The Past and Present of Wipplingerstrasse 27/Renngass 9: The Site of Vienna’s Café Louvre

Wipplingerstrasse 27/Rennegasse 9 is the address of land located at the corner of Wipplingerstrasse and Renngasse in Vienna. It lies in the city's 1st district about three blocks from the Schottenring. This land is located near the back of Vienna's stock market (Wiener Börse). Also it is a block down Wipplingerstrasse from the massive Central Telegraph Office, which still stands but is closed. 

At present, a five-story building stands on this site. This building was constructed after World War II to replace the one destroyed during the war. Its first floor corner space is occupied by a store selling high-end furnishings.  

The street-level corner space of the previous building on the site was the location of Café Louvre from about 1895 (and maybe a couple of years earlier) until 1940, when it closed. During its final 15 years, Café Louvre was the main hangout for Anglo-American journalists. Around 1925, Robert Best, a reporter for United Press, started working out of this café, and it soon became the place where foreign reporters visited daily to keep up with breaking news. The reporters had a Stammtisch (a reserved table for regular customers) over which Best presided. More about the Café Louvre during this time can be found here at the following links:

http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2012/02/great-night-at-cafe-louvre-in-vienna.html

and 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/81223692/Vienna-s-Cafe-Louvre-in-the-1920s-1930s-Meeting-Place-for-Foreign-Correspondents

The Central Telegraph  Office on Wipplingerstrasse in 2012

Wipplingerstrasse 27/Renngasse 9 in Roman Times

The history of Wipplingerstrasse 27/Renngasse 9 can be traced back to the last years of the Before Christian Era. In about 50 BCE, Rome established a military outpost called Vindobona in an area that makes up much of Vienna’s present 1^st district. Vindobona existed until about 500 A.D.   

Wipplingerstrasse 27/Renngasse 9 lay just outside of the fortified Roman military camp (Das Legionslager) that was defended by about 6,000 Roman soldiers. Its location is shown in the map below as the red dot by the label "Geländeabbruchkante," which means escarpment edge. The map indicates that this land was separated from the Roman camp by a stream (Ottakringer Bach) but not an escarpment. 

Map on Roman Camp and Surrounding in Vindobona
Source: http://www.roemermuseum.at/

Artifacts from Vindobona were found at Wipplingerstrasse 27/Renngasse 9 when work was done there in 1908 to replace a floor. A sketch of those artifacts are shown below in a picture taken from this website: http://www.roemermuseum.at/roemer/karte/renng.htm

Also remains from the Roman settlement were discovered at Wipplingerstrasse 25 (which lies across Renngasse from Wipplingerstrasse 27). The building on that land was torn down in 1896 to prepare for the construction of a new one. During the demolition, builders found Roman ruins that were described by Siegfried Weyr in his book, Wien: Magie Der Inneren Stadt (Vienna: Magic of the Inner City), published in 1968.  The following is a translation of his description of what was found on the site:

Over the centuries much has been built in Wipplingerstrasse and the construction has often exposed Roman walls, most of which, admittedly, were usually demolished and taken away. It was only in the mid-19th Century that people started paying greater attention to the ruins.

For example, when in 1896 the structure at Wipplingerstrasse 25 – the corner house at Wipplingerstrasse and Renngasse – was removed, the excavation of the floor of the entire building block revealed almost uniformly above the natural clay and gravel, which lay only 4 feet below, the following layers:  (1) a layer of small, iron oxide coated pebbles,  (2) over that lay a carbon layer 5 to 15 centimeters thick, and (3) over that was at last dirt, richly mixed with fragments of roofing tiles along with two-prong iron hooks, which were used to attach the suspended ceiling tiles to the wooden floors above.

On one fragment of the ceiling tiles one saw the beginning of the seal of the 10^th Legion; on another was that of the 14th Legion. Further, small pieces of bronze, numerous bones, and vessel debris were found, including a 25 cm bottom portion of a very large bowl whose sides were approximately 15 cm, a fragment of a second similar dish, pieces of terra sigillata, bowls with carved letters M G and S, bowl fragments with fighters, others with running and lying rabbits, fragments of containers, and clay pots with fluted handles. Also found were pieces of flooring, which might have consisted of a coarse mosaic, diamond-shaped, gray, small stones that were 6 cm long, 25 cm maximum width, 2 cm thick. The debris included very many large and small plaster pieces.

In the courtyard of the house, near the adjoining building plot to the west, one found fragments of sculptures in a wall, including the torso of a boy on whose right shoulder rested a large hand, a second large hand holding a fluted container. What eternally unsolvable mystery of murder, fire and burning -- howling, club-wielding Germanic savages, emerging from sudden night, flinging fire, screaming a piercing war cry – is hidden in these shambles! Roman Vienna was destroyed twice by fire.  (pp 387-388)

The Early Years of Café Louvre: Zionist Meeting Place

While I have no documentation of how the land at Wipplingerstrasse 27/Renngasse 9 was used during the first 1400 years after the Romans left Vindobona, I do know that in 1895 it was occupied by a five-story building that had been there for some time. In 1895, and perhaps for a few years earlier, the first floor of the building was the site of Café Louvre.
  
Although the year of Café Louvre’s opening cannot be determined with precision,it is certain that it was operating in 1896 and some evidence indicates that it had been open for a few years previously. The evidence can be found in a book by Yoram Hazony, The Jewish State: The Struggle for Israel's Soul. He wrote about events in 1896 that took place in Café Louvre. These events centered on Theodor Herzl and the development of the international Zionist movement. In discussing a key meeting held on September 15, 1896, Hazony wrote:

Vienna was home to a number of Hebrew enthusiasts, veterans of the Kadimah dueling society, and other Zionist oddities, who had been meeting every Tuesday night at the Café Louvre for years without much of anything to show for it. Herzl had kept the Vienna Kadimah at arm’s length since the publication of his pamphlet [Die Judenstadt], but now he called upon them to assist in establishing a head office, which in short order began agitation for a Jewish state among Jews everywhere. (P. 119, Italics added).

Thus, according to Hazony, Café Louvre had been a meeting place for Zionist “for years” before 1896, when Herzl returned to Vienna and began actively leading the Zionist movement. Harzony's statement was backed up by another author, Ernst Pavel, in his book From the Labyrinth of Exile: A Life of Theodor Herzl. He also observed that “Zionist stalwarts” had been meeting, prior to 1896, every Tuesday night “for years” at the Café Louvre (p 309).

The name of the owner of Café Louvre is not certain. However, it likely was Wilhelm Aldor, who ran the cafe with his wife Karoline.  Friedrich Scheu, a Viennese who was part of the circle of journalists who frequented Café Louvre in the 1930s, wrote in his book Der Weg ins Ungewisse (p. 298) about its closing on June 1, 1940, noting that its owner was Karoline Aldor, widow of Wilhelm, who had died in 1936.  

Whoever opened Café Louvre and whatever its opening date, it appears that from its beginning years it was frequented by Jewish intellectuals and Zionists. Mark Gelber wrote in his book, Melancholy Pride: Nation, Race, and Gender in German Literature, that Café Louvre was "a meeting place for Viennese Zionists and aspiring Jewish writers" and it "served as de facto headquarters of the [Die Welt]." (p. 26). Die Welt was a weekly paper founded by Herzl as the voice of the Zionist movement. Its first edition was published on June 3, 1897 and it survived his death in 1904, remaining “the central publication of the Zionist movement until the start of WWI.” 

Several accounts describe Herzl working on Die Welt at the Café Louvre during his time in Vienna. Also, much of Herzl’s staff for the newly formed international Zionist mass movement came from the men who had been meeting “for years” at Cafe Louvre before Herzl returned to Vienna in August 1896. In his book, Pavel wrote that the core of the Vienna general staff assembled by Herzl consisted of “dedicated but hitherto ineffectual Zionists" who had been meeting for several years at Café Louvre” (p. 309. They included physician Moses Schnirer, lawyer Ozer Kokesch, Odessa-born engineer Johann Kremenezky, Shakespeare scholar Leon Kellner, and Leopold Loebl, a relative of Herzl and a financial expert.  This list of names includes some of Café Louvre’s earliest customers.

A picture taken of Herzl and the Vienna Zionist group at the Café Louvre can be seen at the following link (the picture is copyrighted):  

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/theodor-herzl-and-viennes-zionists-in-the-cafe-louvre-news-photo/56456465  
Information about the picture provided by the agency that owns it says it was taken in 1896 at Café Louvre. However, Israel Cohen in his book, Theodore Herzl, Founder of Political Zionist, identified the picture as a “Conference for the founding of Die Welt at Café Louvre, February 1897.”  

Café Louvre continued to be frequented by Zionists and Jewish intellectuals for many years after the turn of the century. For example, the February 23, 1912 issue of the Jüdische Zeitung, published in Vienna, lists Café Louvre as a location where tickets could be purchased for a planned Jewish fundraising event. 

Of course, Café Louvre had competition for Zionist patronage from other cafes. The 1912 paper contained adverisements Café Maria Theresia,  Maria Theresianstrasse 10 (1st District), Café Jägerhof (Weiss), Porzeggargasse 22 (9^th District) and Café Marienbrücke, Rotenthurstrasse 31 (1st District). The last two cafes labeled themselves as the “Rendezvous der Zionisten".

There is evidence that as late as 1925, about the time the American and English correspondents started frequenting Café Louvre, it was still a place where Jewish intellectuals congregated. Micheal Scammell wrote in his biography of Arthur Koestler (p. 44) that in 1925, when Koestler was a failing engineering student living with his parents in Vienna, he decided to go to Palestine:

Relying on his prominence in the Revisionist movement and on his growing chutzpah, he marched to the Café Louvre and asked his friends in Unitas [a Jewish academic group] for a loan of one thousand shillings for the journey. They rallied loyally, and even helped him procure a previous immigration certificate.

Pictures of Café Louvre in the Zionist Years and Beyond

We can see what Café Louvre looked like during its early years in three post cards published near the turn of the century. These cards, two mailed in 1898 and other probably in 1900, feature the recently built Beamten-Verein (Public Officials Association) building, located at the corner of Wipplingerstrasse and Renngasse, but also show its neighbor across Renngasse from it. That neighbor was the Café Louvre.

The first picture shows that Café Louvre (in the darker building on the right side of the photograph) was on the first floor of a five-story building. It had an awning covering an outdoor seating area located along Wipplingerstrasse. The building is a darker color than the new Beamten-Verein Building, likely showing it aging. This postcard is undated, but probably was taken in about 1900. 

The second picture was taken in the same direction as the first, but from a location much closer to Café Louvre. The cafe is the first-floor of the building in the foreground on the right. Its awning and seating area lies just beyond the Josef Flamm sign. The street ahead is Wipplingerstrasse and the Beatem-Verein Building is the light building up the street from the cafe. Another large building across Wipplingerstrasse from the Beamten-Verein is on the left side of the postcard. Note that this postcard is dated December 24, 1898.

The third postcard, dated August 29, 1898, shows mostly the Beamten-Verein building, with a sliver of Café Louvre and its awning to the far right. The title underneath the picture says:  New Administration Building of the First General Civil Service Association of the Austria-Hungary Monarchy, Vienna I, Wipplingerstrasse 25, Corner of Renngasse. 

Cafe Louvre After WWI

At some point in the middle 1920's, the Café Louvre transitioned from being the hangout for Zionists and Jewish intellectuals to being the place where Anglo-American journalists, and their friends, congregated. Perhaps these two groups overlapped for some months or years, but the few accounts of the Café Louvre Circle that exist do not mentioned that the cafe was shared regularly by the two groups.

I have found no good information on the transition, but it has some irony. The man most responsible for making the Café Louvre the de facto headquarters for foreign journalists, as I mentioned earlier, was Robert Best. For some reason, likely its proximity to the Central Telegraph Office, Best started spending his time in this cafe and in the years that followed other American and British journalists joined him. By 1928, it was known as the place journalists congregated and when, for example, J.W. Fulbright arrived in  Vienna that year to visit for a few months, he went in the evenings to the Café Louvre listened to the discussions of Anglo-American journalists (see Woods, p. 36)..

The irony of the transition is that Best, born in South Carolina, ended up being a strong anti-semite.  He stayed in Vienna after the Anschluss and remained in Germany after it was at war with the United States. During the war, his toxic anti-Semitic messages were broadcast from Germany to the United States as part of its propaganda campaign. After the War, Best was captured by the U.S. forces and convicted of treason.

So far, I have found only one picture of Café Louvre taken after World War I. One version of it -- quite fuzzy -- was published in a 1968 issue of Der Spiegel (the German weekly news magazine) to illustrate a story about Kim Philby, the double spy, who hung around the Café Louvre in 1933 and 1934. Here is the picture it published. 

The same uncropped picture is available from a Viennese website. According to information provided with the picture, it was taken on June 3, 1940,two days after the cafe was closed. 

This picture was taken from a spot on the first block of Renngasse, looking up an incline. The Beamten-Verein Building (not pictured) was located to the left of this building. Note that the awning and seating area are gone. Also, the building seems to have a light exterior, indicated that it likely had been cleaned in recent years.

http://www.bildarchivaustria.at/Pages/ImageDetail.aspx?p_iBildID=13001876

Wipplingerstrasse 27/Renngasse 9 After WWII

In his memoirs, William Shirer described how he had gone to search for Café Louvre on his first trip to Vienna after World War II, but had found only a collapsed building at the Wipplingerstrasse/Renngasse site. (The Beamten-Verein building and the Central Telegraph building, however, did survive the war.) A few years after the end of the war, a new building was constructed at Wipplingerstrasse 27/Renngasse 9, apparently using the plans of the previous building.  

In the new building, shown below, the space where Café Louvre was located is occupied by Roche Bobois, a French retail store selling very expensive furniture. Remarkably, if you compare the front of Café Louvre in 1940 and to the front of Roche Bobois in 2013, you will see that the windows and stone design around the windows look the same. Also, the same balcony stands over the corner entrance. Perhaps, although I cannot determine for sure, the corner entrance has the same statues decorating it.  

If visitors go by Wipplingerstrasse 27/Renngasse 9 today, they will see a facade that is very similar to the facade that was at this site before World War II.  Thus, it is still possible to get a sense of the look of the exterior of Vienna's Café Louvre seventy years after it was destroyed.

Sources:
Cohen, Israel. 1959. Theodor Herzl, Founder of Political Zionism. Thomas Yoseloff. Available at https://archive.org/details/theodorherzlfoun00cohe

Gelber, Mark. 2000. Melancholy Pride: Nation, Race, and Gender in German Literature.  M. Niemeyer.

Haber, Peter. 1997. Zionism in Austria. In Haumann, Heiko (ed.), The First Zionist Congress in 1897: Causes, Significance, Topicality. Accessed at http://www.hist.net/datenarchiv/haber/texte/105232.pdf

Herzl, Theodor. 1922. Tagesbuecher (1895-1904). Juedischer Verlag. [free Google download]

Herzl, Theodor. 1896. Der Judenstaat. Available here: 

Hazony, Yoram. 2001. The Jewish State: The Struggle for Israel's Soul. Basic Books

Pavel, Ernst. 2011. From the Labyrinth of Exile: A Life of Theodor Herzl. Macmillan (available as Google e-book).

Scammell, Michael. 2009. Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic. Random House.

Scheu, Friedrich. 1972. Der Weg ins Ungewisse, Österreichs Schicksalskurve 1929-1938 Molden 

Weyr, Siegfried. 1968. Wien:  Magie Der Inneren Stadt.  Paul Zsolnay Verlag,

Woods, Randall B. 1995. Fulbright: A Biography. Cambridge University Press.

UBB President Announces New Entertainment for 2014 Spring Commencement

Note:  I just downloaded the news story that follows.  Previous news stories related to it can be found here:

http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2014/05/university-of-birch-bay-announces-june.html

http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2014/05/univ-of-birch-bay-students-and-faculty.html

(Campus Executive News Reporting Service, May 25, 2014)  McAdams Mikelas, president of the University of Birch Bay, announced on Saturday that Steve Martin will play his banjo, along with his group the Steep Canyon Raiders, at the UBB’s graduation ceremony on June 28.  The speaker originally scheduled to make the commencement speech, Alexandr Alexandrovich Sasha,  called President Mikelas early Saturday morning to cancel his planned speech because of “urgent business scheduled in late June” for the Russian Duma (parliament). Mr. Sasha is serving his second term as a member of the Duma.

In lieu of a graduation speech, Mr. Martin and his group have agreed to play music without lyrics and to avoid, to the extent possible, any controversial comments between the songs. The group recently released a new album, “Live” (see http://www.stevemartin.com/).

 

Main Administration Building, University of Birch Bay

The invitation to Mr. Sasha had stirred controversy among some UBB students and faculty members. Mr. Sasha, who owns coal mines near Mezhurechensk, Russia, is a billionaire and a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has been awarded numerous prizes in Russia for his humanitarian work and his advocacy for higher education. 

Students objected to his role in the coal industry, by which he is, they say, contributing to global warming. Protests against his appearance escalated when, on Thursday night, Mr. Sasha was interviewed by Sean Hannity, telling him that he thought Russian laws protecting society, especially children, from gay people were “necessary.”  He added, “We are a traditional, not a decadent, culture. We protect our children and women."

On Friday, UBB students set up a large protest camp in the vast Karl Liebknecht Square. Several students wearing balaclavas to cover their faces surrounded the UBB’s administration building. One of them, Helen Haleworthy, a junior majoring in Latin, told reporters that if Mr. Sasha is not replaced as commencement speaker by Monday, students would “shut this dump down.”

Saturday morning, Pauli Manaforte’, an American who is one of Mr. Sasha’s close political advisers, issued a press release on his behalf saying that urgent business and a desire to spend more time with his family had forced Mr. Sasha to cancel his role in UBB’s commencement. Neither Mr. Sasha or Mr. Manaforte’, could be reached for comment. 

UBB President Mikelas said that he was disappointed in Mr. Sasha’s decision: “I understand that it is a busy time in Russia, what with the fascists taking over Ukraine and all.”  He thanked Mr. Sasha for his past generosity to UBB and hoped that it would continue. He said, ‘We will send this busy man his honorary UBB doctorate and a membership in the university’s alumni association by Federal Express.”

UBB is one of many colleges, including Smith College, Brandeis College, Haverford College, and Rutgers University, to change commencement speakers due to student and faculty protests. The use of wordless music, or perhaps the use of mimes, in lieu of commencement speeches is seen as a likely trend among American universities. Alternatively, some observers suggest that universities and colleges should be more careful in selecting the people on whom they bestow honor and prestige through invitations to give commencement addresses and award honorary degrees.

Univ. of Birch Bay Students and Faculty Protest Commencement Speaker, Boycott Possible

Note:  I just downloaded this story. It sounds as if the Birch Bay campus is in turmoil. 

UBB Students and Faculty May Boycott Commencement Speaker

(Campus Executive News Reporting Service, May 19, 2014)  Several student and faculty groups expressed outrage on Monday that the University of Birch Bay invited Alexandr Alexandrovich Sasha, a Russian humanitarian and businessman, to speak at its Spring commencement. The Student Society for Democracy (SSD) organized two demonstrations on Karl Leibknecht Square in the center of the campus. Also, the campus libertarian group, Hands Off Me, A**h***s (HOMA) has set up a table by the campus’s John Galt Memorial Fountain where students can sign a petition against Mr. Sasha.

Anita Asperan, SSD spokesperson, told reporters that the invitation to AAS was an insult, “an affront to all progressive students and faculty members.” She continued, “The guy runs a coal mine, for heaven’s sake. And coal is causing the slow destruction of the world’s environment. And our administration expects us to listen to this guy? Hell, no!” She said the group may boycott the commencement if Mr. Sasha speaks.

Jolly Friedman, a member of the HOMA  group, stressing that she does not speak for other members, pointed out that Mr. Sasha is a member of Russia’s Duma where he has voted for all kinds of share-the-wealth policies. She said, “The Russian government steals money from its value creators to give to people who don’t want to work. I mean, free health care, mostly free education, and free government money when you retire at age 55. That’s like Communism. Students shouldn’t have to listen to this collectivist.”

Several faculty members are also upset with the selection of Mr. Sasha as commencement speaker. Forty-five tenured faculty members of the UBB’s Sociology Department, and three tenured political science professors, have signed a letter to the UBB president demanding that the invitation issued to Mr. Sasha be rescinded. Also, they threatened to boycott the ceremony unless the speaker is changed.

Professor Friedrich Sheu (Ph.D., Univ. of Calif., 1969), chair of the Sociology Department, said the invitation to Mr. Sasha should be withdrawn immediately.  Prof. Sheu told reporters, “This guy is an atrocity. He exploits his poor mine workers to make billions. Such a monster does not belong on this campus.”  Prof. Sheu promised to bring the matter before a special session of the faculty senate. He said, “I know that is a pretty d***ed dramatic action, but it must be done!”

 

Prof. Sheu (left) lecturing to his sociology seminar on Hegemony and Praxis

Mr. Sasha, the man at the center of the controversy, is a self-made billionaire who began his life in a family of poor factory workers in Orenburg, Russia. He now owns the Alexandr Alexandrovich Sasha Coal Mines near Mezhdurechensk and is high on the Forbes 500 the list of Russia’s wealthiest oligarchs.  Mr. Sasha, who has a second home in Vancouver, is a member of the leadership of the Russian Duma and has won frequent awards for his service to humankind and his encouragement of education. He has a son studying at Harvard and a daughter at London School of Economics, from which he has an honorary degree.

Opposition to Mr. Sasha’s graduation speech has upset some students and faculty.  Dudley Evermore, an MBA student from Seattle, objected to actions to limit freedom of speech on the campus. He told a reporter, “I want to hear the guy. He’s made billions and earned the right to speak.  What are the protesters afraid of?  That some success may rub off on them? Bunch of losers.” 

Pro-Sasha Faculty Demonstrator Escorted from
Business School Building by Campus Police

Many faculty members in the Schools of Business, Engineering, and Poultry Science have signed petitions asked the UBB president to uphold freedom of speech on the campus.  Ranier Rainright (Ph.D. Liberty College, 1984), an economist who teaches ethics in the School of Business, said in an interview that he had heard from his pastor that Mr. Sasha was a devout member of the Orthodox Church whose message could be valuable for graduating students. He said, “I am so tired of this “Political Correctness” crap.  Why can’t a good Christian speak on this campus without the crazies waving their hands and screaming their hatred of all that is right and Holy?”

Mr. Sasha, who recently provided a large donation to the University of Birch Bay to support the construction of a new basketball arena seating 15,000 spectators, was not available for comment.

 

Sketch of Planned A. A. Sasha
Indoor Arena

The groups supporting and opposing Mr. Sasha’s speech at the UBB graduation are planning to conduct rallies and petition drives all this week.  Graduation is scheduled for June 28^th.  It will be held at the University of Birch Bay Stadium by the Bay. Each graduating student is entitled to five free tickets, which must be picked up by June 20^th.  Other tickets can be purchased from the UBB website for $15 each.

*****************************************************************

A story about the invitation to A. A. Sasha to speak at the UBB Spring graduation ceremonies, and more information about his life, can be found here: http://www.eclecticatbest.com/2014/05/university-of-birch-bay-announces-june.html

University of Birch Bay Announces June Commence Speaker

The president of the University of Birch Bay has announced that the speaker for its Spring graduation ceremonies will be Alexandr Alexandrovich Sasha, famed Russian humanitarian who owns coal mines near the large Raspadskaya Mines in Mezhdurechensk, Russia. Mr. Sasha lives in Moscow, with second homes in St. Petersburg, Simferopol, Sukhumi, Donetsk, Kiev, Uzhgorod, Vienna, Rome, Paris, and Vancouver.

 

Office of the President of the University of Birch Bay

Mr. Sasha is widely known for his warm heart and generosity, having won the Putin Prize for Humanitarian Excellence in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016.  Also, his investments in education are renowned and highly praised by the Russian presidential administration. He is owner and president of the Sasha-Putin Institute of Nationalism (SPIN), a private institution of higher education located in Mezhdurechensk that is widely known throughout the city’s suburbs. Recently, the Yew of Bee Bee and SPIN entered into an agreement for an exchange of students, faculty members, and executives to further educational excellent and promote world peace. 

Mr. Sasha graduated from public school #4 in Orenburg. He furthered his education by taking some correspondence courses during his decade of detention in a corrective facility in Glasov (Urdmurt Republic). In 2008, he received from President Vladimir Putin a complete pardon for all crimes committed and to be committed, with all of his past and future criminal records to be destroyed. Despite complaints by his critics, no evidence can be found to support allegations that Mr. Sasha has engaged in any criminal activity.

 

Mr. Sasha in Orenburg Public School #4
http://www.instagrok.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/
2013/01/Kirill-school-in-Russia.jpg

Mr. Sasha’s talent for coal mining became apparent in 1996 when he was hired by the owners of several mining companies to “persuade” striking miners to return to work.  In 2000, he was able to “persuade” the owner of some mines near Mezhdurechensi to sell them to him for a reasonable price. Shortly thereafter, he appeared on the Barron 500 list of the wealthiest Russian Oligarchs.  Since then, he has moved steadily up that list.

While Mr. Sasha devotes most of his time to managing his mines, he has found time for public service. He was elected to the Russian State Duma, the country’s parliament, in 2007 and has since been re-elected. A member of the United Russia Party, he is part of the Duma leadership.  Mr. Sasha chairs the Duma Committee on the Deregulation of Coal Mines, and he has headed several special committees investigating worker culpability for coal mine accidents. 

 

Alexandr Alexandrovich Sasha Coal Mines
http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large-5/
coal-mine-mule-drivers-1908-daniel-hagerman.jpg

The topic of his address will be “The Importance of Freedom of Speech and Tolerance in  Society (Under the Benign Guidance of a Strong and Moral Leader).”  During his visit, Mr. Sasha will be awarded an Honoris Causa doctorate. Also, he will be given a one-year membership in the Yew of Bee Bee alumni association and made an honorary Coniferous Yew.

Yew of Bee Bee Football Stadium by the Bay

The graduation ceremony will be held at the University’s Football Stadium by the Bay, home of the Fighting Coniferous Yews. In the case of rain, the ceremonies will be moved to the Vancouver Civic Center.  Next year, the Yew of Bee Bee plans to hold the Spring graduation in the new Alexandr Alexandrovich Sasha Indoor Stadium which will be completed by March 2015.

The Scars of War, Vienna 1947

Flak Tower, now Haus des Meeres
http://www.haus-des-meeres.at/en/start.html

Reminders of World War II in Vienna

If you walk around the older parts of Vienna, you can see a few artifacts from World War II.  For example, when walking down Gumpendorferstrasse between the Gürtel and the Ring, you cannot miss a huge concrete tower, now a public aquarium (Haus des Meeres), that was built as a control tower to combat WWII air raids. Nearby is a shorter, but still massive, concrete structure that housed anti-aircraft guns. Three of these flak towers were built in Vienna with walls up to eleven feet thick, and they still exist.

For more about the Vienna flak towers, see this Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flak_tower

Among other artifacts of World War II are small reminders of the destruction it caused. They are small plaques attached to the front of many buildings. They typically say that this building was damaged or destroyed during the war and was rebuilt in some year that followed.  Here is an example:

Sign attached to a building located on Raniergasse

This sign says: This house was damaged in the war years 1939/45 and was rebuilt from the resources of the Federal Ministry of Trade and Reconstruction, under Chancellor Julius Raab, in 1955.

These signs are most frequently seen in neighborhoods around train stations, though they are scattered in a seemingly random pattern throughout the rest of the city. For example, a building next to the Laudongasse building (9th district) where I had a room in 1971-72 had a sign showing it had been rebuilt following the war, but no other nearby buildings had such a plaque.

Without such reminders as these plaques, it would be difficult today to remember that Vienna suffered extensive bomb damage during the war years. The rebuilding started right away, and when I was in Vienna during the 1967-68 academic year, I saw few physical reminders of the destructive war that had ended twenty-two years earlier. (However, Austria in 1967-68 had not yet achieved the affluence that was to come. Many buildings, such as the one I stayed in, had apartments lacking individual toilets and bath/shower facilities. And most were still heated by wood or coal. That has changed.)

World War II Destruction in Vienna

In thinking about what Vienna looked like in 1945, I have read enough and heard enough stories to know that the conditions were grim as Soviet soldiers attacked in early April 1945, and they became grimmer soon after that. Hitler had issued a "stay or die" order, and German soldiers fought fiercely, and to the end, for a lost cause.

Even before the Russians came, the city had suffered intensive bombing, and though the bombs were aimed at strategic targets, they managed to destroy some of the city's most important buildings, including the Staatsoper and half of the Parliament building. They also heavily damaged the ancient and monumental St. Stephens church located in the center of the city. (The damage to St. Stephens can be seen in a book, Der Wiener Stephansdom: Nach dem Brand in April 1945 [St. Stephens: After the Fires in April, 1945], prepared by Anton Macku soon after the end of the war; I took at art history course from this fine gentleman in 1968 through the Institute of European Studies.)

A book published in 1995 has chilling documentation of the Russian battle for Vienna. It includes over 400 pictures taken by Russians that had not previously been published. The book is titled Die Russen in Wien, Die Befreiung Oesterreichs (Russians in Vienna, the Liberation of Austria). It contains pictures of the battle for Vienna and the occupation that followed. It shows the devastation that came with the liberation.

Title:  Russians in Vienna, the Liberation of Austria

Last year when I was in Vienna, my friend Jörg, whom I first met in 1971 when I a rented room in a large flat occupied by him, his wife, and his mother, took me to a street in Döbling, an outer district, and pointed to the apartment building where he was living in 1945 as the Russians fought their way into Vienna. He told me this story:  

He was a young kid living with his grandparents. As some Russian soldiers approached the street where the apartment was located, they were fired upon by German soldiers from the roof of his building. After an exchange of gunfire ended, the Russians ordered everyone out of the building and lined them up in front of it. Jörg was in his grandfather's arms. As his grandfather saw that the Russians were preparing to shoot everyone -- they suspected that some of the residents had shot at them -- he tossed Jörg to one of the Russian soldiers standing nearby. About this time, German soldiers, who had moved to another building, starting shooting again at the Russians. The Russian soldier who had caught Jörg tossed him back to his grandfather, and the Russians turned their weapons toward the shooters, sparing the group in front of the apartment.

Such stories make vivid the situation in Vienna as Russians drove the German military from the city. Many stories of suffering, survival, and recovery can be found in the memoirs of people who lived through the Russian liberation of Vienna and the desperate months that followed. Unfortunately, most such memoirs have not been translated into English.

Pictures of Vienna, 1947

In my curiosity about the post-War situation in Vienna, I bought on eBay some pictures taken in Vienna in 1947. According to information on the envelope, they were mailed by K. Redl, who lived on Döblinger Hauptstrasse (not far from the Döbling apartment where Jörg was staying with his grandparents) to S. J. Darling in Appleton, Wisconsin. A stamp on the front of the envelope shows that they were cleared by Austrian censors. The post office cancellation stamp is dated July 4, 1947. They reached Appleton on July 14th. The postal stamps have been removed from the envelope, probably by a stamp collector.

The letter included 20 photographs. The location where each photo was taken is shown on its back. These pictures show that in 1947 much of the bombing damage in Vienna had not repaired. Much work remained to be done.








The following are a selection of the 1947 photos sent in the letter:

Photo of the Ring near the Schottentor (the edge of the University building is, I think, on the left)

Photo of Währingerstrasse, close to Schottentor

Photo of Kärtnerstrasse; the edge of the Staatsoper building is on the left

Two photos of  Kärtnerstrasse between the Staatsoper and St. Stephens Church

Photo of Stephensplatz: St. Stephens Church (without a roof)

Photo of Neuer Markt; St. Stephen's Spire in the background (1st District)

Photo of the Augustiner Rampe near the Staatsoper. Present site of the Augustiner Museum

Photo of Tegetthoffstrasse, between the Augustiner Rampe and Neuer Markt.
The Spire of the Augustiner Church is in background

Three Photos near the Danube Canal (Kai)

Photo Captioned on Back:  "Döbling View from my House"

These pictures were taken at locations that I have often passed since I started to visit Vienna in 1966. They both remind me of a sad chapter in Vienna's history and make me appreciate even more the present beauty of Vienna 

Eden's Berlin Saloons: What Was Going On in 1966?

In my previous blog, I mentioned visiting in August 1966 the "Old Eden Saloon" on Kurfuerstendamm in Berlin. When I wrote about that, something did not seem quite right. To check the accuracy of my memory, I searched a box with papers, clippings, and mementos I collected during my time in Europe in the 1960s and early 1970s. 

I found what I was looking for, a single sheet of paper folded to make a four- page brochure. From this brochure (see below), I determined that I had visited the "New Eden Saloon," not the "Old Eden Saloon." And I confirmed, as I recalled, that Lynda Bird Johnson, the daughter of President Lyndon Johnson, had been there a month earlier. I guess when you are 19 years old and are making your first trip to Europe, such things make an impression.

The Eden chain included not only the "New" and "Old" Edens, but also the "Eden Playboy Club."  I did not visit it, probably because I could not afford it; even if I could have, I'm not sure I had the chutzpah to go to such a place.  

A search of the internet yielded some surprising information about the Eden saloons. Their names were not an allusion to the Garden of Eden, which I suspected, but contained the name of the owner, Rolf Eden. Apparently, he was Germany's hedonistic Hugh Hefner in the 1960s and 1970s. Like Hefner, as recently as 2010, he, in his 80's, had a string of pretty young girls, aspiring actresses no doubt, parade with him in front of the press. In 2011, a movie was made about him in Germany.  

More about him can be found as the following website:  https://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/2011/02_programm_2011/02_Filmdatenblatt_2011_20112432.php#tab=filmStills

The following is an excerpt from that website:

In his younger days Rolf Eden ran a string of night clubs and discotheques. ‘Eden Salon’, ‘New Eden’, ‘Eden Playboy Club, ‘Cabaret Schlüsselloch’ and ‘Big Eden’, which he sold in 2002, were all something of an institution in West Berlin, and Eden himself is still a popular topic in Berlin’s tabloids. Fifteen thousand nights without sleep, one thousand bottles of champagne and three thousand female conquests – these are the kind of statistics that make good cover stories. And whenever he buys a new car, such as his Rolls Royce Convertible in his favourite shade of arctic white, a snap of him in his new wheels, new girlfriend in tow, duly appears in the news.

In this third part of his trilogy about ego-driven men (DER PANZERKNACKER and ACHTERBAHN being the first two) Peter Dörfler takes a look at the biography of Rolf Eden, a man who invented himself sixty years ago and looms large in the history of city’s colourful nightlife.

Here is the historic artifact documenting what was going on at the Eden Saloons in August 1966. Note that the last page has an advertisement for Gorbachev Vodka.  I assume the name is unrelated to the man who would become head of the Soviet Union more than twenty years later. . 

Page one has a picture with "Linda Johnson" (actually Lynda Bird Johnson, center, facing camera) visiting the New Eden Saloon. The man with her  is -- I think -- Chuck Robb, whom she married the following year. He later was elected governor of Virginia and served in the U.S. Senate. The young woman holding the large boot-glass full of beer (in honor of Texas, I suppose) is not identified.

This page shows the names, addresses, telephone numbers, and hours of operation of the three Saloons. The New Eden was open from noon to 5 a.m. 

The New Eden Saloon  offered a "Mini-Show" at 10 pm. a Las Vegas Midnight show at midnight, and a Sexy-Show at 2 a.m. The featured singer was David (The Red Sea Singer); The Shamrocks, a band from England "famous from television and records," provided the dance music.

The program says:  "Why not come at noon to the Eden Saloon!  Coffee and Food -- American grill specialties daily from noon."

This page shows what was going on at the Eden Playboy Club and the Old Eden Saloon..

The Playboy club apparently had pretty young women who waded in a swimming pool with their clothes on.  It offered "Original Super Dancing" and promised to be elegant, modern, and good value, providing exclusively for visitors:

Lord Knud, the star disk jockey
Eden Go-Go Girls
A swimming pool
Dance competitions
Table telephones
Bathing time (???)
Music movies (early MTV?)
Restaurant

The Old Eden Saloon was obviously for a different crowd. Its entertainment was provided by the Manfred Burzlaff Combo; also Fanja from Moscow played piano in the cocktail room. This saloon offered jazz, the twist, dance competitions, classic films and a cable railway (?).  
The program also announced that the Keyhole Cabaret was reopening on August 19, 1966. 

The final page is an advertisement for Gorbachev Vodka from West Berlin. It is "pure like fresh snow."

This brochure provides an interesting glimpse at a little slice of life in Berlin in 1966.