I just got word of where I'll be bunking during my upcoming trip to Austria, thanks to the Vienna Tourist Board: The Harmonie Vienna. As a travel writer, I've been fortunate enough to stay in some of the world's top hotels and resorts. But I can't recall a place that was a better fit for me, personally, since...well, ever. Here's why. 1. Location, Location,
University of Vienna
Richard Tauber: “How Can I Be a Jew?”
A few days ago, I wrote about a June 24, 1932 antisemitic incident at the University of Vienna that Viktor Kornmehl tried to quell. Only a few months later, on October 26,1932, another incident brought Viktor back into the international Jewish press. According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA): JEWISH PHYSICIAN SERIOUSLY INJURED; JEWISH STUDENT DELEGATION COMPLAINS TO
Viktor Kornmehl & Sigmund Freud’s High School
I've been circling around Viktor Kornmehl, the intended subject of this second part of this family history writing challenge, for a while now. I first looked at his mother, Kamilla, who was buried in a group crypt, married in a synagogue that was later destroyed, and misidentified in a picture; and then at his brother, Bertschi, who helped organize Zionist transports to
The Doktors Kornmehl & Professor Freud
One of the few stories my mother told about her life in Vienna was that her cousin Stella had been sent to see Sigmund Freud in the hope that her limp, resistant to traditional treatments or diagnoses, would prove to be psychosomatic (it didn't). The more I read about Freud, the more I think he was a regular guy, brilliant, but a schmoozer rather than a snob. Nevertheless, I