Friedrich Weissensteiner

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Friedrich Weissensteiner (born November 25, 1927 in Großpertholz , Lower Austria ) is an Austrian historian.

Life and work

After finishing school, Weissensteiner studied history and English at the Stubenbastei grammar school at the University of Vienna. This was followed by the doctorate to Dr. phil. on a historical subject. From 1950 he worked as a grammar school teacher, from 1974 until his retirement in 1987 as director of the Döblinger Bundesgymnasium .

As co-editor of a history course for the lower and upper grades of the AHS (1970–1982 History and Social Studies , 1982–2002 Zeitbilder ), he gave the history lessons essential impulses.

As a historian, Weissensteiner made a name for himself above all as the author and editor of a large number of contemporary historical works. Characteristic of his works is the writing and presentation that is easy to understand, even and especially for laypeople, which makes them worth reading even for non-specialist audiences, which is reflected in a relatively high number of translations into other languages ​​- French, Japanese and Russian - precipitates.

The main theme of Weissensteiner's work was the preoccupation with the Austrian monarchy, namely with various personalities from the ore house of the Habsburgs. He dedicated and wrote longer biographies to the lives of Archduchess Elisabeth Marie (“the red Archduchess”), Archduke Johann Salvator (“a dropout from the imperial family”) and Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este (“the prevented ruler”) a series of overview displays in which topics such as the daughters of Maria Theresa , Habsburg women on foreign thrones or the Austrian empresses are presented in systematic outline. In more recent times, dealing with the family environment of great intellectuals in literature, music and psychology in the German-speaking area has been a recurring theme for him ( Women of Geniuses , The Children of Geniuses ).

Private

He has been married since 1952.

Awards

Works

Working as an author :

  • Between yesterday and tomorrow. Poems, Vienna 1971.
  • Austria and the world. Historical atlas. Vienna 1976.
  • The red archduchess. The unusual life of the daughter of Crown Prince Rudolf. Vienna 1982, 1990.
  • Franz Ferdinand. The prevented ruler. Vienna 1983.
  • A dropout from the imperial family, Johann Orth. The escapade-rich life of Archduke Johann Salvator. Vienna 1985.
  • Reformers, Republicans and rebels. The other house of Habsburg-Lorraine. Vienna 1987.
  • Fateful days of Austria. Turning points, crises, developments. Vienna 1989.
  • The unloved state. Austria between 1918 and 1938. Vienna 1990.
  • Women around Crown Prince Rudolf. Vienna 1991.
  • Austrian Personal Lexicon of the First and Second Republic. Together with Isabella Ackerl, Vienna 1992.
  • Audience favorites. From Hans Albers to Paula Wessely. Vienna 1993.
  • The daughters of Maria Theresa. Vienna 1994.
  • Between idyll and revolution. Unusual Biedermeier portraits. Vienna 1995.
  • Great rulers of the House of Habsburg. Vienna 1995.
  • Great Austrians of the 20th century. Vienna 1997.
  • Women on the Habsburg throne. Ueberreuter, Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-8000-3709-2 ; As a paperback: The Austrian Empresses 1804–1918. Piper, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-492-23033-4 .
  • Heaven of love and hells of marriage. Weddings between Habsburgs and Wittelsbachers. Munich 1999.
  • They played for us. 105 portraits of famous film and stage personalities. Vienna 1999.
  • Habsburg women on foreign thrones. Vienna 2000.
  • Famous suicides. Vienna 2000.
  • Love in strange beds. Great personalities and their affairs. Vienna 2001.
  • The women of geniuses. Vienna 2002.
  • The Austrian emperors. Vienna 2003.
  • The sons of Maria Theresa. Vienna 2004.
  • At the levers of power. The party leaders of the Second Republic. Vienna 2005.
  • The children of geniuses. August von Goethe, Siegfried Wagner, Anna Freud, Erika and Klaus Mann, Anna Mahler. Vienna 2005.
  • Small and famous. Edith Piaf, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Gottfried Keller, Franz Schubert, Napoleon Bonaparte, Immanuel Kant, Prinz Eugen. Vienna 2006.
  • From Maria Theresia to Helmut Qualtinger. 50 portraits of famous Austrians. Vienna 2007.
  • The great rulers of the House of Habsburg. 700 years of European history. Munich 2007.
  • I long for you very much. Women in the life of Emperor Franz Joseph. Vienna 2012.

Working as editor :

  • Michael Hainisch, 75 years from eventful times. Memories of an Austrian statesman. Vienna 1975.
  • Wilhelm Elbow. People and principles. Memories, Judgments and Reflections of a Critical Social Democrat. With a foreword by Bruno Kreisky, Vienna 1981.
  • The Austrian Federal Presidents. Vienna 1982.
  • The Austrian Chancellor. Together with Erika Weinzierl, Vienna 1983.
  • Dear Rudolf. Letters from Emperor Franz Joseph and Elisabeth to their son. Vienna 1991.

Unpublished manuscripts :

  • Life in hard times. Vienna 2002.
  • 50 years in retrospect. Vienna 2011.
  • The rhyming and the absurd. Vienna 2011.

Other work :

  • School television films and school radio programs
  • Short stories, articles in anthologies, educational, historical and literary articles in magazines, weekly and daily newspapers, etc. a. in the following organs:
  • New ways , 1952–1966
  • Arbeiter-Zeitung , 1960–1980
  • Austria in history and literature
  • History. The magazine for culture and history. Solothurn.
  • Illustrated newsreel , 1965–1972
  • The press , from 1989
  • Wiener Zeitung , from 2001
  • The furrow , from 2009
  • Book show . Quarterly magazine for company and trade union libraries - from 2003 short literary portraits, a. a. Bertolt Brecht, Anton Chekhov, Marion Countess Dönhoff, George Orwell, Mark Twain.

Weissensteiner also works as a book reviewer.

literature

  • Fritz Fellner , Doris A. Corradini (Ed.): Austrian History in the 20th Century. A biographical-bibliographical lexicon. Böhlau, Vienna et al. 2006, ISBN 978-3-205-77476-1 , pp. 446f. ( Publications of the Commission for Modern History of Austria 99).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB).
personal data
SURNAME Weissensteiner, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian historian and author
DATE OF BIRTH November 25, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Großpertholz , Lower Austria