Medical innovation is always accompanied by those who resist it – no life shows this better than that of Ignaz Semmelweis.

A journey through the life of the great fighter for the health of mothers and medical progress. "Wash your hands": this rule of hygiene is taken for granted. That this was not always the case is revealed through the history of the 1818-born Semmelweis, who worked as a gynaecologist in Vienna. He had to fight hard for it to be recognised that doctors’ dirty hands were infecting child-bearing women. His life story, which is of immense importance still today, let’s us look deep into the fascinating world of scientific discoveries and intrigue.

co-authors: Karin Moser and Wolfram Dornik A ruthless assessment of the empire’s military conduct during World War I by acclaimed Austrian historians

New research on the darkest chapter of World War I: the authors examine the strategies and calculations employed by the Habsburg ruling elite. They show how the war, which began with the main aim of destroying Serbia, was allowed to get out of hand, with no consideration of the losses. And what happened in the zones occupied by the Imperial armies? Were Austro-Hungarian forces responsible for war crimes? This book sheds a shocking light on chains of command, prejudices, and escalating violence towards suspects, civilians and ‘administrated masses’. A disturbing panorama of the Habsburg Empire’s path to downfall.

Music brings pleasure: Nikolaus Harnoncourt reflects persuasively and passionately on his metier. His texts, speeches and interviews reveal the vision of a great artist, looking back on his own influence and far beyond into musical history. He addresses subjects such as the urgency of art, Haydn, and “a crocodile called Mozart”, and considers romantic insight and baroque reminiscence. He gazes into the depths of an immoral world and shares anecdotes from the Vienna Music Society. He explains why artists cannot lie, why The Magic Flute remains an eternal mystery, and why great art ultimately arises from doubt.

The epic story of one of the most fascinating families of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

An handcart and the infidelity of an attractive bookseller’s-daughter launch the story: Jutta Jacobi tells the tale of Johann Schnitzler, talented son of a poor Jewish carpenter from Nagykanizsa, who became a famous Viennese doctor; of his son Arthur, who changed from a sex maniac to a moralist; of his wife Frau Olga, the most remorseful divorcee ever, of Lili, who found happiness at the side of a fascist officer; of Heinrich, forced to emigrate to America in 1938; of Arthur’s grandsons Peter and Michael, who free themselves from the burden of the past; and of great granddaughter Giuliana, who decorates the graves in the Central Cemetery with stars. A story of desire, warmed by humour, with changing perspectives over the course of the narrative.

Von Sultanen, die sich als Renaissancefürsten verstehen, und Elefanten, die fränkischen Herrschern als Geschenk überreicht werden

Popes who studied at Arab universities; Turkish princes who grew up with European Emperors’ sons; Persian kings who saved Greek philosophy from destruction. Whether it was banks, minnesingers, or the concept of romantic love – many ideas perceived as western are in fact developments shared between orient and occident. This book shows how there has always been exchange between these purportedly very different cultures and, despite wars and religious differences, how they developed into a unified whole. Dispensing with clichés it describes a cultural cohabitation which extends to the present day. A journey into ourselves and the diversity we hold within us.

The individuals surrounding the great composer and conductor

Gustav Mahler’s circle of friends and colleagues ran into hundreds. Alongside famous contemporaries such as Richard Strauss and Gerhart Hauptmann, it included many people whose connection to Mahler is well known, but about whom we otherwise know little – from opera singer Rosa Papier, who was instrumental to Mahler’s engagement at the Vienna State Opera; landscape photographer Hugo Henneberg, whose wife Marie became godmother to Mahler’s daughter; to the lawyer Serafin Bondi, a member of the vegetarian association Mahler also belonged to. The book provides seventy fascinating biographies, filling the many gaps in Mahler’s biography.

An insight into the empress’ character; politics and intrigue at the Vienna court

The bosom friend of ‘Sisi’, Empress Elisabeth, the highly intelligent, highly attractive aristocrat Marie Festetics, wrote a detailed diary over many years. This sensational source text is finally available in full. Over more than 2000 pages, Festetics provides a no-holes-barred description of life at the imperial court, with all its intrigues – mainly against the empress she so admired. Countess Festetics analyses Sisi’s character and describes her changing emotions and her relationship with Emperor Franz Joseph. She makes razor-sharp judgements of the extended Imperial family and the significant figures of her time. A fascinating journal!

In 2014 Rudolf Buchbinder played the first Beethoven cycle at the Salzburg Festival: seven nights of strong emotions!

Beethoven’s music has been part of Rudolf Buchbinder’s life since his childhood. He has played nearly fifty cyclical concerts of all thirty-two piano sonatas, and performed the piano concertos with all major orchestras and conductors, as well as conducting himself. This wealth of experience has found its way into his book, in which Beethoven’s piano works are used as stations on a journey through the composer’s life and oeuvre. Describing his own life in music, Buchbinder the performer brings Beethoven’s world to life, reflected in his personal experiences and revelations – Beethoven’s era, his emotions, passions, triumphs and defeats.

The dramatic story of the National Socialist coup d’état in Catholic corporatist Austria

A scientific sensation! Kurt Bauer clears up the many myths that surround the July Putsch of 1934 in Austria. He is the first to prove that the coup d’état was ordered by Hitler himself. At 12.53 pm on July 25, 1934, 150 SS troops stormed the chancellery in Vienna. Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, self-proclaimed leader of the authoritarian Austro-fascist state, was heavily wounded and subsequently died. The rebels in Vienna gave up by nighttime, but a bloody upheaval of Nazis escalated in the provinces. At the same time, Hitler was listening to Wagner in Bayreuth's festival hall. But things were far from calm in the dictator’s box, as he was impatiently awaiting news from Austria…

Dieses Buch ist eine Überraschung! (Die Verlagsvertreter)

Sarajevo, June 28, 1914: The Serbian student Gavrilo Princip shoots the Austrian heir apparent Franz Ferdinand and his wife. The assassination will serve as the reason for the Habsburg Monarchy to invade Serbia – and thus unleash the First World War. What drove the assassin of Sarajevo, what made his beliefs radical and turned him into an assassin? At the center of events we find phenomena that are uncannily topical: occupation, failed states, terrorism. Gregor Mayer draws parallels between the global political confusion prevalent at the time – with its dramatic upheavals and fear of modernization– and the politics of our day and age.