Pillow

They say that in Vienna all roads lead to Mariahilferstrasse, that everything in Austria can be found here, in the longest shopping street.

However, people come here not only for the market, but also for the beautiful houses and churches. In front of one of them, the Baroque Mariahilf Cathedral, there is a Haydn monument. The small square where it is set up two or three times a week turns into a market and hams and cheeses are placed under the feet of the "father of the symphony". Old Latin changes to Long life, short art.

If you look carefully, you will notice brass plaques on the sidewalk in front of some buildings with the names of the people who lived there until the Nazis arrested them and took them to the camps. Deported and murdered: Deported and murdered - it is written on the first plate in that sequence, and on the others the name of the unfortunate, date of birth, day and place of deportation.

In the book A Handful of Anecdotes, Enzensberger writes about a Jewish couple "who disappeared one day". "The tenants talked about them by keeping quiet about them." Enzensberger wonders how it is possible that most of their fellow citizens stubbornly remained ignorant: "Already in kindergarten, instead of Babarog, they threatened: Be careful, friend, otherwise you will end up in Dachau..."

The collection center was in the "Metropol" hotel on Morcinplaza. The hotel no longer exists, and the foundation stone for the landmark on the square was laid in 1951 by the Federation of Camp Survivors. And she waited well (until 1985) for the city of Vienna to complete the work, i.e. erected a monument. One cannot help but remember Thomas Bernhard and his words about Austria as a "ridiculous country that sweats from self-deprecation", and about Austrian National Socialism. On the monument is engraved: "Here was the headquarters of the Gestapo. For those who believed in Austria, it was hell, and for many it was the door to death... but Austria was resurrected and together with it our dead, their immortal victims".

U The Viennese novel, Dragan Velikić cites Daša Drndić's words that "Austria is a place where any kind of ugliness is possible"; she is not a "fabrication of Viennese leftists", as Velikić's literary hero thought until he faced the other side of the coin. "In Austria, especially in Vienna, a specific type of discrete collective hysteria and racism is functioning," said Velikić in an interview. Which certainly does not mean that we will love this beautiful country and Vienna any less.

Although it provides a "fantastic journey through Austrian history", the Military History Museum in Vienna is rarely visited by tourists, due to its location "at the edge of the city". I really wanted to see him, primarily because of one of the highlights exhibits, in the Sarajevo Room: the car in which Franz Ferdinand was killed. There was also his uniform, with traces of blood, on display with the note that it is not part of the permanent exhibition because "such a valuable exhibit can only be exposed to light to a limited extent."

I was lucky to see her.

Happiness?

Yes, too strong and easily spoken word, but what can be done - the traveler sometimes does not look at things from his usual perspective.

In the "Franz Josef" Hall are some of the personal belongings of the last Austrian emperor and his son Rudolph. The other halls are dedicated to Eugene of Savoy, Maria Theresa, the wars that Austria fought - and the navy: the country is landlocked, but it used to be, so it was a significant naval power for more than 200 years. The Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683, as well as Napoleon's warfare, were not left out.

Near the rooms set apart for the Second World War, sirens are heard and calls to citizens to go to shelters. A long time ago for someone. Not for us.

Halls full of weapons. I don't know or care about weapons. I pass by these exhibits quickly, but I will stop in front of one.

Pillow!

Not just any kind, nor for anyone. Some skilled hands embroidered it for the beloved Führer - Adolf Hitler! For decoration, and maybe "under the head", to sleep more peacefully. Ouch!

Robert Kaplan notes that Mozart of Vienna "deserved only a monument, alleys and a square", and Dr. Karl Liger, who is said to have been the best mayor and the biggest anti-Semite, "a bigger monument, a bigger square and the most magnificent part of the Ringstrasse" (to be honest, the name of that part of the Ring was changed to University, "after many years of public debate"). When Theodor Herzl heard that Liger had won the election in May 1895, he began to make a plan for the emigration of Jews from Europe.

After that pillow, Frederic Chopin's sculpture not far from the museum, discovered on the 200th birthday of the famous Pole (2010), will act as a calming potion. If it can even be called a sculpture. The sculptor actually "drawn" the contours of Chopin's portrait and the bird that flies out of his head with metal rods.

Why is the monument called The Blue Note?

Long live Google translator (and such as it is) - with a translation from Polish (because there is nothing in "big" languages), I discover that with those words, Georges Sand described what she hears and feels in Chopin's music: the "blue note", a synonym of his genius. And the "secrets of inspiration".

Necessary, they say, for every work of art, and probably also for those pillows.