#ViennaMemories #1: “Mann verliess sie…”

How do objects and memories affect each other?

I explored these issues in my earlier blog, Things from Vienna?  Or Viennese things?

One of the costs, or possibly benefits, of of being a diplomat is that every few years you have to pack up everything you own and move to another country.  Once you’ve arrived you have to unpack every item and find a new home for it.

So I have a pretty good idea of what I own.  That includes one or two dozen objects which I associate with my previous posting in Vienna, from 1984 to 1987.

Do Austrians count in dozens, by the way?  Let me know.

The first object I’d like to highlight in this series of short blogs is this poster from the Kronen Zeitung from 1986.

For non-English speakers, the headline means: “Husband left her: wife threw her 6 children in the river”.

I found the poster in my trove of cuttings from 1984-87. It caught my eye because it looks sensational – but in fact refers to a specific, tragic case in Houston, Texas, reported on 21 April 1986, in which a child died.

The poster, and its accuracy, raise interesting questions in an era where the role of the media is being re-examined against a background of proliferating news sources on the Internet and, arguably, a diminution of fact-checking. Have journalistic standards declined over the years? Discuss.

Meanwhile I continue to read the Kronen Zeitung, along with some other newspapers, every morning at breakfast time.