Ambassadorial Experiences | part 6 BY COLIN A. MUNRO East Germany In January 1990 on the occasion of the belated visit to East Germany by Douglas Hurd (DH), Ambassador Broomfield and I told him that the GDR was finished. He said he would tell Mrs Thatcher she would just have to get used ... Weiterlesen >

Ambassadorial Experiences | Part 5 BY ALEXANDER CHRISTIANI State visit of the President of Kenia, Arap Moi to Austria at the beginning of the nineties. His host was Kurt Waldheim, at that time Federal President of Austria. Official talks at the Bundeskanzleramt, Grosser Kongress Saal. I, as Director of the department for the Middle ... Weiterlesen >

BY MELANIE SULLY After reading the amusing contributions by Ambassador Christiani and Jochen Ressel on some awkward language situations I decided to relate my first encounter with Austria in 1970. Having decided Vienna, the city of music, would be the next place I should visit ‘abroad’ I bought a German phrase book. We ... Weiterlesen >

When a British tries to impress the Spaniards by Jochen Ressel Our Austro-British Society's Vice President Alexander Christiani provided an excellent blog article about his Ambassadorial language experiences in the Netherlands. When reading this, it reminded me of a quite lovely and humorous story that occurred during my time working for the London ... Weiterlesen >

Ambassadorial Experiences | Teil 4 BY ALEXANDER CHRISTIANI During my time of service in the Netherlands, I also witnessed the unspeakable "sanctions" against Austria – triggered in February 2000 by the decision of the then Chancellor Schüssel to form a coalition with the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), led by Jörg Haider. Between February ... Weiterlesen >

26 years after the Dayton Accords and UK’s role now BY COLIN MUNRO On the 20th anniversary of the General Framework Agreement for Peace (formal title of the Dayton accords signed in Paris on 14 December 1995), the Austrian Institute for International Affairs  organised a workshop on prospects for the Balkans on November ... Weiterlesen >

BY WOLFGANG GEISSLER Once upon a time, when schools were still on a Saturday and cinemas had matinees, our Professor in English shepherded forty-two excited fourth-formers on such a day to such a cinema. It was the “Bürgerkino”, now a bank, on Landstraßer Hauptstraße, in Vienna’s third district. The year was 1958. The ... Weiterlesen >

Reflections on Cape Town BY  IAN MURDOCH It was of course inevitable that my return to Austria on 21 November, with the immediate prospect of yet another lockdown the next day, would  induce a fit of the blues:  all the more so since I was returning from Portugal – a country with an ... Weiterlesen >

Ambassadorial Experiences | Part 3 BY ALEXANDER CHRISTIANI During my time in South Africa, I once visited a doctor's office in Capetown.There, the registration necessitated to fill out a rather comprehensive form. A few days later a lady from the doctor's office called and the following conversation ensued: Are you Mr. Christiani? Yes ... Weiterlesen >

BY WOLFGANG GEISSLER As prophesied by Lord Hailsham in 1976, Elective Dictatorship is much closer to the truth in today's United Kingdom than most would believe. At least as an observer and with a son still living in the UK, one may be inclined to assume that a fully fledged authoritarian pseudo parliamentarian ... Weiterlesen >