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Secretary of Welcome to Austria

Monthly Jour Fixe

for accredited diplomats to meet WA members: informal networking lunch at Café Landtmann, Universitätsring 4, 1010 Wien (Biedermeierzimmer), on the second Wednesday of each month, any time between 12:30 and 14:30. Menu € 12,50 or à la carte. Organized by Aglaë Hagg-Thun, Second Vice President

JourFIXE-monthlyWA

WA Jeunes Familles: Vintage Train Tour

WA Jeunes Familles entering steamengine 3013

Vintage Steam Engine from 1928

Vintage Steam Engines Tour

WA Jeunes Familles Tour Sept2016

WA Jeunes Familles steam engine model drive

“Das Heizhaus”, Starsshof, Driving on a Steam Engines Model

Vintage Train Museum "Das Heizhaus"

Children entering a maintenance car in Vintage Train Museum HEIZHAUS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

General Assembly 2016

Marmorsaal, BmeiA

General Assembly 2016, Alois-Mock-Saal, BMEiA

Welcome to Austria 2016: Gabrielle Schallenberg, Hon. Vice President & Angelika Saupe, vice president

Welcome to Austria 2016: Gabrielle Schallenberg, Hon. Vice President & Angelika Saupe-Berchtold, vice president

Aglaë Hagg, 2nd vice president & Elisabeth Wolff, many years of coordinator for music programs

Aglaë Hagg, 2nd vice president & Elisabeth Wolff, many years of coordinator for music programs

Audience discussing vividly about programs of Welcome to Austria

from left: Gundega Miluts, Dagny Herheim, Joyce Freismuth, Rosanna Berti

Cuisine: Lunch at Elisabeth Sunley’s house

Cuisine at Elisabeth Sunbley's House

Elisaeth Sunley explaining her home cooked lunch with Austrian specialties

Gruppenbild Website snagged

Invited at Elisabeth Sunley’s Haus for Austrian specialties homemade such as Tafelspitz, Wiener Schnitzel and Sachertorte

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Funkhaus visit to FM4

Funhaus ORF visit to FM4

Funhaus ORF, WA member Jeoffrey Skipper registering radio comment

Anna Skipper registering her poetry in ORF Funkhaus Erlebnisstudio

Anna Skipper registering her poetry in ORF Funkhaus Erlebnisstudio

 

 

(Expect Radio comments to be published here)

Saturday, June 11, 2016

  1. First stop was the mausoleum of the famous General Radetzky in Heldenberg, continuing to Schloss Limberg where the internationally renowned artist Erwin Wurm showed his atelier. WA members enjoyed Erwin Wurm’s explanation of one of his sculptures
  2. Lunch at Schloss Rosenau was followed by a tour  of Austria’s only Museum of Freemasonery.
  3. Near the Bohemian border Countess Kinsky welcomed WA members to the family’s imposing Burg Heidenreichstein which dates back to 1160.
  4. The Romantik-Hotel Gmünd provided food and overnight. HRH Andreas von Habsburg gave the Members a short talk on the history of Gmünd and in the morning he permitted us to have a glimpse of his private art collection.
Erwin Wurm studio in Limberg

Erwin Wurm’s atelier.

Freimaurer Tempel in Rosenau

Inside the Masonic Temple

Heidenreichstein

Burg Heidenreichstein

Romantik Hotel in Gmünd

Romantik Hotel Gmünd

Burg Gmünd (Habsburg owned)

HRH Andreas von Habsburg private art collection

Sunday, June 12, 2016

    1. A walking tour of the charming walled town of Freistadt was followed by a visit to Kefermarkt’s Gothic church to admire the famous altar-piece, a jewel of Medival woodcarving.
    2. In the afternoon, the group viewed the historic Dyers’ House in Gutau, famous for its traditional indigo-printed textiles.
    3. The final stop was Grein, where the first visit was to the magnificent Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha castle overlooking the Danube.
    4. The weekend ended with a guided visit to the charming Baroque theatre in the centre of Grein.

 

Färberhaus in Gutau

Historic wooden blocks for printing indigo cottons

Freistadt

Freistadt’s landmark tower

Kefermarkt

Visit to Kefermarkt’s parish church

Donau bei Grein

The Danube Valley at Grein

Burg Grein

Inner courtyard at Grein Castle

Theater Grein

Historic theater in Grein

Reinildis van Ditzhuyzen (historian & writer), introduced us to recently discovered love letters from a private family archive in a Viennese house, saying that her book, 15 Love Letters from Lemberg. An Unexpected Detective & Life-story 1916-2016 is mirroring the Great War (1915-1916).  The beautiful language of the time Hermann Lilienfeld addressed the letters to his beloved Hermine Rainer, a rich Viennese heiress, certainly was unusual for soldiers. Today we can also identify with his cosmopolitan life.

´You know, Hermine, I always and everywhere look for beauty. War is horrible, but even in the most gruelling circumstances, there are moods and moments full of beauty, that bring tears to my eyes and make me happy.´ Although the book is published in German, Ditzhuyzen presented it for us in English.

Hermann & Mimi 1915Brief Mimibrieven2Omslag boekLemberg Oper RVD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…..The book will reveal the secrets of these pictures, you want to buy it?

(Write to the author: reinildisditz@gmail.com)

 

English spoken was the guided tour through the FUNKHAUS of the ORF (transmission center of the Austrian public radio) for children of foreign diplomats. And they had great fun. FM4, THE radio station for foreigners in Austria, received the internationally mixed group of 12 children with open arms. Three boys had prepared a coolourful comment on Austrian soccer and broke the ice. In the end nearly every child present was speking into the microphones and registered. Who wants to listen? Shall we put it online?

Well, we’ll have the video online next time as this program will continue and we are planning more fun programs for diplomats’ families present in Vienna, especially for their children, says Aglaë Hagg, Coordinator Jeunesse WA

Studio FM4; "Good Morning Austria"

Studio FM4; “Good Morning Austria”

Lena esplains how to moderate a transmission - 123-go!

Lena esplains how to moderate a transmission and then: 123-go!

Close feeling with all machines in the Adventure Studio

Close feeling with all machines in the Adventure Studio

Antonio & Pietro & Hawi comment on Austrian Soccer

Antonio & Pietro & Hawi comment on Austrian Soccer

 

 

 

 

 

 

They left as new friends - dating for September 18th!

They left as new friends – dating for September 18th!

In the center: Dr. Elisabeth Wolff and at her right Nadjy Kayali, the lecturer

In the center: Dr. Elisabeth Wolff and at her right Nadja Kayali, the lecturer

 

 

 

 

Last Wednesday, Nadja Kayali, musicologist, popular radio-broadcaster, much sought-after lecturer and a fascinating personality herself opened our ears and minds to specific „oriental“ sounds of music.

Fascinating how elements of Turkish, Persian and Arabic music and story-telling found their way right into the European classical compositions of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and others,

says Dr. Elisabeth Wolff, WA Coordinator for Music