A freethinker’s philosophical and smart manifest.

Buddha went to the woods, Jesus to the desert and Mohammed crouched down in a cave in order to carve a name to themselves. So, what does Adolf Holl do? At the hair dresser’s he links philosophy and literature with spiritual intellectual history only to find his way back to a profane lifestyle. With “How To Found A Religion” the freethinker Adolf Holl drew up a manifesto. An essential, profound and affectionate one. Intending to found a religion, Holl takes a wander through the history of religions, asking “why” – why a profession of faith? The present day has sent the founders of our religions back to the desert and now a solution it is, what we need: a new religion! Adolf Holl asks questions and searches for the answers. Only one thing he is sure of: The suitable religion is still to be found. Ironically, funny as well as rich in content he describes his longing for a denomination that works and thus can be lived.

A slovakian elderly care nurse’s death and a story about the new Europe and its old boarders. \"I think that one can not let this horrifying story rest, and I am sure that others feel the same as I do.\" Elfriede Jelinek

“Everything started when I, an Austrian living in Slovakia, read about a Slovak who had been found dead in on of Austria’s rivers - naked.” The last time Denisa Soltísová was seen alive, she was wandering around in an austrian city; it was January the 19th 2008, at night , only wearing underwear. Days after this incident she was found – dead and naked. The 29-year-old woman was a collegegraduate, Slovak and worked round-the-clock as a elderly care nurse. The police closed the case: “Suicide”. Yet the autopsy, performed in Slovakia, showed traces of violence. It is 700 kilometres from Ratkovská Lehota, where Desisa lived, to the place she died. Two different worlds that are parted by 700 kilometres, linked only by commuting busses, full of nurses. Two different worlds in which Martin Leidenfrost tracked the traces of one of them who will never return to the other side of the borders.

History of theatre is the history of an excitement that doesn’t want to end.

Theatre without scandals? Unthinkable! From Aischylos’ “Orestie”, the excitement about what’s to be seen on stage is part of the incalculable and sometimes calculated attraction of theatre. Up to today, until Rolf Hochhuth’s “Stellvertreter” or Thomas Bernhard’s “Heldenplatz”, pieces and productions have consistently made scandals. They provoked, aroused, or simply disturbed the comfortable boredom; they revolutionised theatre or died away without any effect like the screams at the first tier; they came surprisingly and violently or were produced and played up by the media; because of political contents or aesthetic border crossings they made for outrage and distraction – and frequently a behaviour of the public that to date one thought to known only from beer tents. An unbeatable cultural report through the long and loud history of theatre scandals: with analyses of the phenomenon, with swansongs to an old tradition, with interviews and anecdotes, with critics and examples of stage works at which not only the doors banged.

"Die erste Bedingung, dass Du etwas in Dein Herz und Deinen Kopf bringst, ist, dass Du etwas in Deinen Magen bringst." Ludwig Feuerbach

The one who is thinking a lot has to eat a lot, too. One thing is for sure: A slow metabolism attests mental lazyness! “Primum vivere, deinde philosophare”: First living, then philosophy. Freely adapted from Schopenhauer, this book follows philosophers through everyday life, to the place where it is most surprising and tasteful: to the dinner table. Out of letters, diary entries and side chapters of their main opus, the favourite dishes and the often obscure dinner rituals of the great thinkers are reconstructed. We accompany them on their culinary journeys through Europe and watch how nutrition left its marks in their philosophy or even influenced it significantly. You think like Nietzsche? Then why not eat like he did! Invite for a dinner marked by your favourite philosopher and amuse yourself at his favourite music with funny culinary anecdotes. Jean Anthèlme Brillat-Savarin, Ludwig Feuerbach, Immanuel Kant, Sören Kirkegaard, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, F. T. Marinetti, Michel de Montaigne, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Carl Friedrich von Rumohr, Jean Paul Satre, Arthur Schopenhauer.

Die erstmals entzifferten persönlichen Aufzeichnungen Alban Bergs offenbaren ein vielschichtiges Sittenbild des Wiener Großbürgertums nach der Jahrhundertwende.

The for the first time deciphered personal notes by Alban Berg give a multilayer genre picture of the Viennese bourgeoisie after the turn of the century. Alban Berg was undoubtedly the master of the Viennese musical modernity. Herwig Knaus tabulated and deciphered thousands of notes and letter drafts of Berg’s unpublished works. This unique biography which offers a new and authentic view at the artist emerged out of it. The until now available sources that where sometimes heavily censured by his wife Helene Nahowski gave only a directed view at the composer. Many aspects of Alban Berg’s biography were left out: his difficulties with his own family and his lesbian sister, the economical troubles resulting from the war- and postwar period, his relation to women, collegues, and – seen in the background of the traditional Viennese anti-Semitism – his relation to his teacher Arnold Schönberg. Out of those unvarnished insights into Alban Berg’s private life not only a very vivid portrait of this musical rebel emerges but also an exciting genre picture of the period after the break-down of the Danube Monarchy.

For many decades, and until his death in 1989, Thomas Bernhard was the dominating personality in Austrian contemporary literature. His literature is unthinkable without his environment. It is characteristically Austrian, and belongs firmly in the ranks of world literature. He was available and he was public as none of his colleagues were, while he was also considered to be a loner and unapproachable. Everyone talked about him, and yet he was unknown. Erika and Wieland Schmied are two of the few people privileged to experience Thomas Bernhard in private, as a neighbour and friend. Their image of Thomas Bernhard is built on the memories of innumerable encounters and shared experiences, and is documented with unrivalled completeness in hundreds of photographs. The photos, characterful and unsentimental in equal measure, give an insight into Bernhard's environment, the houses and landscapes in which he lived. However, they also convey an impression of the places he wrote about. In short, the authors have created a comprehensive overview of Thomas Bernhard's cosmos, pervaded throughout by his life and work.

Live and read music! Our musical heritage needs more than maintenance, it demands a dialogue with our past, our future and ourselves. A passionate manifesto.

Beethoven and Schubert, Verdi and Johann Strauß, Schumann and Dvořak, Brahms and Bruckner – these are only some of the protagonists of this book in which Nicolaus Harnoncourt deals with the most important works of "the century of romanticism“. The conductor also describes his life-long search for the key to imparting music of this era to the audiences of today, a task that is often being hindered by traditions or changing fashions in performing. In his unrivalled style, with passion and a strong conviction, Nicolaus Harnoncourt outlines how we must never refrain from reading our musical heritage from scratch. Moreover, he shares gloomy memories of his youth under the Nazi regime and fascinating insights into the musical life of the Vienna of his era. All of his statements, be they on music, their cultural significance or his own identity as an interpreter of music, reflect his approach to life itself: that music is not to be regarded as a mere heritage of the past, but also, and particularly, as a living reminder of our right to a humane future.

What do I live for? What gives meaning to my life? It is a fundamental need of human beings to find their individual meaning in life. This holds particularly true for times of crisis. Meaning, however, means something different to every one of us, and it can also change in the course of life. The search for meaning is thus a very personal issue, and each answer is unique. Alfred Längle explains the basic elements that help us to find our meaning in life. Step by step he guides the reader on his or her individual way. The book features many practical examples, instructions and exercises, and the texts invite the reader to reflect on his or her personal life. It is a practical guide and an easy-to-read introduction to the basic concepts of logotherapy and existential analysis.

Der Klassiker bereits in der 19. Auflage!

Geobiological influences on the human body. The book presents the results of the authors fact-research of more than 3000 home- and workingplace-analizes. Deeper causations concerning insomnia and illness could be found by uncovering geophatic disruptions.

This portrait of an ensemble of great stylistic influence traces its history from its pioneering days to the present.

Nowadays this is all taken for granted. The classical music market is populated by whole droves of ensembles producing "original" sound, young musicians demonstrate their mastery on period instruments, and the term "Klangrede" [music as speech] has long become everyday usage. In 1953, when the cellist Nikolaus Harnoncourt and his wife Alice, a violinist, began a private artistic experiment together with a handful of interested colleagues, Early Music was uncharted territory. For four years, Harnoncourt and his friends rehearsed in their living-room, researching musical material and instruments, techniques and sounds until they were ready to venture into public performance. Insatiable curiosity, unseen assiduity and inexhaustible devotion to an idea whose success was unforeseeable characterised the early days, during which the Concentus Musicus of Vienna developed into an ensemble which had a determining influence on period style. This book is intended to bring to life fifty years of adventure, during which a conspiracy of highly specialised musicians set new standards with each stage of their development, making interpretative history. Milan Turković, a member of Concentus, and Monika Mertl, Harnoncourt's biographer, examine all these various events in a balanced view from both inside and out. A CD with commentary by Nikolaus Harnoncourt accompanies the text.