It is not only the beloved Pressburg Railway, Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata or the world-renowned artistic treasures of the Albertina Collection that connect Austria with its eastern neighbour – the territory that is present-day Slovakia was the birthplace of composer Franz Lehár, operatic diva Lucia Popp and hotel magnate Eduard Sacher. Others with Slovakian roots include Andy Warhol, Paul Newman, Crown Prince Rudolf’s last love Mary Vetsera, and Hans Selye, the first researcher into the effects of stress. And the story of how Queen ›Sisi‹ Elizabeth’s memorial statue, in the spa resort of Bardejovské Kúpele, survived all the political storms of the 20th Century is worthy of a book on its own!
Dietmar Grieser was born in Hanover in 1934. He studied journalism and social sciences in Munster and Munich, and has lived in Vienna since 1957. Since 1973 he has been a full-time writer, specialising in literary investigation, interpretive documentaries and feature writing about the arts. His bestsellers and longsellers have been translated into many languages. A member of the PEN Club, he has received numerous awards for his work including the Eichendorff Literature Award, the non-fiction Donauland-Sachbuch Prize, and the Austrian Order of Merit for Science and Arts.
A Relative in Bratislava
Austrian footsteps through Slovakia
June 2009, 272 pages
978-3-85002-684-0
Amalthea
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»This author is becoming a nuisance. Book after book, all you can do is extol his virtues – his choice of themes, his diligent research into his subjects and his unadorned, lucid style. He peaks and then satisfies our curiosity, but has enough tact never to stray beyond the realms of good taste.«Die Welt