before ( before 1900, MAS), the dual Austro-Hungarian monarch had played a crucial role in Central and Eastern Europe ( really? Or a role that can be controlled, verified? MAS).
They had driven the Ottoman Turks from the gates of Vienna. They had made it possible for Germans, Hungarians, Rumanians, Italians, Rhaetians, Serbs, Croatians, Poles, Slovenes, Slovaks, Czechs, Jews and Gypsies to live together in peace.
1910. In the early twentieth century the empire was still seen as a superpower. With almost fifty million inhabitants in 1910, it was second in size only to Germany, with sixty-five million. After that
came Great Britain ( forty-five million) and France ( almost forty million) ( four nation with a total
200 million people, MAS).
Vienna in 1801 contained 230.000 people.
1910. Vienna was considered the Arcadia of the middle class.(proof?) More than 2 million people lived in this city.
1900-1910. For those who did not belong to the moneyed classes, life was hard there. The housing shortage in Vienna was worse than anywhere else (by what standard thinking? MAS). In 1910, barely one percent of all Viennese families had their own home, only seven per cent of the houses had a bathroom, and fewer than twenty-five per cent had a toilet.
To be continued.....Luke wants to play the ghost game.. A game with 60 cards and five objects! Each
with a different colour. In the end Luke won all the cards. Guess why? I am thinking, not looking fast
anymore Well, I have all night to practice. getting all my 'old' skills, looking and fast reacting, back.
Tomorrow, pay back time....
Vienna ( ultravox sound, imagine...)
Geert Mak, Page 53,
Along the Ringbahn, the entire history of European architecture is tipped-out over unsuspecting passers-by. This was the 'via triumphalis' of Emperor Franz Josef and the liberal moneyed classes, the eternal Ring along which every self-respecting flaneur took his daily steps between the Karntnerstrasse and the Schwarzenbergplatz, and along which today old ladies ( old ladies? Herman?just joking) show off their fur coats as the trams go crawling past. I know that is something my grandfather and grandmother did, in the 70s of the 20th century. I inherited a fur coat, 18 years ago. This particular fur coat, had been purchased in the city of Utrecht, in the 50s of the same century, there were three shops then, selling fur coats, in the city of Utrecht, in the street very close to the street where I attended some history schooling with my phd history Peers and the professori, last year and the year before. The buildings of the shopscare still there, no fur coats are sold there anymore. Maybe in Vienna? I worse this inherited fur coat, while teaching architecture students how to draw buildings in the city of Groningen, using their eyes, measurement estimating skills, counting streetmaterials, pencil and A3size thick blanco drawingpaper. And of course, I did some drawing myself now and then, on their papers, to inspire, to share the fact that making a drawing is something very nice to do and also to answer to the diversity of learning capabilities. It was in the winter of 1998. It was cold. Some of the readers of this blog probably remember this winter. They all succeeded the drawing classes. There were 12 students in the class.The fur coat was stolen, 6 years later, by people who needed it more than I, I like to believe. I never missed it. Last winter I purchased a dark green wintercoat, looking very Russian, for 25 euro, in the city of Groningen, in one of the warehouses.
Geert Mak, page 53
The Ring. A space 500 meters wide and 4 kilometres long was created and filled with hotels, the pal aces of both old and new wealth, expensive appartements for the rich and huge public buildings: the parliament, the town hall, and the Burg theater, the Royal Opera, the stock exchange and the university.
To be continued, tomorrow , the red wine from south Africa, red label, is calling...
The Ring served as area of transition (transition, a 20th century word?) to the suburbs and the working-class neighbourhoods that lay beyond. And, just as in Paris, the broad arterial had an important military ( military!!) function as well: in the event of rioting, (rioting!) troops could be brought in quickly everywhere. Barracks were built at strategic locations, as well as an impressive arsenal complex.
Mmmm, makes me think. NL, rechtsstaat, geldstaat, groenestaat. Nation of Law, Nation of Money, Green Looking Nation. Andandand, winwinwin? More than perfect? Generation 'nix' is in power, with Marc, Jet, Alexander, Marianne and Melanie.
Geert Mak continues: Around the turn of the century more than half of the population lived from the
proceeds of their small businesses, which they bitterly defended against outside competition. Until 1900, departement stores were banned in Vienna. P. 54
Somewhere I saw a group portrait by the painter Theo Zasche, painted in 1908 and showing all of Vienna's prominent citizens on the Sirk corner of the Ring.p.54
From no other nation were people so eager to emigrate: between 1900-19, 3,5 million Habsburg subjects left for America, more than from any other country. P.59
Today, on Sundaymorning, I am on my way to put a rose on the grave of the unknown waif.(waif?). Along the Danube, behind the neglected shipyards and the last dusty silos, lies the graveyard for bodies washed up from the river, the Friedhof der Namenlosen. Here lie all the unknown persons who jumped from bridges in desperation at the beginning of the twentieth century, a regular occurrence in the highly strung Vienna of that day. P.60
Victor Adler, founder of Austrian socialism, devoted himself to advocating all forms of adult education, public libraries, workers' groups and other social-democratic organisations. In 1905 he organised a general strike to force the introduction of universal suffrage. In 1907 the social democrats won eighty-seven seats on the imperial council.
A new wave in parliamentary movement was introduced, which, in practice focusses more and more on the welfare of the community as a whole. P.62. ( very interesting....). Are we talking 1910?
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