Waltzing on Graves filled by their Grandfathers

February 1, 2012 6:55 AM

The European Far-Right took part in the Vienna Ball season with the Vienna Student Ball, which has had Right-wing ties since the 50s. There were bomb threats and some violence, but the Ball proceeded, even the the face of condemnation from UNESCO. All of which took place on Holocaust Remembrance Day
posted by NiteMayr (19 comments total)

From Strache's wiki page:

After publication, Strache argued that the picture showed him ordering three beers and was not a Nazi salute.

Of course you were! How silly of us to think that.
posted by edguardo at 7:07 AM on February 1

All male and often considered right wing and reactionary, the societies still indulge in fencing without protective clothing, and duelling scars are a symbol of honour.


Ah...the good old days!
posted by Fizz at 7:10 AM on February 1

Some time ago, I made this comment about the background of these student fraternities.
posted by Skeptic at 7:15 AM on February 1 [4 favorites]

All male and often considered right wing and reactionary, the societies still indulge in fencing without protective clothing, and duelling scars are a symbol of honour.

It's really kind of a shame that something as great as dueling and scars has to be tainted by gross politics.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 7:17 AM on February 1 [2 favorites]

After publication, Strache argued that the picture showed him ordering three beers and was not a Nazi salute.
posted by griphus at 7:18 AM on February 1 [6 favorites]

Just the one ball? You know who also had just the one ball?

I'll show myself out, thanks.
posted by Capt. Renault at 7:25 AM on February 1 [27 favorites]

A pity about the nazi sympathies. These fraternities would otherwise be very useful for putting our own to shame.

Beer funnels? Piffle. Does your frat inflict dueling scars?

So there.
posted by ocschwar at 7:46 AM on February 1 [1 favorite]

My inlaws just attended a ball in Vienna - they said it was delightful. I saw a bit of video - and the dances were just like those at a ceilidh, only much, much slower. And with less perspiration.
posted by jb at 7:50 AM on February 1

Some pictures and a video of the protest on austrian new site Standard.at.
posted by ts;dr at 8:22 AM on February 1

"Heinz-Christian Strache of the Freedom Party arrives for the student ball", and look who he arrives with, Kent Ekeroth from the party the Sweden Democrats.
posted by dabitch at 8:48 AM on February 1

"....and duelling scars are a symbol of honour. "

If you're imagining an actual sword fight....not that. Picture a couple of rich frat boys, in specially padded outfits, closely tended to by medical students, whacking light sabres at each others' exposed faces until they inflict the desired amount of damage.


Earlier FPP about the practice of academic duelling.
posted by bonobothegreat at 9:14 AM on February 1

"light sabres"... I mean, as in not heavy sabres. Light sabre scars would be pretty cool.
posted by bonobothegreat at 9:19 AM on February 1 [4 favorites]

When I did a google image search on mensur this was the first thing I pulled:

(Text is in German)

Our gangster rappers might want to look into this.
posted by bukvich at 9:39 AM on February 1

(Text is in German)

The text is in Dutch. Which is sort of like German, but completely different.
posted by cmonkey at 10:20 AM on February 1 [2 favorites]

It's German spoken with an American accent and a head cold.
posted by Seiten Taisei at 10:28 AM on February 1 [4 favorites]

So as it happens I was walking around in Vienna the other day, and I noticed people setting up some sort of big anti-fascism banner (yeah, so I suck at languages), and I thought "huh, I wonder what's going on to prompt that".

Apparently the answer is "fascists".
posted by brennen at 11:08 AM on February 1 [2 favorites]

>The text is in Dutch. Which is sort of like German, but completely different.

It's German spoken with an American accent and a head cold.

Do not tell the Dutch that you can sorta understand their language because you know German. They do not like it.
posted by benito.strauss at 11:39 AM on February 1

Facisim aside, this is delicious.

Facisim considered, I side with my partisan-sniper grandma-in-law:

"We didn't kill enough of them."
posted by clarknova at 11:48 AM on February 1

I was watching the news that night, all the major radio and tv stations having promised to send a reporter to the scene. And the dialogue went sort of like this:

"and now on to our reporter X infront of the Hofburg, where there is nobody there anymore. X, why is that?"
"well, Y, they seem to have gone home."

I rolled my eyes.
posted by Omnomnom at 12:10 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]