| When the then 18-year-old Franz Joseph
ascended the Austrian imperial throne, his country stretched from the Giant
Mountains to the Adriatic Sea, from the Po Valley to the border of the Tsarist
Empire. Fifty-two million inhabitants, speaking 20 official languages and many
more dialects, were governed, coordinated, and administered from Vienna. With
the end of the First World War, the monarchy collapsed, and what remained of
Austria was reduced to a small state, a head without limbs.
Even today, we must not forget how many of the
most talented and renowned "Austrians" once made their way from the
crown lands to Vienna, rose to fame here, and spread Vienna's reputation as a
centre of art, culture, science, and research throughout the world. Was Mozart
German, Bertha von Suttner Austrian, or Billy Wilder Viennese? Otto Wagner's
student Josef Plečnik came from Ljubljana, Ignaz Semmelweis and Theodor Herzl
from Budapest, Adolf Loos from Brno, and the bricklayers at Wienerberg from
Bohemia. They all left their mark on the Viennese dialect and cuisine, on
architecture, and on religious diversity. |
