Graz

“ The technical college, founded in 1814 by the archduke John Baptist, had in 1901 about 400 pupils.
An active trade, fostered by abundant railway communications, is combined with manufactures of iron and steel wares, paper, chemicals, vinegar, physical and optical instruments, besides artistic printing and lithography. The extensive workshops of the Southern railway are at Graz, and since the opening of the railway to the rich coal-fields of Köflach the number of industrial establishments has greatly increased. ”

“ He hopes that the Groups in Graz, Innsbruck and Salzburg will attain Assembly status by next Ridván, thus giving the Austrian Community a much firmer foundation and preparing it for the day when it will have its independent National Assembly, a day which is not so very far off after all, and towards which they must work constantly, with ever increasing zeal and dedication. ”

“ He summoned the Jesuits to Graz and, in the religious pacification of Brück, granted the free exercise of religion at Graz, Klagenfurt, Laibach, and Judenburg. In return he demanded that the Protestants should leave him and his coreligionists undisturbed in their faith, rights, and estates; besides this the Lutheran preachers and teachers were obliged to leave the cities, market towns, and estates under the personal rule of the archduke. In order to counterbalance the endowed schools of the Styrian provinces the Archduke Charles founded the University of Graz (Carolina) in 1586. ”

“ Even Graz, the beautiful capital of Steiermark, where Rosegger has his vine-covered house, cannot take the place of home for him. In the summer months he escapes to Krieglach in the Mürztal; there he lives among his native people, and from his window he looks out to those heights where, out of sight, stands a deserted farm—his birthplace.
In Alpl, near Krieglach, a forest community which has now almost ceased to exist and even at the time of his birth consisted only of twenty-three farms, Rosegger came into the world on July 31st, 1843. ”

“ I will only say en passant that the journey from Trieste to Vienna by express (fifteen hours) is stupendously lovely for the first six hours, and likewise all round Graz, halfway to Vienna; and the passage over the Semmering is a dream, at any rate for the first and second time. We were three weeks at Vienna. The Exhibition was very fine; the buildings were beautiful; there were royalties from every Court in the world, so that the mob could feast their eyes on them thirty at a time—not that a foreign [Pg 24] mob ever stares rudely at royalties. ”

“ In Upper Germany, accordingly, a sharp line is to be drawn between the Bavaro-Austrian and the Alemannic group. In Austria the capacity for sensuous enjoyment and a certain indolence are combined with a tendency toward sanguine but short-lived enthusiasms. A soft, southern air blows about the heights of Styria as well as over Vienna and its environs, and in the works of the writers of these regions (Wilhelm Fischer-Graz, Rudolf Hans Bartsch) everything is resolved into a lyrical mood and a melody of words. ”

“ We enjoyed ourselves here very much for a few days, and then we returned to Graz. Then Richard went up to Karlsbad, paid a visit to Maríenbad, and then to Teplitz as a Nach-kur; then he went to Prague and Linz, then to Stein, then to Klagenfurt, and back to Trieste, when we began to write more biography.
At this time Boïto's "Mefistofele" came to Trieste, and we both agreed that we had never heard anything like it, and never would again. You must be a musician to appreciate. The first time you feel almost confused, but new beauties develop with each hearing. ”

“ Education.—Styria has three higher educational establishments, namely the university and the technical college of Graz and the Montanist College in Leoben.
Notwithstanding the great unevenness of the surface, only 8.0% of the present Styria could be reckoned as unproductive in 1900. Of the productive parts, 19.1% was arable; 0.9% gardens; 0.5% vineyards; 11.8% meadows; 13.3% grazing lands; 54.4% was, however, forest. This territory is justly called “green Styria.” Cattle-raising has greatly developed and farming is actively carried on on the high lands. ”

“ What a summer might here be spent!—what a life, I would say, had not society and home a claim;—were it not a dream that we can be happy only in the contemplation of nature, removed from all intercourse with our equals. But you see the magic circle: Linz, Gmunden, Ishl—these are in Styria—then the district called the Salzkammergut. Such is the region in which I design, if I am ever able, to pass some long months, and to enjoy even more than I have ever yet done, the delight of exploring scenery unrivalled in the world. ”

“ As the train from Vienna descends into the valley of the Drave a change becomes perceptible in the scattered cottages and hamlets that fly past us. The dark wooden chalets of the Semmering valleys, that recall Salzburg and Tyrol and more distant Scandinavia, give place to meaner huts, less roomy, lower, paler, more rectangular. Rich maroon-brown beams that seem to have grown up with the pines around, dark projecting eaves that overhang the time-stained fronts as the shadowy fir-branches the primeval trunks—all these give place to wattle and daub and chilling whitewash. ”

“ Canton Zürich is, after Berne, the most populous, and beyond comparison the most wealthy of the Protestant Cantons of Switzerland; and the city of Zürich, one of its most beautiful and most flourishing cities. Since the walls of its fortifications have been removed by order of the Grand Council, it has extended and developed itself daily in every direction, like a vigorous tree in the spring. Science, industry, benevolent institutions increase, as if in emulation of each other; and gardens and plantations encircle the increasing city with beauty. ”

“ The Salzburg Country, northeastern slope of the Tyrol (Donau draining that side of it, Etsch or Adige the Italian side) , is celebrated by the Tourist for its airy beauty, rocky mountains, smooth green valleys, and swift-rushing streams; perhaps some readers have wandered to Bad-Gastein, or Ischl, in these nomadic summers; have looked into Salzburg, Berchtesgaden, and the Bavarian-Austrian boundary-lands; seen the wooden-clock makings, salt-works, toy-manufactures, of those simple people in their slouch-hats; and can bear some testimony to the phenomena of Nature there. ”

“ This, too, was grand, and solitary, and beautiful, but less softly inviting—less, as it were, holy in its calm, and, at the same time, less cheerful in its aspect—than the Gmunden-see.
What will you say to me when I say that Salzburg surpassed all? It has indeed been pronounced to be the most beautiful spot in Germany. Wherefore? It has not the majestic Danube, as at Linz, sweeping under dark, overhanging cliffs, and winding through a spacious valley, till lost to sight beneath distant mountains: it has not a lake sheltered by hills, with bay and inlet sacred to the sprites. ”

“ There were unusual sights to be seen here, too; huge caverns were fashioned in the rocks, and grottoes of curious formations. They saw the peasant women making lace, a product for which the province is particularly famed.
At Marburg, Herr Runkel and Leopold Hofer bade farewell to their companions, and boarded the train for Innsbruck where Herr Hofer would meet his young son; while Herr Müller and Ferdinand continued on up into Styria to the city of Gratz, where Frau Müller awaited them. ”

“ The valley is at its broadest where the city stands, allowing a wide prospect and charming views from the slopes of St. 74 Nicolaus and Mariahilf across the river to the Berg Isel, and the wooded sides of the Mittelgebirge, with here and there a tiny village with outstanding spire perched high on the mountain side, or set amid the plain. The valley lies east and west of Innsbruck with the river flowing eastward like a silver ribbon, amid cultivated fields of fertile alluvial soil, threading its way through the gradually narrowing valley to Kufstein and thence through Bavaria to the Danube. ”

“ The railway takes one through beautiful scenery in about an hour to the summit of the mountain, which is so favourite an 180 excursion with the well-to-do Salzburgers, and from which such a beautiful prospect is spread out at one's feet. To the north one can catch glimpses of the undulating foreground of the Alps and shining lakes; whilst Salzburg now more than 4000 feet below looks almost insignificant, and like a toy town set in the midst of a green plain through which winds a thin, silver line, the Salzach. ”

“ The whole country is mountainous, and in consequence it is, like so much else of the Empire, rich in minerals; its iron mines are well worked and produce a large quantity of ore annually. There are also numerous mineral springs, of iron, of alkali, and of brine. Gratz, which is the capital town, has a population of over 100,000. There is a university here, and the inhabitants are almost all Roman Catholic; about two-thirds of them are German. The industrial side of Styria is worked much better than most parts of the Dual Monarchy. ”

“ It is through these modern developments that the life of Salzburg has so materially changed even within the memory of those who first visited it but, comparatively speaking, a few years ago. From a town of ecclesiastical and almost mediæval aloofness from the outside world, and from one which had for a considerable period seen its growth arrested and its life stagnant, it has sprung into being as a favourite summer and winter resort not merely for tourists, but also for those to whom the older portion of the town, its many historic buildings, castle, and fine churches, proves attractive. ”

“ The Semmering divides the plain which extends from Vienna towards the south, from that of Gratz, in the centre of which is situated the town of the same name, the capital of Upper Styria. The railway which traverses this chain of mountains, is of a magnitude worthy of old Rome in its best days; the hills which it ascends are more than 5000 feet above the level of the sea ”

“ Before arriving at this little town, we beheld on our left a fine and magnificent view of the Schneeberg, and the Alps of Hallstadt and Aussee, and on quitting it we caught the first glimpse of the Salzburg chain, which we continued to behold increasing in grandeur and beauty the nearer we approached it. The next poste from Frankenmarkt is Neumarkt, and from hence we drove through many villages and hamlets, the road being now and then rather hilly, till, at about half-past one, we saw Salzburg lying before us in the broad valley of the Salza, backed by a gigantic rampart of Alps. ”

“ The situation of Salzburg is strikingly grand and beautiful, and probably no town in Europe can boast of a finer. Lying as it were close at the foot of the lofty pyramid of the Watzmann, a mountain more than ten thousand feet in height, the town extends along the right and left bank of the Salza or Salzache, which separates it into two parts, the old and new town, which are united by a strong wooden bridge. On a hill on the right bank of the river, considerably elevated above the town, stands the fortress or mountain castle, a very strong and imposing fortification. ”

“ We soon run past Mt. Calvary, the favourite pleasure-ground of the people of the clean, prosperous, modern-looking town of Linz, connected with an iron lattice bridge with the sister city of Urfahr. Linz, however, is not by any means really modern, whatever its looks, as its annals include the fact of its destruction by the Huns! It is the chief town of Upper Austria, and was made a centre of occupation by Napoleon in his octopus-like attempt to draw all Europe beneath his sway. ”

“ At the Golden Stag we fixed our head quarters,—a large inn, and apparently well frequented,—where we spent the night, without either accident or adventure befalling of which I need pause to give an account. There is a schloss here, which, to our surprise, we learned, belongs, like the lordship of the manor, to the same graff who owns the land about Aderspach on the other side of the Riesengebirgen. I have forgotten both his name and his title; but he must be a wealthy nobleman, even for Austria; which, while it possesses many poor, can likewise muster some of the richest noblemen in the world. ”

“ Salzburg (174) , a western province and duchy of Austria, borders on Bavaria between the Tyrol and Upper Austria; is woody and mountainous, especially in the S., where fine scenery is formed by the Alps; excellent meadowland favours a prosperous industry in the rearing of cattle and horses. The inhabitants, being Protestants, were severely persecuted by the Church, and 30,000 of them emigrated in 1730, and on the invitation of Frederick William of Prussia settled in Lithuania, that had been desolated by plague. ”

“ The most prominent of all buildings in Salzburg, and the one which has for most visitors the greatest attraction, is the fine old fortress of Hohen-Salzburg set high above the older town upon a tree-enshrouded and rocky spur of the Mönchsberg. ”

“ Vienna, 1814.
for many long years, are known to all who take an interest in the inner and domestic history of Austria during the period of its then ruler's omnipotence. Thirty years of age when he first took his place in the society of the capital, he was a handsome man, slender and well built, attractive in manner, refined and elegant, with an open countenance which united liveliness with good nature, full of chivalrous courtesy of bearing. Even in advanced years he retained something very winning, which gave expression both to his consistent high breeding, and to his kindness of heart. ”