I like these pictures. They are cute and whimsical. (Some slightly NSFW.)
posted by dame on Oct 28, 2008 - 30 comments

After recently leading his far right wing party, Alliance for the Future of Austria, to shocking gains at the polls, Jörg Haider, was killed this month whilst driving drunk. His 27 year old replacement, Stefan Petzner, was sacked after admitting to having a special relationship with Haider.
posted by gman on Oct 24, 2008 - 52 comments

Sound glimpses into the past. The Phonogrammarchiv was founded in 1899 and is the oldest audiovisual research archive in the world. There are some fascinating sound samples listenable online from the Historical Collections-1899 to 1950, including: The First Expeditions 1901 to Croatia, Brazil and the Isle of Lesbos; Zulu Recordings 1908; Papua New Guinea (1904-1909) and some lovely recordings of old Musical Boxes from Vienna and Prague. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye on Sep 24, 2008 - 7 comments

The horrifying crimes of Joseph Fritzl shocked Austria and the world. Recently two essays explored Austrian literature in an attempt to understand what cultural conditions could foster such monstrosity. Nicholas Spice, in Up from the Cellar, explores the work of Nobel Prize laureate Elfriede Jelinek and her dissection of male violence. Ritchie Robertson searches for antecedents in Josef Fritzl's fictive forebears. [via The New Yorker's Book Bench]
posted by Kattullus on Jun 8, 2008 - 63 comments

"The whole country must ask itself just what is really, fundamentally going wrong." An Austrian pensioner has admitted holding his daughter captive in a basement for 24 years, during which time he fathered seven children with her. [more inside]
posted by essexjan on Apr 28, 2008 - 133 comments

The Maria Theresa Thaler (or MTT), a coin first minted in 1741 and continuously to this day, remained legal tender in parts of the Arabian peninsula as late as 1970, where it was much prized both as a coin and for jewelry [magazine article] Incredibly important for trade between Europe and the Middle East, the MTT had a great impact on history. For more information turn to Maria Theresa's Thaler: A case of international money an indepth article about the MTT by Adrian Tschoegl.
posted by Kattullus on Apr 8, 2008 - 10 comments

Hallstatt, Austria, besides being idylic, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is historically fascinating: A Bronze Age cultural center, with a 2,500-year-old salt mine (the world's first); beautiful ice caves; and a Catholic cemetery so small that the dead were regularly disinterred after a time, their skulls painstakingly identified and decorated and stacked in an ossuary.
posted by bigskyguy on Aug 28, 2007 - 5 comments

Kurt Waldheim dies at 88: Wehrmacht lieutenant, Fourth Secretary-General of the United Nations, President of Austria. R.I.P.
posted by taosbat on Jun 14, 2007 - 38 comments

Minimundus is an Austrian theme park with seemingly all the major architectural wonders of the world rendered in miniature; while their primary site is woefully low on imagery, here's three pages worth of photos of their better exhibits.
posted by jonson on Jan 23, 2007 - 20 comments

"I'm not my characters. I'd have to have killed myself hundreds of times and be perversity incarnate from five in the morning until ten at night." A 1986 interview with the late, great Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard, published in German for the first time last year, now in English translation at signandsight.com.
posted by otio on Jan 17, 2007 - 18 comments

Austria's AEIOU has bar-by-bar analyses of major classical works (of composers associated with Austria): audio, annotations, scores, and performance/score animations in various video formats, together with biographical essays on the composers. Some possible points of departure: 1, 2, 3.
posted by Wolfdog on Apr 12, 2006 - 10 comments

[Newsfilter] In mid-November last year, David Irving, arguably the world's foremost holocaust-denier (Mel Gibson's dad comes a close second), was arrested in Austria for doing exactly that (previously discussed here). Today he was jailed for it. Should we (read; Austria) be jailing people for their views, however reprehensible or otherwise incorrect they might be? Or is it justifiable in some cases?
posted by Effigy2000 on Feb 20, 2006 - 315 comments

Goodnight, mr. Wiesenthal
posted by matteo on Sep 20, 2005 - 68 comments

Have you heard of Fucking? In Austria? According to Wikipedia, Fucking's sign is "the most often stolen street sign in Austria". Despite the cost of constantly replacing the sign, however, residents of the small village thankfully refuse to change its name.
posted by reklaw on Jun 16, 2004 - 43 comments

Manfred Deix is a caricaturist/satirist whose outrageous cartoons zero in on the sordid sexuality, racist politics, and other rather disturbing aspects of Austrian culture, with a distinctly Tyrolian flair. Understanding his work doesn't necessarily require fluency in Austro-Bavarian, but it sure helps sometimes (Caution: many of these images are NSFW).
posted by MrBaliHai on May 5, 2003 - 7 comments

Standfotografie. A collection of film stills by Austrian photographer Petro Domenigg. Loose English translation here.
posted by plexi on Oct 30, 2002 - 1 comment

The first weblog rallye ever. You may not have noticed it because it is in German language. All you have to do is signing up and following the links on top of 26 German and Austrian weblogs. Can you be faster than 36 seconds? The competition closes tomorrow at 2PM Berlin time.
posted by arf on Aug 10, 2000 - 3 comments