Johannes Sachslehner

On 28th October 1918, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had its Humpty-Dumpty moment "and had a great fall. All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again." While the Empire had been barely held together by administrative tape and violence for centuries, its internal contradictions were heightened by the Habsburg stupidity of starting the First World War. The unwillingness of the Hungarian aristocrats and oligarchs to a fair share of the burden as well as the Habsburg adversity to modernity doomed their success from the start. Still, for four years, the war carried on and the people suffered. On October 28th that changed. completely.

Johannes Sachslehner shows the events of that day in a 24 hours format. In the morning, there still was business as usual with unfortunate re-captured Czech deserters shot on the Italian front. Emperor Karl's message to the Allies, however, kicked off independent movements in Prague, Vienna, Zagreb (then Agram) and Budapest that could no longer be contained by the administration. These were fateful hours where the new existed in parallel to the old, and people had to choose sides. Fortunately, the collapse was relatively non-violent (due to the futility of carrying on). The Habsburgs already sent their crown jewels to Switzerland for safekeeping (some of them were broken apart and sold later, according to a Der Spiegel story of 1961 - some of the jewels used in some crowns proved to be of very low quality - an early example of the cheerleader effect).

At the Italian front, some units continued to fight heroically and tried to withdraw in order while others simply marched off. The ill-managed Habsburg collapse allowed the Italians to turn from losers into winners as they could recover more than they initially lost at little cost. The real killer at that moment, however, was not the frontline but the flu raging in the cities. In Vienna, more than a thousand died per week, their strength weakened by poor diet and lack of resources. Among the victims were Egon Schiele and his wife.

The sudden change also led to unresolved issues such as what to do with Austro-Germans in Bohemia and Moravia that would cause much violence and suffering later on. The joy of freedom and liberty of the Czechs, Croats and Hungarians unfortunately did not lead to an age of tolerance as the oppressed preferred to become inflexible nationalists themselves. 1917/18 truly marked the end of "the world of yesterday" and ushered in the new 20th century. Thomas Mann, however, seemed to have been oblivious to the coming collapse in November and wrote about a victorious Germany in his diary entry for 28th October 1918. What a day.… (plus d'informations)

The main aim of this book is to present photos of still surviving installations from the defense of Vienna in 1945. From the infamous FLAK towers still disgracing the views in Vienna to forgotten bunkers and reinforced structures, a surprising number of material witnesses has survived for 70 years, mostly by inertia.

The actual attack on Vienna by two Soviet fronts (armies) was mercifully short, as 700.000 Soviets pushed through the crazy defense of the dead-enders while the Nazi command partied during the final days in Vienna and Hitler ranted in Berlin. From a military point of view, Vienna could not be defended as it is surrounded by higher ground. For appearances, they still dug useless trenches on the Heldenplatz. After the conclusion of the Hungarian campaign, it took the Soviets under marshal Fyodor Tolbukhin two weeks to conquer Bratislava and a further two weeks to get into Vienna. The book does not cover the Soviet occupation and also the mass rapes committed. While the Soviet command appealed to the Austrians to liberate themselves from the "Nazi-Prussians" (though there were many, many local Austrian Nazis), the common Soviet soldier only saw the time for vengeance come as they were finally in their enemy's homeland.… (plus d'informations)

Rather a mishmash. Some information WRONG (New testament/ Stauros for cross is Greek, not Hebrew). There is a long bit on various 'Free mason' signs in the Cathedral from long before the Free masons. The symbols are there, but to make a big mysterious thing about them is questionable.

This book is also not usable as a guide in any way, because you have to know Stephansdom rather well to know what they are actually refering to. A map or two showing the various things they talk about would be in order. It is well illustrated, although some of the pictures are reproduced too small to actually see what is being refered to.

Still, there are a lot of nice little tidbits I hadn't known and legends I hadn't heard.… (plus d'informations)