Four-year-old Otto von Habsburg, flanked by his parents, at the time of his father's coronation as Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary (1916).

Otto’s life was borne amid conflict. He was just a small boy of four when his father Karl ascended the throne of Europe’s third largest country, right in the middle of the First World War – a conflict which was to bring about the collapse of the monarchy in 1918. Emperor Karl died just a few short years later, making Otto the titular head of the impoverished family, which was forced to live “on the run” in Switzerland and Spain.

Throughout his years of schooling, Otto was tutored in the fiendishly difficult Hungarian language. This was deemed important because Otto’s father had never relinquished his claim to the throne of Hungary — and because Hungary was still technically a monarchy, ruled as regent by Admiral Miklós Horthy, once supreme commander of the Austro-Hungarian navy.

But soon thereafter came the destruction of Second World War and the spread of communism throughout most of the lands of the old empire. At this point, it seemed almost inevitable Otto would be destined to become “just another” ex-royal personage, whiling away his days in carefree locations like Monte-Carlo, St. Tropez or the Aegean Isles.

But here is where Otto played his hand differently – and in the process became an important player on the international stage and an advocate for a new European political order. Renouncing any claims to the throne, he became instead an indefatigable champion of European unity. An ardent anticommunist, Otto believed the key to Europe’s future was to strive for common interests and common ground. He stood for election to the European Parliament and was an early member of that body, eventually serving for 20 years.

He also became an important historian and lecturer, traveling the world and speaking with audiences everywhere. I remember hearing Otto von Habsburg give a speech at St. Catherine’s College in St. Paul, MN in 1972, when I was still in high school. The predictions Otto made in that speech were uncanny in their accuracy. He predicted almost to the exact year the fall of communism (1990), and he also warned about Europe’s smoldering powder-keg (the breakup of Yugoslavia into squabbling mini-states).

And when the Iron Curtain finally did come down in the early 1990s, Otto offered up his services to the new post-communist governments in the land of his forefathers. Subsequently, he played a significant role as a kind of unofficial cultural and social ambassador for several countries, most notably Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary. The prestige of the Habsburg name and its ties to a proud history provided added “cachet” to the early efforts of the post-communist governments to establish meaningful economic and business ties with the West. (Otto’s fluency in the Hungarian language, thanks to all the many hours of tutoring when he was a boy, turned out to be quite handy in a wholly unexpected yet very welcome way!)

Today, at age 97, Otto von Habsburg is still very much with us. He has slowed down a bit, but still shuttles regularly between his home in Bavaria and “his” cities of Budapest, Vienna and Zagreb. From the vantage point of history – where we can now see how the “brave new world” of the 20th Century brought forth more than its share of human misery along with all of the political innovation – the virtues of the “old order” have become easier to recognize.

Certainly, that is the case in the lands of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, where Otto, “the man who would be king,” has not only been declared an official citizen of several countries, but also respected by people all across the political spectrum. In the end, not a bad legacy at all.

So here’s a hearty toast to Otto von Habsburg: 97 years young and a true citizen of the world.

Here’s the link to the guardian’s coverage of China’s stymieing of the Copenhagen summit.  We had all been focused on the oil petrosaurs in the Republican camp.  When George W was replaced by Obama, it was like the clouds parted, and suddenly… there was another big wall of clouds.  China and the American republicans, between them, then, are the single biggest threat to the planet – ensuring that there is a real danger that the average temperature of the earth will go above 2 degrees C (that is, over 4 degrees F) over the 1990s average (let alone the preindustrial average, which was .7 degrees C colder than the 1990s average).  But for a little while here, we have a window, when the republicans’ power is temporarily reduced, and there is a chance that we can get something serious done.  That is, were China not the enormous problem that it will undoubtedly continue to be.  Why is China such a problem?  Well… in some ways the answer is obvious:  it’s a totalitarian state.  But how, exactly does this work?  The analogy with Austria-Hungary, which together with the Czarist Russian empire was the main instigator of World War I, is striking…

Everyone knows something about World War II, or at least, we think we do, largely because it was the first major war in which the movie camera was developed to the extent that footage from it is widely available.  And, of course, the Nazis were so wondefully, resolutely evil, so as to make great bad guys; and, let us not forget, also so European, that portraying them as badguys does not set off any of our modern political correctness-o-meters (and while I agree with the ideas in principle, as a means to correct centuries-old bias vs. non-Europeans–it’s important to remember that the Germans are getting the rap for being the world’s worst badguys, when, in fact, many Asian and African regimes, and some South American ones, have been just as evil in terms of people killed per capita, or in the brutality of the murdering.  Why don’t we see extensive footage every week on how evil the Cambodians were under Pol Pot, or how brutal the Japanese were to the Chinese?–partly, I’d argue, for politically correct reasons, but also, I think, because the death of Europeans at the hands of Europeans resonates far more with Westerners [who are still largely of European descent] than does the deaths of many Africans at the hands of Africans, or Asians at the hands of Asians.  Thus, despite our avowed political correctness, we still have a way to go before we can have people of other races resonate across the spectrum just as clearly as people of what we perceive to be ‘our own race.’)

At any rate, we know tons about World War II, but very little about World War I.  For one thing, the US was not very involved in World War I, so it made relatively little impact there:  there has always been a sense in the US that it was “a European war,” which of course, it largely was–especially in terms of casualties.  For another thing, however, there are no good badguys:  no one really thinks that Kaiser Wilhelm was that much of a badguy – next to Hitler, the arch devil, Kaiser Wilhelm seems like little more than a politician on the wrong side of the fence.  When you read a little more about World War I, however, a few things do stick in your head. 

First, is the number of casualties.  Millions of people, estimates hover around 20 million, were killed, and almost that many again were wounded.  Up to 8 million soldiers were machine gunned, gassed, blown up, or else died of filth, disease, starvation, and/or exposure.  Yay!  That’s a lot of people.  And many of them, hundreds of thousands, were often killed in very short periods, by generals who had thought of no good counter to the machine gun, except to have their men ‘go over the top’ in droves, where, most of the time, they were simply mowed down, by the hundreds of thousands. 

Second, however, is the way that the war was started.  When you look closely, you’ll see that England and France, which were democratized nations, were not at all into starting a war; Germany, which was somewhat democratized, was also not really into starting a war.  The problems, however, were Austria and Russia, both of which were highly autocratic, non-democratic states.  They were both controlled by a cadre of generals, both of whom were greedy to claim territory from the disintegrating Ottoman Empire in Southeast Europe, including oil fields and Black Sea access.  These generals did not have to answer to anyone, and so the thought of putting millions of ‘peasants’ in front of machine guns was not their concern.  Their primary concern was ‘the glory of their nation.’   This of course also meant personal glory for them, and for the institution of which they were the head, which was the Austrian or Russian army.  So thinking in terms of abstract institutions, and in terms of personal honor and glory, coupled with an almost total lack of accountability or feeling of responsibility for the lives of the people whose lives they were ruining, made them quite willing to start a war.  Germany then felt compelled to go to war to defend itself against the mobilizing Russian army, and then England and France felt compelled to mobilize against Germany, when it became clear that Germany was mobilizing its own troops (in those days, it took weeks to mobilize the huge national armies, which was largely done by shipping the men and material on railroad cars–so, if your enemy mobilized, and you didn’t, then you would literally be caught with your pants down, and you would be invaded, and there would be nothing you could do about it). 

So the point being:  autocratic, non-democratic states have for the past century proven to be far more dangerous than democratic ones.  Thanks to the nuclear bomb, the big powers have been highly reluctant to go to war with one another.  This is also true since most of the big powers have been democdratic since WWII, with the exception of Russia, which was autocratic, and thus, was the major threat in the world to the democratic countries – had it been democratic, the Russian people never would have put up with the ridiculous posturing and warmongering of the Russian military elite.   Since Russia has become slightly more democdratic (and then more autocratic again), it has become much less aggressive for the sheer purpose of aggression (which basically serves the needs of a military elite–they justify their jobs by keeping the country on a continual war footing – George Bush realized that his party was largely in power due to the same reasons, and so he, too, was fond of warmongering).

With China, open war is basically not on the table, since nukes exist as a major deterrent.  But, now, we as a global society are threatened with  a major new threat, which could lead to catastrophic consequences, eventually nearly as bad as a nuclear war might have been – and that, of course, is a planet that warms more than 2 degrees C (almost 4 degrees F) above the pre-industrial average.  This could ruin crop-growing in the US midwest, (which would become like a west-Texan desert), as well as all of the other things which have been bandied about.  Even though the US embraced dinosaur-like policies under George W, because the US is a democracy, the majority of people have, despite the wishes of the purely company-controlled part of the media (which is about half of it, in the US–far more than in Canada or Europe) figured out that Global Warming is a serious threat, and that something rather serious has to be done about it. 

In China, however, the people are under the influence of an even more rigorously controlled media (where well over 90 percent of the available news is company-controlled (in this case, the company is the Chinese government), and furthermore, they have no say in government.  As a result, the Chinese governors are about as responsive to the real needs of their people – and indeed, about as responsive to the real needs of the rest of the human race, as the Austrian Generals were on the eve of World War I.  I.e., they are entirely without accountability, to anyone but themselves, and their own corporate culture consists merely of peer pressure to make China the brand seem strong and powerful.

And so, the Copenhagen talks are being stalled almost singlehandedly by the Chinese.  They are now the biggest villains in the world.  Europe, and even the US, are now willing to reach a climate agreement which would be legally binding, and which aims to stop world temperature rise to 2 degrees C.  If there were no other players, they could do the deal singlehandedly, and we’d have no problem.  But the Chinese have 1.whatever billion people, and they are industrializing very rapidly, with almost no pollution controls, and, they are almost entirely autocratic.  They therefore will squander the future of the planet, in order to shore up their own short-term economic gains.  To give China a short-term economic advantage, they will cause untold billions of dollars of damage, and potentially impoverish or destroy millions of lives.  But what the hey!  Thanks Karl Marx!  You created the intellectual framework for the cold war, Nazism, Islamic Fundamentalism, Latin American marxist guerrillaism, and now the Chinese government’s unbelievable dinosaurianism regarding climate change. 

George W and his oil- and defense- company cadre was voted out of office 8 years later (and would have been voted out merely 4 years later, had 9/11 not occurred, and thrown us back into a frenzy of nineteenth-century nationalism).  And the republicans in the Senate are still very serious weights around the neck of any would-be global warming saviour from the US. 

But who will vote the Chinese old guard out of Beijing?

Border guards dismantling the fence dividing East and West: Austro-Hungarian border, Summer 1989.

But what seems lost among the commemorations is the fact that the Berlin events were set in motion earlier in 1989, some 350 miles to the south. And they involved neither East nor West Germany.

In fact, the first “hole” in the iron curtain came about at the Austro-Hungarian border, masterminded by Hungarian Prime Minister Miklós Németh and his equally brave Austrian counterpart, Chancellor Franz Vranitzky. A reformer who was also a Communist Party member, Németh had come to power in 1988 and was determined to bring Hungary into a more close economic and political relationship with the rest of Europe. Faced with horrific economic conditions at home, he knew had had limited time to effect positive change or he would be replaced.

Students of history know that the “ties that bind” Austria and Hungary date back ~700 years, through centuries of the Habsburg Empire to the early 1900s when Vienna and Budapest were two of the most glittering cities of Europe. In a sense, the forced separation of the two countries between East and West Bloc factions was as unnatural as the division of Germany itself; a quick look at the bevy of German and Hungarian surnames in a Viennese telephone directory proves the point.

Secret communications between Hungary and Austria culminated in a public ceremony held on the Austro-Hungarian frontier on May 2, 1989, where, documented by television cameras, the electric fence running the length of the border was declared an “anachronism” and a hole was ceremoniously cut in it.

“What are those Hungarians up to?” bellowed East German premier Erich Honecker at an East German Politburo meeting the next day. The answer was obvious. Soon throngs of East German citizens, traveling to a fellow Eastern Bloc country on tourist visas, simply moved across the Hungarian border into Austria from where they could continue on to West Germany to be reunited at long last with relatives and friends.

The die was cast. Faced with the prospect of its citizens draining out of the country, the East German government had little choice but to announce a relaxation in travel restrictions to West Germany. This attempt at accommodation was a classic case of “too little, too late” – the avalanche that was to come was simply overwhelming. Down came the Berlin Wall – and down went the East German government.

In hindsight, it’s easy to recognize the important role Mikhail Gorbachev played in the events of 1989. By signaling that Soviet troops would not necessarily come to the aid of beleaguered Eastern European satellite regimes, Gorbachev gave the restive citizens of East Germany the courage to seize the moment and take decisive action while they could.

But the most credit must go to the government leaders of Hungary and Austria. It was these essentially unsung heroes who took the biggest risks from the very beginning, bravely plotting their moves in the face of potentially severe political and military repercussions. (After all, memories of the ill-fated Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the subsequent refugee flight across the Austrian border weren’t all that distant.)

In a sense, history came full circle in 1989. At the beginning of the century, Germany had been dragged into World War I because of problems faced by its Habsburg neighbor, Austria-Hungary. So many of the major political challenges in 20th Century – communism, fascism, the Cold War, even the Middle Eastern conflict – stemmed from that struggle. And none of these were more searing for Germany than World War II and the subsequent division of the country between East and West.

Once, Austria and Hungary had created problems for Germany. Seventy-five years later, they helped solve them. Not a bad result in the end!

The course of history has often been determined by confluences of odd events that can be described as nothing less than bizarre.

Consider the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Prinicip on this date, 95 years ago:

In June 1914, Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife had been invited by the governor of the Austrian provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina to watch troops on manoeuvres. Ferdinand, according to Wikipedia, knew that the visit would be dangerous, knowing his uncle, Emperor Franz Josef, had been the subject of an assassination attempt by the Serbian nationalist group Black Hand in 1911.

Just before 10 a.m. on Sunday, June 28, 1914, the royal couple arrived in Sarajevo by train and transfered to automobiles. The car in which Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were riding had its top rolled back to allow the crowds a view of its occupants.

In all, seven conspirators lined the route, spaced out along the Appel Quay, each one with instructions to try to kill Franz Ferdinand. The first conspirator, armed with a bomb, lost his nerve and allowed the car pass without taking action.

Later, when the procession passed the central police station, another conspirator hurled a hand grenade at the Archduke’s car. The driver accelerated when he saw the object flying towards him, but the bomb had a 10-second delay and exploded under the wheel of the next car. Two of the occupants were seriously wounded and a dozen spectators were also hit by bomb splinters.

After the attack, five other conspirators, including Princip, lost an opportunity to attack because of the heavy crowds and the high speed of the Archduke’s car.

After some of the hubbub had died down, Ferdinand decided to go to the hospital and visit the victims of the failed bombing attempt. In order to avoid the city centre, it was decided that the royal car should travel straight along the Appel Quay to the Sarajevo Hospital. However, no one informed the Archduke’s driver about this decision. On the way to the hospital, the driver took a right turn into Franz Josef Street.

Princip had gone into a local cafe for a sandwich, having apparently given up, when he spotted Franz Ferdinand’s car as it drove past, having taken the wrong turn.

After realizing the mistake, the driver put his foot on the brake, and began to back up. In doing so the engine of the car stalled and the gears locked, giving Princip his opportunity. He stepped forward, drew his FN Model 1910 pistol, and at a distance of about five feet, fired twice into the car. Franz Ferdinand was hit in the neck and Sophie in the abdomen, and both were dead before 11 a.m. 

Princip attempted suicide first by ingesting cyanide, and then with the use of his pistol. But he vomited the past-date poison. The pistol was wrestled from his hand before he had a chance to fire another shot.

Princip was too young to receive the death penalty, being 19 years old at the time of the assassination, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was held in harsh conditions which were worsened by the war. He died of tuberculosis on April 28, 1918, at Theresienstadt (which later became infamous as a Nazi concentration camp).

The seemingly improbable events that led to Princip’s actions set off a chain of events that resulted in World War I, a conflict that would eventually claim more than 10 million lives.

The Wikipedia entry for The Pendulum can be found here. The entry for its author Alexander Fiske-Harrison can be found here.

Below is a brief synopsis of the play, the author’s introductory essay from the programme of the debut production by Mephisto Productions in London’s West End (from which the flier above also comes), and the cast and crew list for that production.

The play scripts, both the first draft and production draft, are posted separately below that with a note from the author.

At the end is the press from the first production, beginning with a pre-publicity interview with the author from Condé Nast’s Tatler magazine and the reviews, in chronological order, beginning with the UK’s longest serving theatre critic, Michael Billington of The Guardian.

Synopsis

Friedrich von Lieben is a young Cavalry officer in 1900 Vienna, living up to the now fading ideals of a bygone era in the Habsburg Empire, a man of honour and a romantic, but also a gambler and incipient alcoholic. His friend Artur, a physician in the city of Sigmund Freud, already has one foot inside the door of the modern world. At the New Year’s Eve ball, 1899, Friedrich meets a beautiful young artist, Elena. Artur points out that she has Jewish blood, but Friedrich refuses to believe him and a bet is made.

Alexander Fiske-Harrison and Sian Clifford

Friedrich marries Elena and they appear to be happy and in love, although tensions quickly appear over Elena’s sensitivity over her racial heritage – her maternal grandmother was Jewish – and her husband’s jealousy combined with his long-standing rivalry with another officer, Captain Wilhelm Schlessing.

As the relationship is tested, Artur attempts to help his friend, but a series of mistimed events lead Friedrich to the conclusion that Elena is having an affair and he challenges Schlessing to a suicidal duel.

Alexander Fiske-Harrison and Gareth Kennerley

The play ends with Elena broken by Friedrich’s death, Artur leaving her with the knowledge that it will not be long until she follows him.

Author’s Programme Notes

1900 Vienna

In an Empire of a dozen peoples at the dawn of an era of unprecedented ethnic and nationalistic violence, the Emperor Franz Joseph may have been conservative in spirit, but was liberal in action. After his, the two strongest voices of authority and calm in the Empire were the largely assimilated Jewish bourgeois elite – and their descendants who increasingly ceased to view themselves as Jewish, despite how they were viewed by others – and the largely German military aristocracy. Between them they ran the arts, the finances and the highest level of government. However, these “two households, both alike in dignity”, locked in a narrow-minded obsession with their own spheres’ of influence, and tragically incapable of joining forces, left the Empire fatally vulnerable to the events of 1914 and what was left of Austria to those of 1938.

This was something foreseen by many, including the Emperor’s own son, Crown Prince Rudolph. However, his ambitions were frustrated by a distant father and an even more distant prospect of ruling, and so, driven half-mad by cocaine and morphine prescribed for a range of ailments including depression and syphilis, he killed himself and his lover, the seventeen year-old Baroness Vetsera, in a suicide pact at the Mayerling hunting lodge in 1889. Compounding the family tragedy, in 1898 Rudolph’s mother, the Empress Elisabeth, was stabbed by an anarchist with a nail-file before boarding a steamboat on Lake Geneva. Famous for her tiny waist, but now sixty years old, the tight corset she wore concealed the fact that the wound was to her heart. When the corset was removed aboard ship she died within minutes, saying only, “What happened to me?” I cannot think of two more emblematic events of that time and place.

Vienna was most of all a place of romantic irrationalism twinned with scientific and material progress. As terrible a combination as that would later become, there is something extremely touching about the naivete of the period as typified in its memoirs, such as Stefan Zweig’s elegant The World of Yesterday. Reading them, one feels that only a people youthful in spirit, despite the age of the Hapsburg dynasty, could live as the Viennese did, with music on every corner and ceremony at every occasion. Equally, only the very young at heart could die as they did: in epidemics of suicides caused by books of philosophy and poetry, or dueling over love affairs and other matters of honour. It was an age in which I would not like to live, but perhaps to visit for a while. I hope that you agree.

In loving memory of Jules William Fiske Harrison (1969-1988).

Alexander Fiske-Harrison

The debut production ran from June 3rd – June 28th, 2008, at the Jermyn Street Theatre in London’s West End. It was produced by Mephisto Productions and the cast and crew were as follows:

Lieut. Friedrich von Leiben – Alexander Fiske-Harrison
Miss Elena Suttner – Sian Clifford
Dr. Artur Neurath – Gareth Kennerly
Otto Melk – James Clarkson

Director – Allison Troup-Jensen
Designer – Kevin Jenkins
Lighting designer – Matthew Eagland
Sound desginer – Tom Gibbons
Image designer – Andy Cooke
Photographer – Matt Jamie
Stage manager – Vicky Eames
Assistant stage manager – Andrew Herbertson
Assistant stage manager – Martin Yellowlees

Anna Pauline, my grandmother, with her sisters and brother in TinTown circa 1915. Anna Pauline is the older girl on the right.

Since discovering this startling likelihood that our origins could be part Gypsy, I have been engaged in further research and investigation about my family. I have been calling up relatives to obtain more little bits and pieces of information. Whenever I hear the same thing from two different sources, I give it a lot of truth value, because I can find only very little actual documentation in official records.

To date I have learned that my family probably immigrated out of Austria-Hungary, but referred to themselves as ‘Bohemians’ rather than Austrians or Hungarians. Two different family members have confirmed that they were circus performers who somehow ended up working in the mills, mines and machine shops in the industrial towns east of Pittsburgh. I am not sure if they were in the circus in the U.S. or Europe. I think they were probably acrobats of some kind, based on some of the family lore. They were very small, athletic people to the point where a house belonging to some of them had to have its ceilings raised when it sold in order to accommodate the new owners! There were a lot of ‘secrets’ in the family, but my my great aunt was openly living with a man and gave birth to a child whose father was a married man. I don’t think those two men were the same. She was indeed ‘Bohemian’ in her lifestyle, especially for those years of the 1920 – 1930’s. My great-grandmother lists Luxembourg as her birthplace on a 1900 census, which indicates to me that she really WAS born there as this written evidence coincides with what facts family members have repeated about her. I believe that her family was ‘traveling’ for work because they were not people of means.

I engaged the help of a genealogist to track down documents for me: Linda Metzger at http://genealogyresource.synthasite.com/. I highly recommend getting a genealogist to help you track down records because they know where and how to look. It is surprisingly inexpensive and may save you money in the long run because the genealogist knows what records may contain helpful information, and which ones do not.

Normally, a genealogist should be able to track down a lot of records for you but in my case, Linda wound up asking if this family really existed because she could find no documentation of births or immigration into the U.S. The story I hear from relatives is that they entered the U.S. ‘illegally’ somehow, but we don’t know how or why. Birth records were not registered so we only have what information we can find on census and draft cards, which may or may not be true. We cannot even locate some death certificates!

Family members believe the family began its life in the U.S. in Chicago, but other documents place them in the Pittsburgh area. My grandmother was born in Chicago in 1902, so we are still a bit puzzled as to how and why my great-grandmother was in Chicago if her family was in Pennsylvania. She supposedly met great-grandfather in Chicago, marrying at age 17. I find myself wondering if her marriage was ‘arranged’ through someone the family knew in Chicago.

On to Blairsville, Pennsylvania to do some more research….

The Dual Alliance Between Austria-Hungary and Germany

ARTICLE 1. Should, contrary to their hope, and against the loyal desire of the two High Contracting Parties, one of the two Empires be attacked by Russia the High Contracting Parties are bound to come to the assistance one of the other with the whole war strength of their Empires, and accordingly only to conclude peace together and upon mutual agreement.

ARTICLE 2. Should one of the High Contracting Parties be attacked by another Power, the other High Contracting Party binds itself hereby, not only not to support the aggressor against its high Ally, but to observe at least a benevolent neutral attitude towards its fellow Contracting Party.

Should, however, the attacking party in such a case be supported by Russia, either by an active cooperation or by military measures which constitute a menace to the Party attacked, then the obligation stipulated in Article 1 of this Treaty, for reciprocal assistance with the whole fighting force, becomes equally operative, and the conduct of the war by the two High Contracting Parties shall in this case also be in common until the conclusion of a common peace.

ARTICLE 3. The duration of this Treaty shall be provisionally fixed at five years from the day of ratification. One year before the expiration of this period the two High Contracting Parties shall consult together concerning the question whether the conditions serving as the basis of the Treaty still prevail, and reach an agreement in regard to the further continuance or possible modification of certain details. If in the course of the first month of the last year of the Treaty no invitation has been received from either side to open these negotiations, the Treaty shall be considered as renewed for a further period of three years.

ARTICLE 4. This Treaty shall, in conformity with its peaceful character, and to avoid any misinterpretation, be kept secret by the two High Contracting Parties, and only communicated to a third Power upon a joint understanding between the two Parties, and according to the terms of a special Agreement.

The two High Contracting Parties venture to hope, after the sentiments expressed by the Emperor Alexander at the meeting at Alexandrovo, that the armaments of Russia will not in reality prove to be menacing to them, and have on that account no reason for making a communication at present; should, however, this hope, contrary to their expectations, prove to be erroneous, the two High Contracting Parties would consider it their loyal obligation to let the Emperor Alexander know, at least confidentially, that they must consider an attack on either of them as directed against both.

ARTICLE 5. This Treaty shall derive its validity from the approbation of the two Exalted Sovereigns and shall be ratified within fourteen days after this approbation has been granted by Their Most Exalted Majesties. In witness whereof the Plenipotentiaries have signed this Treaty with their own hands and affixed their arms.

Done at Vienna, October 7, 1879
(L.S.) ANDRASSY
(L.S.) H. VII v. REUSS

Source: http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/

Japan accepts Potsdam terms, agrees to unconditional surrender

On this day in 1945, just a day after the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan submits its acquiescence to the Potsdam Conference terms of unconditional surrender, as President Harry S. Truman orders a halt to atomic bombing.

Emperor Hirohito, having remained aloof from the daily decisions of prosecuting the war, rubber-stamping the decisions of his War Council, including the decision to bomb Pearl Harbor, finally felt compelled to do more. At the behest of two Cabinet members, the emperor summoned and presided over a special meeting of the Council and implored them to consider accepting the terms of the Potsdam Conference, which meant unconditional surrender. “It seems obvious that the nation is no longer able to wage war, and its ability to defend its own shores is doubtful.” The Council had been split over the surrender terms; half the members wanted assurances that the emperor would maintain his hereditary and traditional role in a postwar Japan before surrender could be considered. But in light of the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, Nagasaki on August 9, and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, as well as the emperor’s own request that the Council “bear the unbearable,” it was agreed: Japan would surrender.

Tokyo released a message to its ambassadors in Switzerland and Sweden, which was then passed on to the Allies. The message formally accepted the Potsdam Declaration but included the proviso that “said Declaration does not comprise any demand which prejudices the prerogatives of His Majesty as sovereign ruler.” When the message reached Washington, President Truman, unwilling to inflict any more suffering on the Japanese people, especially on “all those kids,” ordered a halt to atomic bombing, He also wanted to know whether the stipulation regarding “His Majesty” was a deal breaker. Negotiations between Washington and Tokyo ensued. Meanwhile, savage fighting continued between Japan and the Soviet Union in Manchuria.

“Japan accepts Potsdam terms, agrees to unconditional surrender.” 2008. The History Channel website. 10 Aug 2008, 02:21 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=6546.

On This Day

1792 – King Louis XVI was taken into custody by mobs during the French Revolution. He was executed the following January after being put on trial for treason.

1846 – The Smithsonian Institution was chartered by the U.S. Congress. The “Nation’s Attic” was made possible by $500,000 given by scientist Joseph Smithson.

1856 – In Louisiana, a hurricane came ashore and killed about 400 people.

1869 – The motion picture projector was patented by O.B. Brown.

1914 – Austria-Hungary invaded Russia.

1921 – Franklin D. Roosevelt was stricken with polio.

1927 – Mount Rushmore was formally dedicated. The individual faces of the presidents were dedicated later.

1944 – U.S. forces defeated the remaining Japanese resistance on Guam.

1954 – Construction began on the St. Lawrence Seaway.

1969 – Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were murdered. Members of the Charles Manson cult committed the crimes one day after the killing of Sharon Tate and four other people.

1977 – The “Son of Sam,” David Berkowitz, was arrested in Yonkers, NY. Berkowitz, a postal employee, had shot and killed six people and wounded seven others.

1988 – U.S. President Reagan signed a measure that provided $20,000 payments to Japanese-Americans who were interned by the U.S. government during World War II.

1994 – In Germany, three men were arrested after being caught smuggling plutonium into the country.

2003 – Ekaterina Dmitriev and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko were married. Malenchenko was about 240 miles above the earth in the international space station. It was the first-ever marriage from space.

New state west of the Mississippi

Missouri enters the Union as the 24th state–and the first located entirely west of the Mississippi River.

Named for one of the Native American groups that once lived in the territory, Missouri became a U.S. possession as part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. In 1817, Missouri Territory applied for statehood, but the question of whether it would be slave or free delayed approval by Congress. In 1820, the Missouri Compromise was reached, admitting Missouri as a slave state but excluding slavery from the other Louisiana Purchase lands north of Missouri’s southern border. Missouri’s August 1821 entrance into the Union as a slave state was met with disapproval by many of its citizens.

In 1861, when other slave states seceded from the Union, Missouri chose to remain; although a provincial government was established in the next year by Confederate sympathizers. During the war, Missourians were split in their allegiances, supplying both Union and Confederate forces with troops. Lawlessness persisted during this period, and Missouri-born Confederate guerrillas such as Jesse James continued this lawlessness after the South’s defeat. With the ratification of Missouri’s new constitution by the citizens of the state in 1875, the old divisions were finally put to rest.

“New state west of the Mississippi.” 2008. The History Channel website. 10 Aug 2008, 02:21 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=5247.

Battle of Wilson’s Creek, Missouri

The struggle for Missouri erupts with the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, where a motley band of raw Confederates defeat a Union force in the southwestern section of the state.

“Battle of Wilson’s Creek, Missouri.” 2008. The History Channel website. 10 Aug 2008, 02:23 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=2279.

Truman signs National Security Bill

President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Bill, which establishes the Department of Defense. As the Cold War heated up, the Department of Defense became the cornerstone of America’s military effort to contain the expansion of communism.

In 1947, the National Security Act established the Cabinet-level position of secretary of defense, which oversaw a rather unwieldy umbrella military-defense agency known as the National Military Establishment. The secretary of defense, however, was just one of a number of military-related cabinet positions, including the pre-existing secretaries for the Army, Navy, and Air Force. The growing complexity of the Cold War, a war in which the mishandled application of military force could lead to a world war of cataclysmic proportions, convinced U.S. officials that the 1947 act needed to be revised.

In 1949, the National Security Bill streamlined the defense agencies of the U.S. government. The 1949 bill replaced the National Military Establishment with the Department of Defense. The bill also removed the cabinet-level status of the secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, who would henceforth be subordinate to the Secretary of Defense. The first person to hold this position was Louis Johnson. Finally, the bill provided for the office of chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in an effort to bring an end to the inter-service bickering that had characterized the Joint Chiefs in recent years. World War II hero General Omar Bradley was appointed the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The National Security Bill of 1949 was the result of the realization that more coordination and efficiency were needed for America’s military-defense bureaucracy, which had experienced tremendous growth during and after World War II. The Cold War was a new and dangerous kind of war for America, and the 1949 reorganization was recognition of the need for a different approach to U.S. defense.

“Truman signs National Security Bill.” 2008. The History Channel website. 10 Aug 2008, 02:24 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=2755.

Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia

On July 28, 1914, one month to the day after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife were killed by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, effectively beginning the First World War.

Threatened by Serbian ambition in the tumultuous Balkans region of Europe, Austria-Hungary determined that the proper response to the assassinations was to prepare for a possible military invasion of Serbia. After securing the unconditional support of its powerful ally, Germany, Austria-Hungary presented Serbia with a rigid ultimatum on July 23, 1914, demanding, among other things, that all anti-Austrian propaganda within Serbia be suppressed, and that Austria-Hungary be allowed to conduct its own investigation into the archduke’s killing. Though Serbia effectively accepted all of Austria’s demands except for one, the Austrian government broke diplomatic relations with the other country on July 25 and went ahead with military preparedness measures. Meanwhile, alerted to the impending crisis, Russia—Serbia’s own mighty supporter in the Balkans—began its own initial steps towards military mobilization against Austria.

In the days following the Austrian break in relations with Serbia, the rest of Europe, including Russia’s allies, Britain and France, looked on with trepidation, fearing the imminent outbreak of a Balkans conflict that, if entered into by Russia, threatened to explode into a general European war. The British Foreign Office lobbied its counterparts in Berlin, Paris and Rome with the idea of an international convention aimed at moderating the conflict; the German government, however, was set against this notion, and advised Vienna to go ahead with its plans.

On July 28, 1914, after a decision reached conclusively the day before in response to pressure from Germany for quick action—apart from Kaiser Wilhelm II, who by some accounts still saw the possibility of a peaceful diplomatic resolution to the conflict, but was outmaneuvered by the more hawkish military and governmental leadership of Germany—Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. In response, Russia formally ordered mobilization in the four military districts facing Galicia, its common front with the Austro-Hungarian Empire. That night, Austrian artillery divisions initiated a brief, ineffectual bombardment of Belgrade across the Danube River.

“My darling one and beautiful, everything tends towards catastrophe and collapse,” British naval official Winston Churchill wrote to his wife at midnight on July 29. He was proven right over the next several days. On August 1, after its demands for Russia to halt mobilization met with defiance, Germany declared war on Russia. Russia’s ally, France, ordered its own general mobilization that same day, and on August 3, France and Germany declared war on each other. The German army’s planned invasion of neutral Belgium, announced on August 4, prompted Britain to declare war on Germany. Thus, in the summer of 1914, the major powers in the Western world—with the exception of the United States and Italy, both of which declared their neutrality, at least for the time being—flung themselves headlong into the First World War.

“Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.” 2008. The History Channel website. 27 Jul 2008, 02:09 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=828.

The Russians mobilized faster than the Germans had counted on, causing Germany to withdraw important elements of its army from attacking France thus dooming the attack on France to failure and forced the Germans into a two-front war.  World War I as it is now known destroyed the great monarchies of Europe, cost millions of lives, bankrupted empires and elevated Serbia to an almost mythical status of being the little nation that will eventually bring about Armageddon.

On This Day

1540 – King Henry VIII’s chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, was executed. The same day, Henry married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard.

1794 – Maximilien Robespierre was sent to the guillotine. He was a leading figure in the French Revolution.

1821 – Peru declared its independence from Spain.

1866 – The metric system was legalized by the U.S. Congress for the standardization of weights and measures throughout the United States.

1868 – The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was declared in effect. The amendment guaranteed due process of law.

1945 – A U.S. Army bomber crashed into the 79th floor of New York City’s Empire State Building. 14 people were killed and 26 were injured.

1965 – U.S. President Johnson announced he was increasing the number of American troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.

1998 – Serbian military forces seized the Kosovo town of Malisevo.

1998 – Monica Lewinsky received blanket immunity from prosecution to testify before a grand jury about her relationship with U.S. President Clinton.

Bonus Marchers evicted by U.S. Army

During the Great Depression, President Herbert Hoover orders the U.S. Army under General Douglas MacArthur to evict by force the Bonus Marchers from the nation’s capital.

Two months before, the so-called “Bonus Expeditionary Force,” a group of some 1,000 World War I veterans seeking cash payments for their veterans’ bonus certificates, had arrived in Washington, D.C. Most of the marchers were unemployed veterans in desperate financial straits. In June, other veteran groups spontaneously made their way to the nation’s capital, swelling the Bonus Marchers to nearly 20,000 strong. Camping in vacant government buildings and in open fields made available by District of Columbia Police Chief Pelham D. Glassford, they demanded passage of the veterans’ payment bill introduced by Representative Wright Patman.

While awaiting a vote on the issue, the veterans conducted themselves in an orderly and peaceful fashion, and on June 15 the Patman bill passed in the House of Representatives. However, two days later, its defeat in the Senate infuriated the marchers, who refused to return home. In an increasingly tense situation, the federal government provided money for the protesters’ trip home, but 2,000 refused the offer and continued to protest. On July 28, President Herbert Hoover ordered the army to evict them forcibly. General MacArthur’s men set their camps on fire, and the veterans were driven from the city. Hoover, increasingly regarded as insensitive to the needs of the nation’s many poor, was much criticized by the public and press for the severity of his response.

“Bonus Marchers evicted by U.S. Army.” 2008. The History Channel website. 27 Jul 2008, 02:25 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=5215.

Worst modern earthquake

At 3:42 a.m., an earthquake measuring between 7.8 and 8.2 magnitude on the Richter scale flattens Tangshan, a Chinese industrial city with a population of about one million people. As almost everyone was asleep in their beds, instead of outside in the relative safety of the streets, the quake was especially costly in terms of human life. An estimated 242,000 people in Tangshan and surrounding areas were killed, making the earthquake one of the deadliest in recorded history, surpassed only by the 300,000 who died in the Calcutta earthquake in 1737, and the 830,000 thought to have perished in China’s Shaanxi province in 1556.

The Chinese government was ill-prepared for a disaster of this scale. The day following the quake, helicopters and planes began dropping food and medicine into the city. Some 100,000 soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army were ordered to Tangshan, and many had to march on foot from Jinzhou, a distance of more than 180 miles. About 30,000 medical personnel were called in, along with 30,000 construction workers. The Chinese government, boasting self-sufficiency, refused all offers of foreign relief aid. In the crucial first week after the crisis, many died from lack of medical care. Troops and relief workers lacked the kind of heavy rescue training necessary to efficiently pull survivors from the rubble. Looting was also epidemic. More than 160,000 families were left homeless, and more than 4,000 children were orphaned.

Tangshan was eventually rebuilt with adequate earthquake precautions. Today, nearly two million people live there. There is speculation that the death toll from the 1976 quake was much higher than the official Chinese government figure of 242,000. Some Chinese sources have spoken privately of more than 500,000 deaths.

“Worst modern earthquake.” 2008. The History Channel website. 27 Jul 2008, 02:43 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=6972.

The 12th Street riot

In the early morning hours of July 23, 1967, one of the worst riots in U.S. history breaks out on 12th Street in the heart of Detroit’s predominantly African-American inner city. By the time it was quelled four days later by 7,000 National Guard and U.S. Army troops, 43 people were dead, 342 injured, and nearly 1,400 buildings had been burned.

By the summer of 1967, the predominantly African-American neighborhood of Virginia Park was ready to explode. Some 60,000 poor people were crammed into the neighborhood’s 460 acres, living in squalor in divided and sub-divided apartments. The Detroit Police Department, which had only about 50 African Americans at the time, was viewed as a white occupying army. The only other whites seen in the neighborhood commuted from the suburbs to run their stores on 12th Street.

At night, 12th Street was a center of Detroit inner-city nightlife, both legal and illegal. At the corner of 12th and Clairmount, William Scott operated an illegal after-hours club on weekends out of the office of the United Community League for Civic Action, a civil rights group. The police vice squad often raided establishments like this on 12th Street, and at 3:35 a.m. on Sunday morning, July 23, they moved against Scott’s club.

That night, the establishment was hosting a party for several veterans, including two servicemen recently returned from Vietnam, and the bar’s patrons were reluctant to leave. Out in the street, a crowd began to gather as police waited for paddy wagons to take the 85 patrons away. Tensions between area blacks and police were high at the time, partly because of a rumor (later proved to be untrue) that police had shot and killed a black prostitute two days before. Then a rumor began to circulate that the vice squad had beaten one of the women being arrested.

An hour passed before the last prisoner was taken away, and by then about 200 onlookers lined the street. A bottle crashed into the street. The remaining police ignored it, but then more bottles were thrown, including one through the window of a patrol car. The police fled as a riot erupted. Within an hour, thousands of people had spilled out onto the street. Looting began on 12th Street, and some whites arrived to join in. Around 6:30 a.m., the first fire broke out, and soon much of the street was set ablaze. By midmorning, every policeman and fireman in Detroit was called to duty. On 12th Street, officers fought to control the mob. Firemen were attacked as they tried to battle the flames.

Detroit Mayor Jerome P. Cavanaugh asked Michigan Governor George Romney to send in the state police, but these 300 more officers could not keep the riot from spreading to a 100-block area around Virginia Park. The National Guard was called in shortly after but didn’t arrive until evening. By the end of the day, more than 1,000 were arrested, but still the riot kept growing. Five people were dead.

On Monday, 16 people were killed, most by police or guardsmen. Snipers fired at firemen, and fire hoses were cut. Governor Romney asked President Lyndon Johnson to send in U.S. troops. Nearly 2,000 army paratroopers arrived on Tuesday and began patrolling the street in tanks and armored carriers. Ten more people died that day, and 12 more on Wednesday. On Thursday, July 27, order was finally restored. More than 7,000 people were arrested during the four days of rioting. A total of 43 were killed. Some 1,700 stores were looted and nearly 1,400 buildings burned, causing $50 million in property damage. Some 5,000 people were left homeless.

The so-called 12th Street Riot was the worst U.S. riot in 100 years, occurring during a period of numerous riots in America. A report by the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, appointed by President Johnson, identified more than 150 riots or major disorders between 1965 and 1968. In 1967 alone, 83 people were killed and 1,800 were injured–the majority of them African Americans–and property valued at more than $100 million was damaged, looted, or destroyed.

“The 12th Street riot.” 2008. The History Channel website. 21 Jul 2008, 01:08 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=6967.

On This Day

1715 – The first lighthouse in America was authorized for construction at Little Brewster Island, Massachusetts.

1829 – William Burt patented the typographer, which was the first typewriter.

1904 – The ice cream cone was invented by Charles E. Menches during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, MO.

1914 – Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia following the killing of Archduke Francis Ferdinand by a Serb assassin. The dispute led to World War I.

1938 – The first federal game preserve was approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The area was 2,000 acres in Utah.

1952 – Egyptian military officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew King Farouk I.

1954 – A law is passed that states that “The Secretary of the Navy is authorized to repair, equip, and restore the United States Ship Constitution, as far as may be practicable, to her original appearance, but not for active service, and thereafter to maintain the United States Ship Constitution at Boston, Massachusetts.”

1958 – The submarine Nautilus departed from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, under orders to conduct “Operation Sunshine.” The mission was to be the first vessel to cross the north pole by ship. The Nautils achieved the goal on August 3, 1958.

1998 – U.S. scientists at the University of Hawaii turned out more than 50 “carbon-copy” mice, with a cloning technique.

Connecticut Patriot Roger Sherman dies

On this day in 1793, Roger Sherman, a Connecticut Patriot and member of the Committee of Five selected to draft the Declaration of Independence, dies of typhoid in New Haven, Connecticut, at age 72. Sherman alone among the Patriots of the American Revolution signed all four documents gradually assigning sovereignty to the new United States: the Continental Association of 1774, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution. Thomas Jefferson credited Sherman with having never said a foolish thing in his life. Although Sherman was a self-educated shoemaker, raised on the western frontier of Massachusetts, he would eventually distinguish himself as a surveyor and astronomer; join the Bar of Litchfield, Connecticut; and serve as both a professor of religion and treasurer of Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut. He served in numerous elective and judicial offices, including in the Second Continental Congress, in the Connecticut General Assembly, and as justice of the peace, justice of the Superior Court of Connecticut and a representative in the first United States Congress. Sherman was the mayor of New Haven and a member of the United States Senate at the time of his death. Sherman was as prolific in his personal life as he was in his political career. He had seven children with his first wife, Elizabeth Hartwell, and eight more with his second wife, Rebecca Minot Prescott. Sherman was buried near the Yale campus. He is remembered with a statue at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia and a street named in his honor in Madison, Wisconsin.

“Connecticut Patriot Roger Sherman dies.” 2008. The History Channel website. 21 Jul 2008, 01:08 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=50391.

Sherman’s most notable achievement in life is the “Connecticut Compromise” which resolved the dispute at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 between the so-called big states and little states.  While convening in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 a dispute had overtaken the Constitutional Convention between the big states who wanted congressional representation based on a states population thus giving states with more people more power.  The little states wanted congressional representation based on one state one vote thus giving states with lesser populations an equal amount of power. 

Roger Sherman’s idea was to have two houses.  One:  The House of Representatives would be based on proportional representation thus giving the big states greater power.  Two:  The Senate would have two representatives for each state thus giving the smaller states an equal say in government.  Sherman further argued that the two should have powers that counter-balanced each other.  For instance, the Senate can vote for war, but the House of Representatives has the power to decide whether or not to pay for that war.  Sherman’s compromise resolved the dispute between the big states and the little states and led to the formation of the United States Congress.

Josef Hoffmann,  architect design great buildings architecture-Austrian architect, interior designer and applied artist.

Often those best at breaking the rules, have first mastered them. Josef Hoffman learned the skill of design during a time when structure and conformity was not only the norm, but the requirement. During the late 1800’s, the era of Architectural Realism was in full season. Born on December 15, 1870, Hoffmann was a student of the famous Viennese architect, Otto Wagner. In Hoffman, Wagner would unintentionally produce an even more accomplished architect than himself. A student who not only broke the rules, but changed them.

Hoffmann and Wagner met while Wagner served as Professor of Architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. Although Wagner was interested in pioneering a path toward more contemporary design constructs, it would be Hoffman who ultimately made good on this idea.

At The Academy, Hoffman met fellow artists Joseph Maria Olbrich, Gustav Klimt, and Koloman Moser, chance meetings that would forever change Vienna architecture.

His cultivated interest in the arts, and other cultural disciplines, blazed a trail towards design independence. This extra-architectural leaning led him down a path that was seen as almost heretical during his time. His maverick design ideas would forever become known as “Gesamtkunstwerk.”

The term “Gesamtkunstwerk” was made famous by German opera composer Richard Wagner and represents the fusing of all necessary elements for an authentic expression of art. Many define the term as total or complete artwork. Hoffmann’s Gesamtkunstwerk perfectly explained his concepts and design approach as he attempted to artfully represent an ever-evolving society. Hoffman essentially began to embrace an ecumenical philosophy. A philosophy that sought to incorporate, rather than distinguish itself as different. Music, painting, and even furniture design he saw as neccssary extensions of his work. The maturation of this philosophy led Hoffmann at the age of 27, to form the Vienna Secession.

The Vienna Secessionist movement sought to create new styles that had no basis in what had been done historically. Hoffmann’s time at The Academy of Fine Arts provided him with the building blocks upon which he cultivated a total departure from classic design. The learned theories of functional, “appropriate” architecture profoundly affected his later bold spontaneity.

The Secessionist artists desired a break from mass production products, in exchange for more sophisticated, commissioned work. To this end, Hoffman created work such as: The Palais Stoclet in Brussels (1905), the Purkersdorf Sanitarium outside Vienna (1903), and the Fledermaus Cabaret in Vienna (1909).

In May of 1903, Hoffmann created the Vienna Workshop or Wiener Werkstatte. The Vienna workshop was the culmination of his new found Gesamtkunstwerk. The work done under this banner represented a unification of colors, motifs, walls, curtains, jewelry, upholstery and furniture.

The Neue Galerie, a Museum for German and Austrian Art in New York, City, has frequently placed on exhibition several Hoffmann/Wiener Werkstatte period pieces. The exhibitions have included: Biach bedroom (1904), Hans Salzer bedroom (1902), Jerome Stonborough and Margaret Stonborough-Wittgenstein (1905), and dining room designs done for the Swiss painter Ferdinand Hodler (Geneva 1913).

Although Hoffman’s earliest works belong to the Secessionist movement and its tangent, Art Nouveau, his later works introduced the regular grid and square design approach. The clarity and abstract purity of his later work forever identified him as the artistic precursor to the Modern Movement.

By 1906, Hoffmann had built what many consider to be his first truly great work, the Sanatorium in Purkersdorf. He was finally producing customized works of art. The Purkersdorf Sanatorium project was obtained through Adolphe Stoclet. Stoclet sat on the supervisory board of the Austro-Belgischen Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft.  Hoffmann was commissioned to complete the Palais Stoclet in Brussels for the wealthy banker and railway financier, Victor Zuckerkandl. Considered the Masterpiece of Jugendstil, this work was the finest example of Gesamtkunstwerk. The project includes highlighted murals in the dining room by Klimt, and four copper figures by Franz Metzner.

In 1907, Hoffmann was co-founder of the Deutscher Werkbund, and in 1912 of the Österreichischer Werkbund. After World War II, he took on official tasks on behalf of the government. One position was that of an Austrian general commissioner with the Venice Biennale and a second position as a member of the art senate.

Josef Hoffmann will be remembered as a thoughtful risk taker. One that studied history before attempting to change the future. He was highly regarded as individualistic, willing to go into unchartered territory. Before his death in 1956, Hoffmann had forever enabled younger artist to take inspiration further just as he had done for Wagner.

Rafael Montilla

You keep this flag in mind at the next Olympics, punks.

Island Packet – As a proud Slovak-American with a cumbersome, consonant-heavy surname, I must take issue with “Hostel Part II,” a torture-horror movie released last weekend and the sequel to the 2005 hit, “Porky’s.”

“Hostel Part II” is a wildly gruesome flick about cold-eyed businessmen who pay to inflict torture on highly nubile teens in a moldy-looking Eastern European hotel. It apparently sets new standards in cinematic bloodletting; needless to say, we rounded up the whole gang and piled into the minivan to catch “Hostel Part II” on Father’s Day.

But here’s the thing — the film is set in the country of Slovakia, which is my homeland, the land from which my great-grandfather traveled in the early 1900s to forge a livelihood in the coal mines, start his own life in America and help pave the way for his eventual descendants to write questionably valid columns and giggle like a third-grader every time they type the word “nubile.”

Some background: Slovakia is a country located in Europe, which has many countries, all of which you hear about more than Slovakia. Part of this is because Slovakia used to be Czechoslovakia before the Great European Consonant Shortage of The Mid-1990s; prior to that, it was Austria-Hungary, at least until the Great European Shortening of Overhyphenated Country Names of The Mid-1940s, which was a little hypocritical because there was a hyphen in the name, but whatever, that’s how they rolled in the ’40s. These days, Slovakia exists in a state of pleasant anonymity, much like that “Fantastic Four” movie and people who once supported George W. Bush, and is primarily known for:

1. Not being the country that Borat was from, and stop asking already.
2. Winning the gold in the 2004 Olympics in the Canoeing Slalom event (Pavol Hochschorner and Peter Hochschorner, you guys ROCK!)
3. Pierogies.

Unless you are my grandmother, you probably don’t often make pierogies, which are dumplings of unleavened dough that can be filled with traditional Slovak delicacies like cheese, sauerkraut, cabbage and meat of dog (Kidding! I’m kidding!). Like all Slovak foods, they essentially are food clumps that have been encased in other, more durable food clumps. They are available in the Ethnic Section of your local grocery store, are best when sauteed in butter and onions and make your entire house smell like the Carpathian Mountains.

In my family’s hometown of Whiting, Ind., there is an annual Pierogi Fest, which celebrates the pierogi, featured Crystal Gayle one year (she is OBSESSED with unleavened dumplings) and helps occasionally distract the citizenry from the metric tons of repulsive dust they inhale from the steel mills that have driven the town’s economy for a hundred years. The skies of Whiting are brownish-gold much of the time, except at night, when they’re basketball-orange, lit by dozens of tongues of flame that regularly erupt into the sky. We’re pretty certain the One Ring is in there somewhere.

Anyway, thanks to Google Earth, my cousin and I have discovered the very village that we Vrabels come from, which is called Carne Polo and appears to consist of about seven houses, one road and a goat; not much seems to happen there, except when the Von Trapp kids wander over. But here’s the thing: there’s not a single horror hostel to be found. We looked. Google Earth has a totally awesome horror-hostel search feature, and it turned up jack.

So, I say to the citizens of Earth: You have nothing to fear from Slovakia! Ours are a kind, forgiving people who aren’t nearly as cruel as Hollywood would have you believe, unless you meet us on the Canoeing Slalom course, where we will absolutely eat you alive.

Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma, the last Empress of Austria.

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Via Xinhua: Five suspected cases of swine flu found in Austria. Excerpt:Five suspected cases of swine flu had been found in Austria by Tuesday evening and the final result will not be available until Wednesday, Austrian Health Minister …[More..]

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In this article on ASUA-GPSC relations, outgoing GPSC President Bieda (who is also a frequent commenter) makes an interesting assertion:

Although GPSC split from ASUA during the 1996 school year, Bieda said ASUA still views itself as the student government for the entire student population.

“Legally speaking, this is unfortunately a legal issue and if we cannot resolve it with the Vice President of Student Affairs Melissa Vito, it will go to President Shelton,” Bieda said.

Sure enough, from the ASUA Constitution:

Section II: Membership
Membership shall consist of all students registered at The University of Arizona.

This clause seems to only exist in a de jure sense; various paeans are thrown from time to time at graduates, but in much the same way that ASUA will make gestures towards other members of the “university community.” For all de facto purposes, ASUA is the undergraduate student government, and its constitution should reflect that fact.

In fact, it should reflect that fact even if incoming Presidents Nagata and Talenfeld (of ASUA and GPSC, respectively) come together and hash out a governing agreement, akin to the “Central Coordinating Council” that bound the two entities together from 1993-1996. What they should not do is follow the proposal offered by CCC member Sgt. Seastone (the apparent Gandalf of UA student governance) back in March 1995:

The council authorized the investigation in response to a discussion at the previous night’s meeting of the Central Coordinating Council, which proposed the assimilation of GPSC, the Undergraduate Council, and CCC into a unicameral system.

The council’s suggestion was made by CCC member Sgt. Brian Seastone of the University of Arizona Police Department. In a later interview, Seastone said that the legislative system “needs to be revamped to become more responsive.”

Seastone said he envisions a single senate comprised of six graduate and six undergraduate representatives, as well as three other elected officials and two faculty members.

Such a system, he believes, would eliminate problems he has seen in the past year such as “three to four week delays” in legislation.

Associated Students President T.J. Trujillo, who suggested a similar change at a December senate meeting, said he supports consideration of Seastone’s idea.

One of Trujillo’s complaints with the current structure is the amount of money paid in stipends to the GPSC members: $15,400 per year, compared to the amount paid to undergraduate senators, $7,700.

Even if the bad blood of the past years could be washed away, the issues facing graduates and undergraduates are different enough that they deserve their own bodies; within the UA microcosm, they are separate states representing one nation. Thus, they should move away from a hostile Anchluss for a ‘Greater Student Government’,  and more towards a two-state marriage, like the 1867 Ausgleich between Austria and Hungary:

Under the Compromise of 1867, Austria-Hungary had two capital cities, Vienna and Buda (subsequently Budapest). The two regions had separate Prime Ministers and Parliaments that created and maintained different laws. Austria-Hungary remained unified through several ministries and in the form of a single ruler, Emperor-King Franz Joseph. The army and navy were managed by a common Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Trade regulation was also unified under the Ministry of Finance. Terms of the Compromise were renegotiated every ten years.

The equivalent to foreign relations for student governments are essentially “government relations,” whether it be the quasi-government within the university, the Zion-Council-rule of ABOR, or the actual legislature in Phoenix. Is it possible for ASUA-GPSC to issue joint statements on things like fees, tuition – and should they? Then there’s ASA, which acts as a sort of quasi-official student lobbying think tank – kind of like the RAND Corporation in the 1960s. The real problem stems from not having a unified executive, one voice that can literally speak for all students; a solution does not readily present itself.

Outside of this, the only other modification that might be useful would be the addition of an ex officio member – an undergraduate on GPSC, and a graduate on ASUA’s Senate. While hardly a cure-all, it helps to at least ensure that each nation will have to talk to each other once a week. (Plus, it’s a back-door means of moving towards constituency-based seats.)

The battles between ASUA and GPSC are particularly pathetic, like two Jacobin children fighting to death for the last bit of Marie Antoinette’s cake. Elect Nagata made a good move in consulting his predecessors; he would be equally wise to sit down to dinner with his graduate counterpart.

#3 How was the decline of Austria-Hungary in the latter half of the nineteenth century ensured by the 1848 liberals‘defeat and ensuing fracturing of the empire?

Internal Conflict

Independence

·         Magyars of Hungary claimed independence from Austria.

·         With Russian aid Hungary was restored to the Austrian empire

•  
  • Nationalist Magyars were crushed

Revolutionaries

·         Ideas

o   French revolution of 1848 swept throughout Europe in particular Austria-Hungary

§  Nationalism

§  Freedom of Speech

§  Peasant relief of Feudalism

§  Representative Government

o   Some wanted political reform and others wanted to overthrow the Government

§  Internal Struggle

·         Defeat

o   Francis-Joseph played one nationalist fraction against another

o   Conflicting Goals, Disunity

o   This gave the conservatives the chance to crush the liberals and radicals and to once more occupy the capital

o   Francis Joseph dissolved the revolutionary assembly

Conflict

·         Francis Jospeh struggled to maintain his empire due to many countries in the empire who wanted to be independent and were affected by nationalistic ideas

·         With the help of Russia he defeated the Hungarian nationalists who, in 1848, declared Hungary as independent

·         The Ausgleich of 1867 divided the Austrian empire into a Dual Monarchy.

External Conflict

·         Emergence of New countries

o   The new established countries challenged the dominance of Austria in central Europe

o   Bismarck’s goals and ambitions caused the exclusion of Austria from the German Confederation.

o   Seven Weeks’ War 1866

§  Loss of influence over all German States

§  Loss of the province of Lombardy to Italy, 1859

·         Congress of Berlin, 1878

o   Emergence of Serbia

o   Capture of Bosnia and Herzegowina by Austria to prevent their independence

·         Slavs

o   Encouragement of nationalism through increased power of Serbia

o   Threat to Austria-Hungary by Slavic groups

o   Pan-Slavism promoted by Russia

·         Alliance

o   1879, Austria-Hungary and Germany create an Alliance

Decline of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire

The revolution of 1848 in France marked the decline of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, because in that same year nationalistic groups rebelled against the government and the idea of freedom became widespread. It is important to analyze all factors that contributed to its steady decline. Austro-Hungary was weakened through its external losses of land and influence from other countries. From all sides Austro-Hungary was torn apart. It was only a matter of time until it would eventually fall apart.

Wrong political moves

• Asked German Confederation to take military action against Prussia when Bismarck ordered troops into Austrian-occupied Holstein
  • Francis-Joseph made wrong assessments about his own power. He shouldn’t have taken the step giving Germany a reason do declare war on them
  • He should have reconsidered his weak position over the German influence