The Headline

„It was a site of pilgrimage for any Dollfuss fan”. When I saw that headline in a local newspaper, I knew that I’d found a possible home for Uncle Fritz’s cabinet. Engelbert Dollfuß‘ birthhouse would no longer be a Museum beyond 2028 when exhibited and historical pieces would be farmed out to other historical collections. Finally, the house where Dollfuss was born would be empty. „At the end of the project, the birthplace of Engelbert Dollfuß is empty.” This is probably one of the decisive sentences from the concept of creating space, which includes the redesign of the Dollfuß Museum in the municipality of Texingtal in the district of Melk (NÖ). This is intended to end the discussion that had begun with the appointment of Gerhard Karner as Minister of the Interior of the ÖVP.

My local historian friend, Stefan, to whom I gave the cabinet in exchange for the names of those on it that Uncle Fritz had collected would surely see to it that the cabinet ended in an appropriate place.

I´d always heard that Uncle Fritz was a great fan of Engelbert Dollfuß, President of Austria from 1932-1934, leaving his mark of authoritarian conservatism before being murdered by Nazi thugs in 1934.

Uncle Fritz never came back from the Second World War, despite his lawyer brother, Otto, having for years researched his fate with the Red Cross.

Dollfuß wanted to study theology, but finally did Law and Uncle Fritz had been promised to the Church by my grandmother to become a priest, so there was another node of attraction, not just the penchant for authoritarianism already manifested beneath the glass plates of the cabinet. A quick Wikipedia check attested to servants of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires, names like Archduke Eugen of Austria, 

It was just a matter of being born at the wrong time. He was dead. Too soon. Murdered! No avatar could help her now. Maria nearly got what she wanted, but things don’t always work out with politicians and their often hidden agendas. Best to keep my distance, Miles thought. It’s a universal fight against communism, isn’t it? I can always go back and write a book, support a prize, be safe.