Last Days: Don't you forget about me

The day after our visit to Mauthausen was the last day of class. It was by far my favorite lecture. Kathy shared really revealing family stories about her mother and grandmother living through the post-war occupation by the Soviet soldiers that started in 1945. They would rape and kill women on the side of the road shamelessly and in doing so thought that it was 'retributive justice.'. It was nice to have a break from pure academics and hear an almost first-hand account of what everyday life was like in Germany after the fall of Berlin and he toppling of the Thousand-year Riech. We also discussed Ruth Kluger’s book on Holocaust memory. She was 11 when she was shipped to Thereseinstadt and then later to Auschwitz. She argues that memorials should not exist and she is against people who seek them out as tourist attractions. Having visited a concentration camp, we could more accurately engage her text. We came to the conclusion collectively that, although concentration camps should not be destinations in the same way that famous cities are, the educational value that they hold is valuable to prevent something like the Holocaust from ever happening again. I also think that they need to exist as memorials more than museums. The people who died in these horrible places need to be remembered and the best and most accurate way to accomplish this goal, in my opinion, is to memorialize the site of the atrocities. Maybe in this manner they will eventually become places of reflection instead of pain. One of the most horrible parts about the ordeal that we learned in this lecture is that as some of the survivors grow old and get Alzheimer’s, they think that they are still in the camps every day.
On Sunday, our last day in Austria, we had our farewell festivities. I turned to my friend Jordan and we both said "so, it's come to this." We met at the famous ferris wheel (as seen in “The Third Man”) where we rode to the top. The view Of Vienna that it offered only reminded us of all the things that we would be leaving behind. We then headed to our last dinner together at a place called Centimeter II. Fathers Clemens, Elias, and Killian (formerly Michael) joined us. We ordered “the swords,” which were schnitzel and beef skewered on swords with fries and chili. It was delicious, and a glorious way to end the trip.
I spent most of the night talking with Father Killian about certain aspects of his order’s religious dogma that I was curious about. For example, the faith does not look down upon the use of marijuana because it does not deny life. This runs counter to the teachings that I have grown up hearing in the Catholic Church, so I wanted to know why this was so. According to him, they interpret the message of Jesus to not allow anything that destroys life. We spent the rest of the night talking, and before he left he invited me to come back anytime and stay in the monastery. After saying my goodbyes to my friends, I knew for sure that I needed to go back to Vienna one day. Hopefully one day soon. I went home, packed, and could barely sleep. It was, after all, my last night in Vienna. For now.

Day 24 8/26: Mauthausen

Today everyone was more silent and reverent than usual. Today we were going to Mauthausen, a Nazi concentration camp a few hours car-ride away from Vienna. None of us knew exactly what to think or how to feel, so we piled into the bus in silence for the long day ahead of us. This would be my first time visiting a concentration camp, so I was especially confused about the feelings that I had going into the experience. I did decide, however, that out of respect to those who lived and died in this place I would not take pictures. I feel that they would not want the camp photographed for a grade, and I certainly have to intention of looking at them again if I took them. When we got to the front of the camp, I was rather surprised. The buildings looked squat and only barely resembled a military outpost. The view around it was green and beautiful as well; one would have to know what the place was in order to appreciate the fact that so much pain and misery had transpired all around.
We began our visit with a guided tour of the compound. The guide was very nice, knowledgeable, and approached the subject with due care and respect. Construction on Mauthausen started in 1938; at the time local carpenters were excited to have work in the area. The location was chosen because it was remote enough to not cause too much undue suspicion and because of its proximity to the granite quarry where the inmates were to gather rocks to build the compound or die trying. The inmates at this particular camp were not only Jewish, in fact they were in the minority. Prisoners of war from the Soviet Union, gypsies, Spanish republicans who opposed Franco, and anyone else who stood as a threat to the Nazis were shipped here. The theme of the camp was death by work where the inmates would be so exhausted from the long labor and little food/rest that they would literally die in the yards. By 1940, it became one of the largest camp complexes in German-controlled Europe. The doors closed, normal citizens were not allowed inside, and secrecy surrounded the complex. In 1945, the Allies opened the gates to the abandoned complex to find the inmates emaciated to the point where over a thousand died even with medical care and food. The exact death toll of the camp is unknown, but estimates range from 120,000 to over 300,000.
There are a few parts of the tour around the camp that stood out to me. The first was the parade grounds. New inmates were brought in through the gates and were forced to stand with their faces to the wall. They were then beaten, some were shot, some were attacked by dogs, and all were shown the gate and told “that is how you came in,” and then shown the incinerator, “and that’s how you’ll leave.” Every morning they had to stand outside of the parade grounds in whatever the weather conditions were and be subject to more of the SS’s humiliation techniques. Then they were herded to the quarry where they broke rocks all day. Today, the parade grounds are lined with plaques for all of the different groups of people who suffered and died, including but not limited to Jews, Catholics, Soviets, Spanish republicans, and homosexuals.
In the barracks we saw the beds that they had to sleep on. In the same space that would not comfortably hold many of the people on our trip, three inmates had to sleep as once. The building was not very large, but about 300 inmates were housed in each one. Sometimes this was welcome because of how low the temperature got. Only a few barracks stand today, but the ones that do reveal how cramped and impersonal the lives of the inmates must have been. Across from the barracks was a field that holds the ashes of many thousands of inmates who died and were cremated throughout the years. On the other side is the medical facility where many inmates were experimented on and euthanized. Every building had a terrible purpose, and each took away a little bit more humanity than the last.
By far the most memorable stop we made was the gas chamber and the crematorium. What is one supposed to say about such things? Standing in the room where so many hundreds of other people lost their lives in agony was not the most fun experience, and in my opinion we stayed in there too long. The inmates were told that they were going in the room for a routine shower in order to avoid panic. Of course, none ever came out again alive. Before entering the chamber, the SS would mark the inmates who had gold teeth so that they could be collected after death. Even in death, the SS found a way to dehumanize the inmates. The actual room with the oven in it was also moving. Peace flags, candles, flowers, and pictures of those who were cremated dotted the room. It was an odd juxtaposition to see the faces of the same people whose bodies were set ablaze in the oven right in front of me.
A group of us walked down the stairs that the inmates were forced to carry 200 lb stones up. The stairs were so steep that many healthy and fit people did not go down, and these were not even the originals. The SS would watch as prisoners tumbled down with their huge rocks, knocking down anyone unfortunate enough to be in the path below. The SS would also make the inmates line up on top of the ledge and forced them to push the person in front of them off the cliff to the waters below. I was again struck by how beautiful the place where so much death took place was. It looked like something out of one of the backpacking magazines that I get, only I knew how tragedy plagues the looks of the place.
After the tour, we watched a short film on the history of the camp. The film was odd because it stressed that the SS members who worked at the camp were not evil at heart, but many were in fact happily married family men who kept gardens. Although this may be true, it seems out of place to explain such things in the concentration camp where they would unleash dogs on prisoners and shoot them without a moment’s hesitation. They were so convinced that the people in the camps were subhuman that they would not even rape them, believing that having sex with them would be like having sex with a dog. Yet, the film also said that many SS destroyed the gas chambers before the Allies took over the camps. This fact points to some form of knowledge of wrong-doing. Why would they keep such secrets if they thought they were doing good deeds? This issue of how people can become to brain-washed has always fascinated me. We discussed the study done by a Stanford professor where a group of students were labeled as “guards” and another group as “prisoners” and each assumed their roles. Within a week there were actual abuses transpiring and the experiment had to be cut short. Is it really within human nature to be so cruel?
The placard at the entrance says it best: “Always be vigilant.”

Days 21-23 8/22-24: Working on that check-list!

This weekend we decided to tackle three activities on our long list of things to do: visit Schonbrunn palace, see the film “The Third Man,” and go to the Wien Museum.
Myself and three of my friends went to the palace on Saturday with the intention of seeing not only the magnificent building but also the famous gardens. We took the audio tour that guided us through some of the palaces many rooms where we got to learn some fascinating history. It was to be the magnificent seat of power for the Habsburg monarchy, and thus only a large and beautiful estate would suffice. Construction began in 1696 and took more than three years to complete. Schonbrunn is heavily tied to Maria Theresia, as she took residence there for a majority of her rule and fought the War of Austrian Secession from its rooms. She ordered that the gardens be reshaped into the Rococo style which emphasized elegance and refinement. Schonbrunn was also the birth place of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria in the 19th century. He spent the majority of his 68-year reign residing in the palace and even died in it in 1916. Since the 1960s, it has become a prominent tourist spot for visitors from around the world. The tour was interesting enough, but it was the walk through the gardens that we most enjoyed. We climbed to the top of the hill to overlook the palace and Vienna before we played around the fountain. After some time lounging about and admiring the amazing piece of history in front of us, we headed out.
The next day we met up with some of our other friends at the movie theaters to see “The Third Man.” It is a film noir made in 1949 about an American named Holy who comes to a bombed-out Vienna after WWII to seek a job that he was offered by a friend named Mr. Lime. Upon arriving in Vienna he discovers that his friend has been run over by a truck, but he unravels some unusual circumstances behind his death. The British police are accusing Lime of smuggling illegal and unsafe medicine to the hospitals, which Holy can’t believe. After getting heavily involved in the case, he discovers that Lime is alive and is indeed responsible for the transport of illegal medicine. Holy helps the police find Lime, and in the end Holy ends up firing the killing blow on his old friend Lime. It was a fantastic movie, I have to admit. Modern murder-mysteries get far too involved in their own image that they all blend together and seem the same. This film successfully incorporated humor and wit that made it a much more rich experience. It is also much more realistic about the events; one could believe that something like Holy’s experience could actually happen to someone. He even gets rejected by the girl in the end! I plan on finding more movies like this one when I get back home.
The last stop during this weekend was to the Wien museum, where I planned on looking at some Biedermeier art work. According to Beller, this artistic style is unique because it has pretty solid dates: 1815 to 1848. It focused on images of the domestic as peaceful and tranquil. The art produced during this time-period is often of families lounging. The architectural style also mirrors this simplicity. In the museum, they have a recreation of a Biedermeier flat. It, honestly, looks rather plain. There is not much to describe except that it obviously favors simplicity and elegance in its design. It was abruptly brought to an end by the outbreak of the German revolutionary period in 1848, when people could no longer take solace in the calming art and architecture. I do not like this style at all. As a person I enjoy things which make me think and that surprise me, and Biedermeier aims to do exactly the opposite. The purpose behind it is to lull people into a sense of security in the status quo, which is not something that I like to do. Jan described it as the SpongeBob Squarepants of its time, and I am inclined to agree. I much prefer the works of Klimt and the secessionists than of the Biedermeier movement.
All in all, it was a fun weekend and we got to see many things that we had never experienced before. We are about to enter the last week!

Days 18-20 8/19-21.

After all of the incredible events of the last week, I decided that the rest of the week was going to be devoted to finishing up the prompts that were left for the blogs. I recruited a couple of friends to join me on the journey. Of course, we could not get all of the activities done in one day so we decided to divide it into three.
In conjunction with our discussion on modernism in Vienna, we were assigned to listen to the music of Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951). He was an Austrian (later American) composer who was well known for his involvement in the expressionist movement in German art and poetry. During the Nazi regime, his work was labeled as “degenerate art.” He is most well-known for the innovation of 12-tone music, which utilizes all 12 notes in the chromatic scale. The piece that I listened to was titled “Piano Concerto op. 42.” I enjoyed it on an intellectual level because it was very different from the other classical music that I have listened to. The use of all 12 notes was interesting to me because I am not trained to hear the differences between them all. This made it a fun exercise to try and hear everything that was going on during the song. By the same token, however, it was not something that I would listen to for pleasure for the exact same reason: it was confusing to listen to and much of the song was lost on me. I am sure that if I trained harder to listen I would enjoy it more, but as it stands I will say that it was interesting and leave it at that.
The topic that I enjoyed learning about the most was the Vienna Secession movement that formed in 1897. It was a movement of painters, artists, and architects who rejected the status quo of the Ringstrasse, which was an architectural mind-frame that favored a historical approach to the buildings by trying to mimic romantic, gothic, and baroque styles of ages past. The Secession, led by luminaries such as painter Gustav Klimt and Koloman Moser. They rejected the idea of historicizing the buildings and advocated finding a distinctly modern Vienna mood for the buildings. In terms of defining Viennese modernism, I prefer Jacques le Rider’s interpretation (as read in “Vienna Modernism”) of a period of uprooting and crisis of identity of women and Jews.
One of the most recognized figures of the Secession movement was Gustav Klimt (1862-1918). He was gaining popularity for his paintings and was commissioned by the University of Vienna to make paintings for the departments of Philosophy, History, and Medicine. His paintings were rejected by the professors, and Klimt joined the Secession movement. His most recognized piece is “The Kiss,” which pictures a man and a woman in a romantic embrace. I like the painting a fair amount, but I do not understand why this work has gained such international recognition. I enjoy the history behind Klimt more than his work. Anyone who comes back from being scorned to international fame deserves praise in my opinion.
In class, discussed a critical topic for Austrian history: the end of the Habsburg monarchy. After archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in Sarajevo Emperor Franz Joseph declared war on Serbia because they were harboring Gavrilo Princip, Ferdinand’s assailant. World War I breaks out, and the bloody affair took its toll on the monarchy. In 1916 emperor Charles I abdicated the throne, thus bringing an end to the Habsburg rule in Austrian lands. After the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed because of WWI, the new government was called the Republic of German Austria under its first chancellor Dr. Karl Renner. The treaty of St. Germaine penalizes Austria just like the Treaty of Versailles penalized Germany. This is just another example in which making policies based on visceral reactions only engenders hatred. Because Austria is a week state, separate militias form. This is going counter to the process of state-building that was taking place in the earlier days of the empire. Instead of consolidating legitimate violence in the state, there are militant splinters that form and cause havoc in the cities.
In 1933 the new chancellor Dollfuss bans militias besides his own. He propagated Austro-Fascism, which was a hyper-national sense of Austria that brought them in contention with German fascism. This contention, coupled with his oppressive policies, resulted in the outbreak of civil war in 1934. There was actually heavy fighting in Simmering. Eventually, the Nazis took the chancellor’s office and Dollfuss is killed. Hitler organized a plebiscite, or an election by the Austrians as to whether or not they wanted Nazi rule. Of course, the results were skewed and Hitler marched his troops into his home nation in 1938. On April 1st the first transport to Dachau leaves, starting the nightmare of concentration/death camps for the Austrians who did not fit into the master race. Because the Nazis drive out intellectuals and artists such as Freud and Einstein, they developed their own aesthetic in order to abandon “degenerate art” of the Jews. By the end of the ordeal, something like 65 thousand Austrian Jews died in the camps. In 1942, the Nazis declared Vienna to be “Jew-free.” It truly was a nightmare for Austria and they did not find peace until well after the end of WWII; many didn’t find peace until the end of the Cold War in 1989.
Today’s blog assignment that we decided to complete was to watch CNN in our room and compare it to American CNN. The way the station reports news in Austria is a little bit less one-sided than American CNN, in my opinion. The issue that I saw reported was the release of the Lockerbie bomber by Scotland. Although there was definitely a tone of disappointment in the reporters’ voices, they did a good job of putting on an air of objectivity. They even did a piece on how many people are boycotting Scottish liquor in an attempt to punish the country for the release. In America, there would have been a bigger focus on Libya (the country that he was released to).

Day 17 8/18: "Hey mom? I'm at the UN!"

Up early, shaved, well-dressed, and pen/paper in hand. Why is this? Because today we are going to the UN! We arrived at the Vienna International Center and passed security in order to gain access to the UN building, where we met up with our tour guide (who, as it happens, is getting his PhD in History and writing his dissertation on the Habsburgs). He told us a bit about the history of the United Nations. It was formed in October of 1945 after the Second World War. It was the second attempt at a multi-national union after the League of Nations failed in the post-WWI period. Today it consists of 192 countries and has 4 locations across the globe, each with its own specific purpose. New York deals with politics, Nairobi focuses on the environment, Geneva is the center for human rights, and Vienna is concerned with security and nuclear energy. Vienne became the home of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the nuclear watch-dog of the UN, in 1957. After this brief introduction to the functions and offices going on all around us, we were guided into the room where the general assembly sits when they are in session. We actually got to sit where the head delegates get to sit! In this room our guide explained that the two official languages of the UN are English and French. We were all quizzical as to why French would be one of the official languages when it does not have as much influence on the global stage as a language like Mandarin Chinese. Evidently when the UN was founded in 1945, French was one of the most prominent languages in the world. It only made sense for the organization to make it a language (being formed by the Allies, France included). After our tour around the places that we were authorized to see, we were led into the room where we were to hear a lecture by a representative of the IAEA. The speaker gave us more information on the history and function of the IAEA. When it was formed in 1957, it predated the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) by 11 years. It was inspired by Eisenhower’s 1953 speech “Atoms for Peace.”
Our preparatory assignment for the UN was to write down questions for the speakers, so I will continue to blog by showing the questions and answers.
1) How does the NPT work?
The NPT divides countries into 2 catagories: The first category consists of the countries that can have nuclear weapons (US, Russia, UK, France, China). These are the countries who have exploded nukes before 1967, and they have no checks within the IAEA. The second category is the countries that cannot develop nuclear technology accept under IAEA guidelines. There is a third category that pretty much only serves as “the rest of them.” These are India, Israel, and Pakistan. These countries have been the hotbed of contention for many years.
2) How does the IAEA provide assistance to the signatory countries?
The IAEA has three goals: The first is safeguards and verification which includes making sure that any nuclear technology is used for peaceful measures. The second is safety and security, which includes oversight over the 430 plants in 30 countries and the 1000s of uses that the technology has. It also includes security for large events such as the Olympics and the Super Bowl. The third goal is to provide the proper science and technology to countries that request it. There are some specific guide-lines that the country needs to follow if they want nuclear power, they have to have enough money to finance and run the operation indefinitely, they have to have the man-power and expertise in order to handle the materials, they have to have a strong enough power grid to handle a nuclear facility, and they have to have proper governmental agencies in place to provide the right oversight for any nuclear project. If a country passes these inspections, the IAEA will assist in providing technology that can help clean water and make food safer.
3) Given that the prospect of mutually assured destruction (MAD) was one of the main reasons that the Cold War did not become a hot war, why is the proliferation of nukes something to be feared?
According to the speaker, there is no such thing as MAD anymore. I did not quite understand his reasons as to why this is true, but he said that nukes should not be used as diplomatic deterrents. I do not think that this answer is really responsive to the question that I had because it is largely opinion-based and does not rely on evidence or analysis. I would have liked a better answer because nuclear proliferation is something that is always thought of as being bad and is rarely questioned. We did get an email address where we could direct further questions, so I think that I will have to email to find out more about this topic (Update: still no email response to my question. I can’t really blame them; they have much more important things to worry about than the question of one student. Would have been nice to have a good answer though).
After a brief break, we sat back down to hear another lecture. The speaker that was presenting was from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Her specific job dealt mostly with drugs, so the discussion was mainly focused on that topic.
1) How much funding does the UNODC receive and where does it come from?
The UNODC has a relatively low operating budget of only a few hundred million. This is very small since the agency has to deal with both drugs and crime in all countries! The agency receives funding from the UN general fund every year, but it also receives grants and pledges from the signatory countries.
2)How does the agency ‘fight’ against cartels, trafficking, splinters, and despots who have armed forces, given that the agency has no military?
The Agency does not actively fight against drugs because that jurisdiction falls mostly to the independent country. Instead, the UNODC offers counseling and advice to the states so that they may be better equipped with the knowledge they need to not only stop the cartels, but to prevent the populace from falling prey to addiction. For example, the agency hosts several programs around the globe in school to teach young children about the dangers of addiction and what can happen should they start to use. Additionally, the UNODC has various clinics and plans that help rehabilitate those who are addicted or who have recently kicked a habit. Unlike the IAEA, however, there are not strict codified laws as to how a country should or should not deal with drugs or crime.
3) What is the UNODC’s stance on countries such as Holland that have legalized controlled substances?
It is not the agency’s job to pass judgment or to scorn, so officially it has no opinion on the subject. All they can do is provide assistance when asked and where needed. Should they adopt a formal opinion, it would hurt global cooperation and limit their ability to be viewed as an objective source of information and aid.
After this lecture was over, we had one more presentation by a group of interns who were going to try and inform/persuade us about the UN internship program. The UN accepts interns from almost every field of study for terms of 2-6 months. The regular internships are unpaid, but relatively easy to get. An applicant must have graduated from college and be enrolled in graduate school during the time of appointment. This sounds like the perfect summer job for me once I (hopefully) enter graduate school. My new plan is to try for an internship in Vienna one of the summers that I am in grad school so I can not only add it to my resume, but do something important for the world and myself.
One visit to the UN café and gift shop later, our visit to the UN was over. It was a really informative experience, although I definitely had more questions that I would have liked answered. The reasons to return to Vienna are just piling up now!
Today’s blog post was brought to you by the German word ‘offen,’ meaning ‘frank, open, candid.’

Days 14-16 8/15-17: Klosterneuburg Strikes Back!

Today started out first three-day weekend. Most of the other people were making trips to other cities and countries, but I decided to stay in Vienna and see what trouble I could get into here. On Saturday, a plan formed to go back to Klosterneurburg to visit Father Clemens again. Myself, Kathy, Jan, and a few others headed ventured forth to the monastery where we had so much fun a week prior in hopes that this visit would rival the last. While we were waiting at the bus stop, we took a look around the Karl Marx-Hof, a massive apartment complex spanning multiple city blocks that was built for Vienna’s industrial workers between 1927 and 1930. It was made because the conditions of the factory workers in Vienna were terrible; most were living in squalor with multiple families to a room and beds that they had to share depending on the shifts that people had to work. It is very indicative of the socialist attitude: equal shares of property for all and nothing lavish heaped upon anyone. The building was also the site of fighting during the Austrian Civil War in 1934, and it was even shelled by a tank. The picture below struck me. I could just imagine the artist who made it describing it as “the down-trodden proletariat casting off the oppressive shackles of capitalism!”
We got there safe and waited for Father Clemens to meet us so we could start a private tour of the monastery’s treasury. After we met up with him we began our tour, which is something that only happens by special invitation! In this tour we got to see numerous reliquaries, beautiful containers that hold parts of holy objects. In this treasury, there were many devoted to saints, and even one that ostensibly has an actual thorn from the crown of thorns that was put atop the head of Jesus! During the tour Father Clemens got tired of holding the keys, so he gave them to me. I got to hold the keys to Klosterneurburg! I thought this was really cool because on some level it showed trust in me as the guardian of the monastery’s secrets (I know, reading too much into it), but on the other hand it was just awesome to actually hold a piece of history that would unlock the doors to an almost century-old monastery. Also in the tour I learned the origin of the eagle that is on all of the Habsburg banners. As it turns out, it was not originally an eagle but a parrot. Below is the actual garment with the imperial parrot of the Habsburg Empire! We were all incredibly grateful that Father Clemens allowed us to witness such fascinating and well-guarded history.
After the tour we made plans to go to another wine garden with him. Around 1800 (6 pm) we all met up. Father Clemens brought a soon-to-be novice with him named Father Michael (later Father Killian, after his induction ceremony). At the dinner table I talked with Father Michael about how he came to be at Klosterneurburg, and he had a fascinating story to tell. He is from San Diego and was thinking about being a priest because he was unhappy at his other jobs. Not satisfied with the work of an ordinary priest, he decided that he wanted to find a religious order to join. His problem was that he could not decide on which one to join, so in desperation one night he prayed for God to reveal some sign of what he was supposed to do with his life. As he awoke the next morning, he had the word “stift” on his mind (the common German word for pencil, but also used for church). He later got an email at work that had a link to Stift Klosterneurburg. And the rest is history. As it was getting later in the evening, some of us informed the Fathers that we were interested in attending mass the next day. We made plans to go to mass and bid farewell to the priests so we could get enough sleep to get up early.
The next morning we started out early in order to catch mass in time. When we got there Father Michael was waiting for us. The service was held in the same beautiful church that we had stood in on the first tour, and it was marvelous. Hearing the accordion actually play and Father Clemens’ voice echoing off of the marble ceiling was an amazing experience. I can understand how the parishioners of old (and the ones today) could be swayed to a spiritual life just by attending these joyous and moving events. After mass we were joined by Fathers Clemens, Michael, and Elias (native of America) in a café. After a pleasant conversation and some good food, we got up to leave. Before he left, Father Michael told me that if I wanted to stay a night in one of the guest rooms I should email Father Clemens. I got a personal invitation so spend a night in the monastery! I could not have been more excited. (Update: it turns out that there were no rooms available because the 26th was a feast day. Oh well, just one more reason to come back).
That night Jan took the remaining group out to the Danube for a taste of the night life that Vienna has to offer. The restaurants near the Danube are all lit up at night and all are playing music. It was an excited and fun way to sound out the weekend! I spent Monday laying low and blogging with friends as they all came back from their own different adventures. We slept early that night because the next day we were headed to the United Nations! This trip was just getting better and better.

Day 13 8/14: Don Giovanni!

Today’s class lecture and readings were very interesting because they focused on how different ideologies, mind-frames, and social settings can generate trends in history. All of these things, I think, are the most valuable part of the dedication to a historical discipline because an understanding of the intersection of all these factors can be a very useful predictive tool in the current age. In the 18th century, the Enlightenment was becoming part of the cultural awareness against oppressive regimes, and the ideas it espoused (freedom of thought, freedom of religion, etc.) often ran in contention with the government at the time. Voltaire (1694-1778), an Enlightenment luminary and philosopher, wrote many volumes that rejected the Catholic dogma and insisted on the institution of personal autonomy. His works, along with those of Montesquieu, Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau, heavily influenced the French and American Revolutions. According to Parsons, the writings of authors/thinkers such as these served as a tool that armed the populace with knowledge in order to hedge against oppressive regimes. Kathy made the analogy to the uses of Twitter today. Twitter, for those who may not know or care, is a website where people can upload a sentence or two about what they are doing (called a ‘status’). Although it may seem inconsequential, it has actually proven very useful. In the most recent riot and protests to the Iranian ‘re-election’ of president Ahmadinejad, the Iranian government was cracking down on the protesters by jailing them, harassing them, and worse. The whole world was able to learn exactly what was going on because the protestors used Twitter to update the world about what was being done to them and by whom. In this manner information can now be seamlessly uploaded to the web for the whole world to see, making the individual a viable threat to governments that demand secrecy and discretion in order to carry out oppressive actions. In the 18th century, people used the writings of Enlightenment thinkers to actively question what was going on around them. This resulted in what we know today as a ‘Civil Society,’ the existence of private pockets of people who get together to talk about ideas. My own personal pocket would be my involvement in the Speech and Debate team at UCD. The whole activity is centered on gathering t engage in academic and political discourse. I suppose that I have Enlightenment writers like Voltaire to thank for such activities!
Some rulers attempted to include Enlightenment ideals into their policies, but they never added everything that the movement taught. In Austrian history, Maria Theresia is good example of a ruler who had both Enlightenment policies and repressive policies. She was born in 1717 and was raised a pious Catholic. Her father Charles VI, anticipating the empire’s distaste for a female ruler and having no male heirs, made the different territories under his control sign the Pragmatic Sanction which was a document stating that all of the signatories would abide the ruler of a female. However, according to Beller by 1740 Prussia, France, Bavaria, and Saxony all rejected the Pragmatic Sanction which leads to the War of Austrian Secession (1740-1748). Maria Theresia fought with the leader of the Secessionist faction, Friedrich II, for control of her birth-right. Although she was militarily successful, she lost Silesia to Friedrich II at the end of the war. Some of her initiatives that fall in line with the ideals espoused in the Enlightenment include compulsory public education, restrictions on judicial torture, and smallpox inoculations. Although these actions are laudable from an Enlightenment view because they benefit the people and allow them to better themselves, Maria Theresia did not follow some critical portions of the ideology. She was incredibly anti-Semitic, going so far as to expel the Bohemian Jews. By the 18th century, religious toleration had become a core tenant of Enlightenment thinking. The world still had a long way to go then, just as we do now. To a large degree, we are still struggling with the same issues as Europeans were then: citizens need to be informed and educated so that governments cannot exercise such coercive power over us. If the Iranian protesters found a way to make their voices heard, I am confident that we can improve.
For a brief period, Austria did experience a ruler who was very involved with Enlightenment policies: Maria Theresia’s son Joseph II (see day 9). He introduced the Patent of Tolerance in 1781 which gave a larger degree of religious tolerance to the Jews. He also abolishes the death penalty, a punishment that most other westernized countries have since achieved as well. Unfortunately for him and for many Austrians, many of his reforms were reversed when he died.
Of course, the last topic of the lecture was Mozart. Since this was the day that we were going to see Don Giovanni, we needed some information and background on the composer. He was born in 1756 in Salzburg, another famous city in Austria that gained international recognition when the film “The Sound of Music” was filmed there. He was one of seven children, originally given the name Wolfgang Gottlieb (meaning love of God) Mozart. From an early age he was identified as a child prodigy because of his skill and talent at music. In one instance when he was done playing a concert for Maria Theresia he jumped into her lap. In 1781 he arrived in Vienna to pursue music professionally, although he only received minor posts at first. He would eventually gain international fame and recognition and write numerous pieces and operas. It is generally thought that his three most famous operas are “The Magic Flute,” “Marriage of Figaro,” and “Don Giovanni,” which is the opera that we were gearing up to go see!
One nap and a shower later, I found myself outside of the Theater an der Wien, the opera house in which we were going to watch the performance, with a glass of champagne in hand and taking pictures with all of my friends dressed up and giggling. It was quite the fun time to hang out with people I liked, all looking sharp, waiting for an amazing cultural experience. I mean, I was going to see one of the most famous operas in the world in the city that it was written in! It doesn’t get much better than that if you ask me. This was going to be my first opera experience, so I was more than looking forward to what lay beyond the doors. At 1900 hours (7 pm), the doors opened and we were let in to see Don Giovanni.
First, brief description of the plot behind the opera: Don Giovanni is a frequent womanizer who uses and abuses his servant man, Leporello. On one fateful night he kills the father of a Donna Anna, a woman that he is trying to sleep with. This murder haunts Don Giovanni for the rest of the opera, as the friends and family of the slain father plot to exact vengeance upon Don Giovanni and the father promises before he dies to come back in the form of a statue. The Don, not to be done is by some woman’s family and a ghost, plots to have a masquerade in which Leporello will dress as a decoy Don Giovanni so that he will take the hit for the murder. At the party, Don Giovanni praises wine and women as “the essence of mankind.” After screams are heard outside of the mansion, Leporello discovers that the statue has indeed come back to find the Don. Don Giovanni himself opens the door to be greeted by the statue of the slain man who asks him if he will repent for his sins. Don Giovanni adamantly refuses, which prompts the statue to drag him down below the earth where he is engulfed in the fires of hell. The statue concludes the opera, “Such is the end of the evildoer: the death of a sinner always reflects his life.”
This particular company’s interpretation of the play was welcome because it did not reproduce the scene as it would have been played out at the time of its penning, rather they chose to make it more contemporary and feature most of the scenes in a hotel. Although some may not like this adaptation, I found that it was much easier to follow and also more stimulating to see the differences between the original manuscript and the performance. For example, the play showed many women in scant dress who followed Don Giovanni around. This display would never have been accepted in the 18th century, but I enjoyed it. And not just because I happen to be a 19 year-old guy, I thought that it made the Don seem much the way that Mozart would wanted him to be (and plus, the girls were pretty cute too). The most obvious use of artistic license was the ending scene. In the original manuscript all of the events of the play take place in one night, but the ending scene that we saw featured Don Giovanni and Leporello as old men when the ghost finally comes knocking. None of us were entirely sure as to why this was so, but the best guess that we have is that it was meant to show how the Don was tormented over time by the looming threat of death and that aged him.
After the play was over, I headed back to Simmering with some of my friends to grab some dinner and call it a night. It was fun going from being sweaty and exhausted on my Alpine hike only 24 hours before we were all dressed up attending a world-famous opera. What a trip!
Today’s blog was brought to you by the German phrase ‘die dir,’ which means ‘at your place.’