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FORTUNE Brainstorm Health 2022
Los Angeles, CA
Wednesday, May 11th, 2022
9:15 AM
EXISTENTIAL THREATS: PREPARING FOR THE NEXT GLOBAL HEALTH CRISIS
In a hyperconnected world rife with virulent pathogens, preparedness is our best defense. After Ebola roared through West Africa and the novel coronavirus brought the world to its knees, the most pressing question for the safety of the global population is this: What have we learned—and how can we better prepare for the next hyper-contagious disease?
Dr. Sandro Galea, Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor, Boston University School of Public Health
Dr. Angela Rasmussen, Virologist, Department of Vaccine and Infectious Disease, University of Saskatchewan
Moderator: Clifton Leaf, Former FORTUNE Editor-in-Chief and Founder, Fortune Brainstorm Health
Photograph by Stuart Isett/Fortune
Ann Cline
A Hut of One's Own
Life Outside The Circle of Architecture.
Herzog and De Meuron
NATURAL HISTORY
Exhibition view "Francis Bacon and Existential Condition in Contemporary Art", CCC Strozzina, Palazzo Strozzi, Firenze
© photo Martino Margheri
Existential shots like these are too precious to allow to slip by. The background might not be perfect and the best tool to capture the moment may not be available, but it's times like these that I reach into my pocket for the smart phone and pray.
When Petey joined our family two years ago, he and Kobe became instant friends and have been nearly inseparable since. This image faithfully tells that story, all I had to do was push the button.
Finally, a nagging question comes to light: When will I learn to stop leaving folders on that seat, or is Kobe just a dog with a plan?
Through the glass.
Through the mask.
Through the monitor.
Through the screen.
How are we enjoying our human made environment?
Will we take responsibility this time?
Will we learn?
Are we truly...intelligent?
That remains to be seen, doesn't it...
From the series "TOTEM"
Tacheles - How long is now
Spudnik 7 Saturday, April 03, 2010
'How long is now' runs the giant mural on the side of Tacheles. Whether it’s a question or an existential sigh, it perfectly sums up the uncertain past, present and future of one of Berlin’s most remarkable initiatives.
Possessed by squatters and artists in the aftermath of the tumbling of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago, this iconic shell of a building now houses exhibitions, performances, a cinema, and three bars one of which, Café Zapata, houses a fire-breathing dragon which frightens the shite out of unsuspecting visitors. A few beers, and you won’t notice anymore.
Tacheles means to speak directly and honestly in Yiddish, (as if there was any other way for Germans to speak), and it is so named as the building’s in the former Jewish quarter of Berlin, and in defiance of the East German propensity to repress freedom of expression (and everything else for that matter).
The building opened in 1909 as the Friedrichstraßenpassage, a giant shopping complex, one of the first of its kind, so named because it linked Oranienburgerstraße with Friedrichstraße behind it. It promptly went bankrupt, and was later reopened as department store. That too didn’t last, and it was taken over by the AEG electric company to showcase their new contraptions and fancy technology.
It was under their watch the building became the first to broadcast a live sporting event to the world, with the transmission of the Berlin Olympics in 1936.
The Nazis later took over as they were prone to doing at the time, and the building became the central office of the SS. They horded French prisoners of war in the attic during the war when the building was badly damaged what with bombs falling on it and the like. Most of it was totally destroyed.
What was left didn’t fare much better after the war either I’m afraid. Russian soldiers used statues in the entrance for target practice, and they didn’t exactly wear slippers when they were stomping about.
Those headless statues are still there today and can be seen on the way to the hinterhof behind, where artists and sculptors now proudly display their engaging creations, iron horses, iron eagles, spiky things, high things, mad things.
Inside the walls are smothered from top to bottom in colourful street art which very much reclaims the notion of freedom of expression. Some of the imagery is just mad, better than the shit you’ll find in museums and better than some of the exhibitions which are always on show here. Bring a can of spray paint, have a go yourself – there’s enough space for all and always room for improvement.
Needless to say the building, while structurally sound, is still in pretty bad shape, despite all the licks of paint, but this only adds to its charm. Don’t be put off by the dark corridors or the smell of piss on the stairs and the foyer, or even the rats which scurry around the hinterhof at twilight – it only adds to the authentic experience.
Tacheles’ future is still uncertin, sitting as it does on real estate worth some €250 million beside Berlin’s tourist and financial centres. Legal battles pitting squatters and artists against developers and the city are part and parcel of its existence.
Guests are invited to sign a petition to help preserve its future as a creative space. (Anything to stop it from being turned into yet more apartments.) I guess if enough people get involved, we won't have to wonder "how long is now?" anymore.
Hot mineral water and vertigo. The kind of place where you can reflect on mortality while slowly poaching your thighs. Jen was luminous. I was trying not to slip and die in front of a busload of teenagers from Monterrey.
📝 This image is available under Creative Commons 2.0 (Attribution required). Please link to the original photo and the license. License for use outside of the Creative Commons is available by request.
APRIL 13, 2023 WASHINGTON DC. WORLD BANK GROUP/ INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND 2023 SPRING MEETINGS.
Accelerating Development in an Age of Global Crisis
The existential threat of climate change, impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, persistent high inflation and increased fragility have injected volatility and uncertainty into the global economy – a reality that may continue for a while. The panel of speakers explore central questions around what it will take to address some of the most critical issues of our time including climate change, food insecurity, pandemics, and increasing fragility and poverty.
Axel van Trotsenburg, Senior Managing Director, Development Policy and Partnerships, World Bank Group; Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations; José Antonio Ocampo, Minister of Finance and Public Credit, Colombia; Leila Benali, Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, Morocco; Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, Acting Director, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); Daniel Zelikow, Chair of the Governing Board, Development Finance Institution, J.P. Morgan. Photo: World Bank / Riccardo Savi
We walk every day on our path to grow as person, artist, human. After each tunnel, an existential mystery.
The question remains unchanged no matter how many conquests are implemented. Even if at some point “man” manages to beat the odds he has put on himself and the existence of finite. “The deadly tedium of immortality” in a constant attempt to achieve the sterile. We pass to the “trans” state and we enjoy, though complaining, the hyper-realistic with the secret desire of eternal youth. We suck the beast which was created by the Divine element as full image and likeness. The thermodynamic cage in an already alleged entropic balance. The planet is ours! That is what the hypocritical honesty of the motivated Ego requires. An endless wind blowing towards a hypothetical “dusk” and opposite the fluttering, towards an unexpected “dawn”. Building consisting of foundational stereoscopic structures adjacent strongly in a shimmering sphere yet seemingly exist in a harmony. It is the view of the transient, the ephemeral, through the eyes of the anhydrous inevitable. I wonder what is the purpose of all this? It makes sense to seek a “reasonable” and an enlarged subjectivity that encapsulate the desired laconic? Is a form of awareness feasible, in which the distant perspective would fit in the “individual” ? Maybe, but remains a challenge set in the background of the need to overcome or at least control the brittleness of this equilibrium, that only the mantle of the present, of the every present, translates into unbreakable pseudo-continuum.
Someone take my camera away from me, I literally cannot stop taking pictures. Maybe I'm bracing myself for the school year XD;;
In all honesty, I've been having a bit of an existential crisis as of late. Indulging in my favorite hobbies is the only way I know how to cope with the feeling that my life is kinda meaningless and that nothing I'm doing actually matters. But I'm sure it'll pass.
on $ale, act now and receive second painting ('optimal existential experience ) for free! Limited time offer.
“In my mid 30’s I was feeling existential angst. I had 2 young kids, was happily married with a great career…but there was something missing. I searched for truth and the one constant theme I found was meditation. I came across Vipassana and the practice was so utterly simple, so profound and complete, t
hat I fell in love with it."
Walking on foot brings you down to the very stark, naked core of existence. We travel too much in airplanes and cars. It’s an existential quality that we are losing. It’s almost like a credo of religion that we should walk.
There is, of course, something inherently romantic—if not heroic—about the extreme solitary explorer enveloped by nature. The very image of Herzog on foot recalls the iconic 19th-century paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, especially his Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, with its lone figure staring out at the wide vista above the clouds.
'Truth itself wanders through the forests,' Herzog writes near the end. Yet here he embroiders his memories for effect: The vast swath of geography between Munich and Paris is littered with industrial towns and cities.
Once he comes out on the other end, traversing the deforested Champs-Élysées (“We were close to what they call the breath of danger”), Herzog emerges victorious.
― Of Walking in Ice: (Munich-Paris, 23 November–14 December 1974)
by Werner Herzog
APRIL 13, 2023 WASHINGTON DC. WORLD BANK GROUP/ INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND 2023 SPRING MEETINGS.
Accelerating Development in an Age of Global Crisis
The existential threat of climate change, impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, persistent high inflation and increased fragility have injected volatility and uncertainty into the global economy – a reality that may continue for a while. The panel of speakers explore central questions around what it will take to address some of the most critical issues of our time including climate change, food insecurity, pandemics, and increasing fragility and poverty.
Axel van Trotsenburg, Senior Managing Director, Development Policy and Partnerships, World Bank Group; Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations; José Antonio Ocampo, Minister of Finance and Public Credit, Colombia; Leila Benali, Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, Morocco; Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, Acting Director, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); Daniel Zelikow, Chair of the Governing Board, Development Finance Institution, J.P. Morgan. Photo: World Bank / Simone D. McCourtie
Published in the Shepherdstown Observer, March 2019
Walking towards my departure gate at Reagan airport last October, I passed a kiosk selling merchandise items sporting the MAGA slogan. The shop was closed for the evening, so I took advantage of the empty airport terminal to peruse the wares, wondering who still buys wearables blaring a political slogan nearly two years after its campaign ended.
It’s that word “again” in the MAGA phrase that stimulates my gag reflex. It’s been used as a slogan by so many, so often, it could almost stand alone as a message. This time it’s an existential matter of definition; just exactly what is the meaning of again? It implies that a “something” once existed, now ceases to exist, and needs to be resurrected.
The proliferation of garb decorated with the meme of a retro campaign theme makes me wish that those who choose to wear it be required to take a history class. They need to learn about us; who we were in the past, are now, and could be in the future. They should start with comparing the demographics of American society and track the past 50, 100, or 150 years, graphing statistics in categories like life expectancy, wage increases, pollution levels, banking safety, fire departments, indoor plumbing, and disposable income ratio.
Obviously, what was the Golden Age in America depends on your race, gender and religion. The Plantation economy was on a roll before the Civil War, but only because slavery was legal. The 1890’s were good for the Robber Barons but there was no minimum wage, child labor laws or 40-hour work weeks. Oklahoma pioneers farmed cheap government land, but then, with no environmental protections, watched the Dust Bowl blow their profits across a million acres.
Labor Unions hit their peak during the 1940’s but then politicians tamed them, stagnating livable wages for the working class and giving CEO’s more profits. Christian theology dominated the spirit of the law until the early 1960’s when the protection of “the right to privacy” was deemed a Constitutional right, kicking off the Golden Age for women, making it legal to have contraceptives and credit cards.
For Black Americans, there was one Golden Day when Obama was elected President---but then they had to witness the strongest backlash to racial equality since the Jim Crow era. Caucasians feel their Golden Age is waning; 55% of white Americans now believe that they are being discriminated against, but give no examples of legislation that would deny them any of the rights they’ve denied to others.
Ask anyone on the street what MAG-Again refers to and you’ll likely get the party line that our decline in manufacturing, steel in particular, has cost us our position of strength in the world. You’ll hear the concern that perhaps we’re not still “number one” in military might. What you won’t get is any facts with those answers. Fortunately, economic and military strength are both easily measurable. We still are a leader in manufacturing. We still export at a healthy rate, and we still have at least the second largest army on the globe.
But we still have a monopoly on many lucrative commodities that are sold to almost every country in the world.
For example, the United States manufactures and exports 89% of the worlds pornography, even though a big slice of earnings are lost to overseas markets through hackers, pirates and home-made smut. Profits are hard to quantify because, as quoted by the Associate Dean of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, “pornography is an industry where they exaggerate the size of everything.” And with 428,000,000 porn website hosting pages, the US leads the world by a longshot.
In addition to being the top exporters of obscenity, we are also the top exporters of obesity, in the form of global consumption of sugar, particularly in soft drinks. We ship soda to every country in the world except two: North Korea and Cuba. The American company that produces and bottles Coke and Pepsi, according to their website, is the “worlds’ most valuable brand associated with happiness, and are the number one provider of sparkling beverages, juices and ready-to-drink coffees.” The sugar they pump into their products are known causes of obesity, a world-wide health epidemic that contributes to diabetes, heart disease and orthopedic disabilities.
We still keep our top dog position in the manufacture and sale of arms, especially to Saudi Arabia, our biggest customer. We sold weapons to at least 98 countries between 2013-2017, even countries where rebel forces such as ISIS and the Taliban have used those weapons to fight against us when they get the opportunity. According to a 2016 Department of Defense audit, half of the 1.5 million weapons we supplied to Iraqi and Afghan military forces since 2002 ended up “missing” due to inadequate security, poor record-keeping and lack of regulations.
And let’s talk about our military, which I served in for over seven years. Are we still the strongest and the smartest? Chinas’ military is almost twice as large, but we’re still considered “the best” in terms of training. That may not last for long; of todays’ population aged 17-24, 71% are not qualified for enlistment due to criminal convictions, drug use, obesity, medical problems, mental health diagnoses, low aptitude test scores, or lack of physical fitness.
Of the 29% who are qualified, only a few, less than 1%, have expressed any interest in joining, according to the US Army Recruiting Command. With such an overwhelmingly small pool of potential candidates, it’s especially ironic that anyone would think it vital to bar a few transgender people from taking the oath to guard our country. Ironically, factors for disqualification reflect the population demographic from rural areas in the south, like Kentucky, where obesity rates and drug abuse tend to be even higher, and where MAGA-wear is still very much in style.
And according to a 2010 article in the Military Times, “Overall, one in six military service members takes at least one type of psychiatric drug. The numbers are probably higher than estimated, since troops are also known to share and trade prescription drugs with each other, even while in combat zones.” Those outdated percentages are higher than the general population; as of 2014, nearly 13% of American teens take anti-depressant prescription drugs, not to mention additional medications for ADHD and anxiety disorders. As a country, we use more anti-depressants than anyone in the world.
Not surprisingly, pharmaceuticals are also one of our largest exports.
So we’re still great, if not the greatest; it’s just different products we’re making and selling. Plus, we use them ourselves; we’re drinking our own Kool-Aid. That’s our other most marketable product---delusion. Voters are made to think that we need to be great again, then convince the rest of the world to be like us, and then need to build a wall to keep them out.
But reality is a much harder hat to wear, because if you really want to make America great, you have to start with you. It’s not more steel we need to forge; it’s more people with backbones of steel, with the work ethic to go the distance. Instead, we provide our children a life of leisure before they’ve even earned one, playing video games on consoles made in China, to escape the real life they haven’t even experienced yet. It’s obvious that our education system isn’t working if people lack the logic to see through the con of a billionaire real estate developer.
But back to the airport kiosk display cabinet…. stacked neatly right next to the MAGA shirt for $9.99 was a similar product; a shirt with the Obama campaign image, selling for $12.99.
Citing the free-market law of supply and demand, I’d say that proves that there are a lot of us who are still willing to pay an extra premium for “Hope and Change.”
Again.
What are you looking at? I've told you before that it's rude to stare! Be warned... I'm the chalkboard Kung Fu champion and not afraid to use my skills.
Autoportrait existentialiste // Expo vendredi 29 avec Thierry Jaspart aka J'existe aka Je suis partout aka Andalltha et Numa Monsi aka Mass.Toc // Rue Dénoyez à Belleville
I cannot begin to tell you the joy of shop names in Korea. I love Korean ESL translations because they are much more subtle than the kind of incomprehensible "Engrish" you find in China or even Japan. Some great examples of boutique names in Busan: "Sexy Cookie," "Normal," "BABARA," "I Am Shop."
Walking on foot brings you down to the very stark, naked core of existence. We travel too much in airplanes and cars. It’s an existential quality that we are losing. It’s almost like a credo of religion that we should walk.
There is, of course, something inherently romantic—if not heroic—about the extreme solitary explorer enveloped by nature. The very image of Herzog on foot recalls the iconic 19th-century paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, especially his Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, with its lone figure staring out at the wide vista above the clouds.
'Truth itself wanders through the forests,' Herzog writes near the end. Yet here he embroiders his memories for effect: The vast swath of geography between Munich and Paris is littered with industrial towns and cities.
Once he comes out on the other end, traversing the deforested Champs-Élysées (“We were close to what they call the breath of danger”), Herzog emerges victorious.
― Of Walking in Ice: (Munich-Paris, 23 November–14 December 1974)
by Werner Herzog
Sitzendes Paar/Seated Couple, 1915 (Bleistift und Aquarell/Pencil and watercolor), Albertina - Mit freundlicher Unterstützung von Franz-Hesso Leiningen
The conviction that, when all is said and done, human beings are essentially alone in this life - which is the worldview informing Schiele's art - becomes an allegorical encounter between life and death in his works that depict the meeting of man and woman. In Seated Couple, Schiele once again materializes this existential pessimism in a convincing manner. Any biographical interpretations suggested by the use of his own facial features or those of his wife Edith are secondary to the central message of his works: the firm belief that the two sexes are separated by an unbridgeable gulf. Schiele produced several variations on the theme of the ill-fated union between woman and spineless man. Like a lifeless ragdoll, the man sags in the woman's arms as she clings to him from behind. Nothing, no emotional or spiritual communication is between the two.
Die in Schieles Kunst einfließende weltanschauliche Überzeugung, dass der Mensch im Grunde allein ist, wird zur Allergorie der Begegnung. von Mann und Frau als ein Aufeinandertreffen von Tod und Leben. In der Gouache "Sitzendes Paar" gibt Schiele diesem existentiellem Pessimismus einmal mehr überzeugende Gestalt. Für ihn steht der grundsätzliche Zwiespalt zwischen den Geschlechtern im Vordergrund - ungeachtet der biografischen Einfärbung mit seinen eigenen Gesichtszügen bzw. jenen seiner Gattin Edith. Schiele variiert das Scheitern der Verbindung zwischen Frau und rückgratlosem Mann in mehreren Werken. Wie eine kraftlose Gliederpuppe hängt der Mann in den Armen der Frau, die sich von hinten an ihn klammert. Nichts, kein emotionales oder geistiges Band verbindet die beiden.
The Albertina
The architectural history of the Palais
(Pictures you can see by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
Image: The oldest photographic view of the newly designed Palais Archduke Albrecht, 1869
"It is my will that the expansion of the inner city of Vienna with regard to a suitable connection of the same with the suburbs as soon as possible is tackled and at this on Regulirung (regulation) and beautifying of my Residence and Imperial Capital is taken into account. To this end I grant the withdrawal of the ramparts and fortifications of the inner city and the trenches around the same".
This decree of Emperor Franz Joseph I, published on 25 December 1857 in the Wiener Zeitung, formed the basis for the largest the surface concerning and architecturally most significant transformation of the Viennese cityscape. Involving several renowned domestic and foreign architects a "master plan" took form, which included the construction of a boulevard instead of the ramparts between the inner city and its radially upstream suburbs. In the 50-years during implementation phase, an impressive architectural ensemble developed, consisting of imperial and private representational buildings, public administration and cultural buildings, churches and barracks, marking the era under the term "ring-street style". Already in the first year tithe decided a senior member of the Austrian imperial family to decorate the facades of his palace according to the new design principles, and thus certified the aristocratic claim that this also "historicism" said style on the part of the imperial house was attributed.
Image: The Old Albertina after 1920
It was the palace of Archduke Albrecht (1817-1895), the Senior of the Habsburg Family Council, who as Field Marshal held the overall command over the Austro-Hungarian army. The building was incorporated into the imperial residence of the Hofburg complex, forming the south-west corner and extending eleven meters above street level on the so-called Augustinerbastei.
The close proximity of the palace to the imperial residence corresponded not only with Emperor Franz Joseph I and Archduke Albert with a close familial relationship between the owner of the palace and the monarch. Even the former inhabitants were always in close relationship to the imperial family, whether by birth or marriage. An exception here again proves the rule: Don Emanuel Teles da Silva Conde Tarouca (1696-1771), for which Maria Theresa in 1744 the palace had built, was just a close friend and advisor of the monarch. Silva Tarouca underpins the rule with a second exception, because he belonged to the administrative services as Generalhofbaudirektor (general court architect) and President of the Austrian-Dutch administration, while all other him subsequent owners were highest ranking military.
In the annals of Austrian history, especially those of military history, they either went into as commander of the Imperial Army, or the Austrian, later kk Army. In chronological order, this applies to Duke Carl Alexander of Lorraine, the brother-of-law of Maria Theresa, as Imperial Marshal, her son-in-law Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen, also field marshal, whos adopted son, Archduke Charles of Austria, the last imperial field marshal and only Generalissimo of Austria, his son Archduke Albrecht of Austria as Feldmarschalil and army Supreme commander, and most recently his nephew Archduke Friedrich of Austria, who held as field marshal from 1914 to 1916 the command of the Austro-Hungarian troops. Despite their military profession, all five generals conceived themselves as patrons of the arts and promoted large sums of money to build large collections, the construction of magnificent buildings and cultural life. Charles Alexander of Lorraine promoted as governor of the Austrian Netherlands from 1741 to 1780 the Academy of Fine Arts, the Théâtre de Ja Monnaie and the companies Bourgeois Concert and Concert Noble, he founded the Academie royale et imperial des Sciences et des Lettres, opened the Bibliotheque Royal for the population and supported artistic talents with high scholarships. World fame got his porcelain collection, which however had to be sold by Emperor Joseph II to pay off his debts. Duke Albert began in 1776 according to the concept of conte Durazzo to set up an encyclopedic collection of prints, which forms the core of the world-famous "Albertina" today.
Image : Duke Albert and Archduchess Marie Christine show in family cercle the from Italy brought along art, 1776. Frederick Henry Füger.
1816 declared to Fideikommiss and thus in future indivisible, inalienable and inseparable, the collection 1822 passed into the possession of Archduke Carl, who, like his descendants, it broadened. Under him, the collection was introduced together with the sumptuously equipped palace on the Augustinerbastei in the so-called "Carl Ludwig'schen fideicommissum in 1826, by which the building and the in it kept collection fused into an indissoluble unity. At this time had from the Palais Tarouca by structural expansion or acquisition a veritable Residenz palace evolved. Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen was first in 1800 the third floor of the adjacent Augustinian convent wing adapted to house his collection and he had after 1802 by his Belgian architect Louis de Montoyer at the suburban side built a magnificent extension, called the wing of staterooms, it was equipped in the style of Louis XVI. Only two decades later, Archduke Carl the entire palace newly set up. According to scetches of the architect Joseph Kornhäusel the 1822-1825 retreaded premises presented themselves in the Empire style. The interior of the palace testified from now in an impressive way the high rank and the prominent position of its owner. Under Archduke Albrecht the outer appearance also should meet the requirements. He had the facade of the palace in the style of historicism orchestrated and added to the Palais front against the suburbs an offshore covered access. Inside, he limited himself, apart from the redesign of the Rococo room in the manner of the second Blondel style, to the retention of the paternal stock. Archduke Friedrich's plans for an expansion of the palace were omitted, however, because of the outbreak of the First World War so that his contribution to the state rooms, especially, consists in the layout of the Spanish apartment, which he in 1895 for his sister, the Queen of Spain Maria Christina, had set up as a permanent residence.
Picture: The "audience room" after the restoration: Picture: The "balcony room" around 1990
The era of stately representation with handing down their cultural values found its most obvious visualization inside the palace through the design and features of the staterooms. On one hand, by the use of the finest materials and the purchase of masterfully manufactured pieces of equipment, such as on the other hand by the permanent reuse of older equipment parts. This period lasted until 1919, when Archduke Friedrich was expropriated by the newly founded Republic of Austria. With the republicanization of the collection and the building first of all finished the tradition that the owner's name was synonymous with the building name:
After Palais Tarouca or tarokkisches house it was called Lorraine House, afterwards Duke Albert Palais and Palais Archduke Carl. Due to the new construction of an adjacently located administration building it received in 1865 the prefix "Upper" and was referred to as Upper Palais Archduke Albrecht and Upper Palais Archduke Frederick. For the state a special reference to the Habsburg past was certainly politically no longer opportune, which is why was decided to name the building according to the in it kept collection "Albertina".
Picture: The "Wedgwood Cabinet" after the restoration: Picture: the "Wedgwood Cabinet" in the Palais Archduke Friedrich, 1905
This name derives from the term "La Collection Albertina" which had been used by the gallery Inspector Maurice von Thausing in 1870 in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts for the former graphics collection of Duke Albert. For this reason, it was the first time since the foundation of the palace that the name of the collection had become synonymous with the room shell. Room shell, hence, because the Republic of Austria Archduke Friedrich had allowed to take along all the movable goods from the palace in his Hungarian exile: crystal chandeliers, curtains and carpets as well as sculptures, vases and clocks. Particularly stressed should be the exquisite furniture, which stems of three facilities phases: the Louis XVI furnitures of Duke Albert, which had been manufactured on the basis of fraternal relations between his wife Archduchess Marie Christine and the French Queen Marie Antoinette after 1780 in the French Hofmanufakturen, also the on behalf of Archduke Charles 1822-1825 in the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory by Joseph Danhauser produced Empire furnitures and thirdly additions of the same style of Archduke Friedrich, which this about 1900 at Portois & Ffix as well as at Friedrich Otto Schmidt had commissioned.
The "swept clean" building got due to the strained financial situation after the First World War initially only a makeshift facility. However, since until 1999 no revision of the emergency equipment took place, but differently designed, primarily the utilitarianism committed office furnitures complementarily had been added, the equipment of the former state rooms presented itself at the end of the 20th century as an inhomogeneous administrative mingle-mangle of insignificant parts, where, however, dwelt a certain quaint charm. From the magnificent state rooms had evolved depots, storage rooms, a library, a study hall and several officed.
Image: The Albertina Graphic Arts Collection and the Philipphof after the American bombing of 12 März 1945.
Image: The palace after the demolition of the entrance facade, 1948-52
Worse it hit the outer appearance of the palace, because in times of continued anti-Habsburg sentiment after the Second World War and inspired by an intolerant destruction will, it came by pickaxe to a ministerial erasure of history. In contrast to the graphic collection possessed the richly decorated facades with the conspicuous insignia of the former owner an object-immanent reference to the Habsburg past and thus exhibited the monarchial traditions and values of the era of Francis Joseph significantly. As part of the remedial measures after a bomb damage, in 1948 the aristocratic, by Archduke Albert initiated, historicist facade structuring along with all decorations was cut off, many facade figures demolished and the Hapsburg crest emblems plunged to the ground. Since in addition the old ramp also had been cancelled and the main entrance of the bastion level had been moved down to the second basement storey at street level, ended the presence of the old Archduke's palace after more than 200 years. At the reopening of the "Albertina Graphic Collection" in 1952, the former Hapsburg Palais of splendour presented itself as one of his identity robbed, formally trivial, soulless room shell, whose successful republicanization an oversized and also unproportional eagle above the new main entrance to the Augustinian road symbolized. The emocratic throw of monuments had wiped out the Hapsburg palace from the urban appeareance, whereby in the perception only existed a nondescript, nameless and ahistorical building that henceforth served the lodging and presentation of world-famous graphic collection of the Albertina. The condition was not changed by the decision to the refurbishment because there were only planned collection specific extensions, but no restoration of the palace.
Image: The palace after the Second World War with simplified facades, the rudiment of the Danubiusbrunnens (well) and the new staircase up to the Augustinerbastei
This paradigm shift corresponded to a blatant reversal of the historical circumstances, as the travel guides and travel books for kk Residence and imperial capital of Vienna dedicated itself primarily with the magnificent, aristocratic palace on the Augustinerbastei with the sumptuously fitted out reception rooms and mentioned the collection kept there - if at all - only in passing. Only with the repositioning of the Albertina in 2000 under the direction of Klaus Albrecht Schröder, the palace was within the meaning and in fulfillment of the Fideikommiss of Archduke Charles in 1826 again met with the high regard, from which could result a further inseparable bond between the magnificent mansions and the world-famous collection. In view of the knowing about politically motivated errors and omissions of the past, the facades should get back their noble, historicist designing, the staterooms regain their glamorous, prestigious appearance and culturally unique equippment be repurchased. From this presumption, eventually grew the full commitment to revise the history of redemption and the return of the stately palace in the public consciousness.
Image: The restored suburb facade of the Palais Albertina suburb
The smoothed palace facades were returned to their original condition and present themselves today - with the exception of the not anymore reconstructed Attica figures - again with the historicist decoration and layout elements that Archduke Albrecht had given after the razing of the Augustinerbastei in 1865 in order. The neoclassical interiors, today called after the former inhabitants "Habsburg Staterooms", receiving a meticulous and detailed restoration taking place at the premises of originality and authenticity, got back their venerable and sumptuous appearance. From the world wide scattered historical pieces of equipment have been bought back 70 properties or could be returned through permanent loan to its original location, by which to the visitors is made experiencable again that atmosphere in 1919 the state rooms of the last Habsburg owner Archduke Frederick had owned. The for the first time in 80 years public accessible "Habsburg State Rooms" at the Palais Albertina enable now again as eloquent testimony to our Habsburg past and as a unique cultural heritage fundamental and essential insights into the Austrian cultural history. With the relocation of the main entrance to the level of the Augustinerbastei the recollection to this so valuable Austrian Cultural Heritage formally and functionally came to completion. The vision of the restoration and recovery of the grand palace was a pillar on which the new Albertina should arise again, the other embody the four large newly built exhibition halls, which allow for the first time in the history of the Albertina, to exhibit the collection throughout its encyclopedic breadh under optimal conservation conditions.
Image: The new entrance area of the Albertina
64 meter long shed roof. Hans Hollein.
The palace presents itself now in its appearance in the historicist style of the Ringstrassenära, almost as if nothing had happened in the meantime. But will the wheel of time should not, cannot and must not be turned back, so that the double standards of the "Albertina Palace" said museum - on the one hand Habsburg grandeur palaces and other modern museum for the arts of graphics - should be symbolized by a modern character: The in 2003 by Hans Hollein designed far into the Albertina square cantilevering, elegant floating flying roof. 64 meters long, it symbolizes in the form of a dynamic wedge the accelerated urban spatial connectivity and public access to the palace. It advertises the major changes in the interior as well as the huge underground extensions of the repositioned "Albertina".
Christian Benedictine
Art historian with research interests History of Architecture, building industry of the Hapsburgs, Hofburg and Zeremonialwissenschaft (ceremonial sciences). Since 1990 he works in the architecture collection of the Albertina. Since 2000 he supervises as director of the newly founded department "Staterooms" the restoration and furnishing of the state rooms and the restoration of the facades and explores the history of the palace and its inhabitants.
Walking on foot brings you down to the very stark, naked core of existence. We travel too much in airplanes and cars. It’s an existential quality that we are losing. It’s almost like a credo of religion that we should walk.
There is, of course, something inherently romantic—if not heroic—about the extreme solitary explorer enveloped by nature. The very image of Herzog on foot recalls the iconic 19th-century paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, especially his Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, with its lone figure staring out at the wide vista above the clouds.
'Truth itself wanders through the forests,' Herzog writes near the end. Yet here he embroiders his memories for effect: The vast swath of geography between Munich and Paris is littered with industrial towns and cities.
Once he comes out on the other end, traversing the deforested Champs-Élysées (“We were close to what they call the breath of danger”), Herzog emerges victorious.
― Of Walking in Ice: (Munich-Paris, 23 November–14 December 1974)
by Werner Herzog
The parking space was less than a block from where I wanted to be, but when I stepped onto the sidewalk a vanishing point opened up and with each step my destination remained just as far away. Despite the apparent existential futility I walked on and all of sudden my goal was in sight, and soon I would be there. But when I glanced back the vanishing point had moved and the car had completely disappeared…I'd just have to worry about that later, there was a bridge enshrouded in an existential fog of its own to photograph! Feel the full futility. N57678