Schnitz & Giggles

[S1E5] From Austria to Outer Space

• edelwisecrackers • Season 1 • Episode 5

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Prepare for space travel as Mr. Giggles challenges our very own Dr. Schnitzel to an Austrian trivia face-off that will prove the Austrianness of this podcast once and for all!

But we're not just here for the trivia – oh no – we're dishing out intriguing tidbits, from Alpine roads eyeing UNESCO's seal of approval to a certain spa town that snagged a spot on the world heritage list.

Our chat takes an unexpected co(s)mic swerve with the help of modern technology labeled 'Austroficial Intelligence,' where the edelwisecrackers conjure up a podcast voyage that will boldly take you where no one has gone before.

From the sensitive topic of Austria's Nazi history to the whimsical realm of Space Nazis as depicted in the Finnish flick "Iron Sky," we explore how the Voyager spacecrafts might be carrying a slice of dark history into the universe. 

By the end of this episode, you will have learned more about the depths of the Austrian soul and how the "Waldheim Waltz" echoes through time. So, sit back and let us take you on an auditory escapade and see for yourself if it is as educational as it is entertaining.  From Austria's historical haunts to hypothetical space invaders – we'll talk you to the moon and back!

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Mr. Giggles:

All right, well, welcome back to another episode of the Schnitzel and Giggles podcast, guten hallo, Guten hallo. Today we're going to do something a little bit different than we've done in the past, lucas. Oh, and I was thinking, you know we're setting ourselves up as experts in living here in Vienna to help people with advice. That's us Absolutely yeah, and we know we're the experts, of course, of course but maybe our listeners don't know that we haven't yet established our credibility.

Mr. Giggles:

You got a point there as to maybe why you would be the expert of local knowledge just because you were born here yeah, I mean, what is that? Yeah, that's I mean there's a lot of people that are born here that don't know a thing. Sorry, everybody, Sorry.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Guineas.

Mr. Giggles:

Probably not our listeners, of course, but one of the ways I thought we could do this is by running you through a little quiz about Austria. All right To see if you truly know these things.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Well, that would be interesting for me to find out too.

Mr. Giggles:

Yeah, this could be the end of our podcast. This could be the end of my citizenship. Well, we won't publish this one if it goes poorly, so if you're not hearing this.

Mr. Giggles:

It's because Lucas did really poorly on his quiz. No, we'll find out. Okay, I'm utilizing a quiz here found on the internet. If you want to play along at home as you listen, you can find this at wanderlustcouk Wanderlust Forward slash content. Forward slash. Austria dash quiz forward slash. Not a sponsor we're just utilizing wanted to give them credit since they have put together this wonderful quiz. I have a question number one for you, Lucas. Okay, how many states are in the country of Austria? There's nine states. There are nine states. Ding ding, ding. Ja, nein, you are correct. The number nine, oh, the number nine, the no nine.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Oh, you thought there were no states. There's no states.

Mr. Giggles:

There's no states. I refuse to answer this question. One country, okay. What is the name of the cathedral in Vienna's historic center? Well, that's the one, and only Stephansdom. I was hesitating. Your pause made me very. It was a dramatic pause, Very dramatic. I thought you were going to get it wrong, but in fact you have gotten it correct.

Dr. Schnitzel:

It's in Stevens in English and St Stephan in German.

Mr. Giggles:

Correct. Okay. In which city will you find the Goldenes Dachl? Goldenes Dachl, yeah. Okay. In which city will you find the Goldenest Dacher? Goldenest Dacher yeah, it's also famous. It is famous. It's found in Innsbruck. It is found in Innsbruck. Which do you?

Dr. Schnitzel:

know what state Innsbruck is in? Throw back a question at you.

Mr. Giggles:

Tidul, yeah, sehr gut. Ding, ding, ding.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Ding, ding, ding, I get an extra. This isn't about me, you still get a point.

Mr. Giggles:

I mean, come on, okay. So the next question kind of funny. You can't see what I'm saying and why it's so funny to me. But the question is don't answer it yet. Okay, austria shares a border with eight countries. Which of the following countries does it not border with? And I'll ask you. I'll give you the multiple choice, but the picture on the quiz is a map of Europe with all the countries listed out, so with a big old Austrian flag in the middle of Austria.

Mr. Giggles:

So even if you didn't know where Austria was on the map, is it like a map that's labeled yeah, it's labeled with all the countries, so this one should be for all you playing along at home. You should get this one correct, but the options that are available to you are Liechtenstein, france, slovakia and Hungary. Which one of these countries does not border?

Dr. Schnitzel:

Austria. Well, thanks to the Swiss, it's France, they're in between us. Thanks to the Swiss, it's France. But a bet on that map. I guess what's not labeled will be Liechtenstein. But can you see Liechtenstein on the map? You can see Liechtenstein on the map.

Mr. Giggles:

You can most certainly answer this question by looking at the map. Sometimes you just have an L. Well, you do not have an L because you're winning.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Nice quiz.

Mr. Giggles:

So there is a famous road in the Alps that is currently on UNESCO's tentative list Tentative so apparently it's a list to go on when you're kind of scared which you're looking at the road. I would be very tentative to go on this road as well, but do you know the name of this road?

Dr. Schnitzel:

I mean, the most famous one would be the Großglocknerstraße, but I don't know if that's what they're talking about. What did you say again?

Mr. Giggles:

Großglockner, großglockner. That is an option, andy, you're right. You're right, I think. To be fair, you're supposed to be looking at the picture. Okay, well, let's redo it. No, you got it right. We got it right.

Dr. Schnitzel:

We have nothing to redo. What is the actual name? Großglockner Alpinstrasse or something.

Mr. Giggles:

Yeah, it mixes up the German and the English. It says Großglockner, Highalpine Road. Okay, so the next picture. Actually, you could probably. I'm going to give you a chance to get this right. Is it a picture of you?

Dr. Schnitzel:

No, Okay, not a picture of me, famous Austrian expat.

Mr. Giggles:

Can you name the village in this iconic Austrian picture? Hallstatt. It is Hallstatt.

Dr. Schnitzel:

If it's iconic, I mean, yeah, it's what other village it is if it's not the city of vienna?

Mr. Giggles:

and schlosschenbrunn, or? Yeah, stevens, I was going to reword the question of like, which village is the most tagged on instagram or something, because I would imagine it would be halstatt. Yes, it means really nice it's.

Dr. Schnitzel:

It's like straight off a fairy tale. Yeah, it's straight off. If you've ever been to halstatt, yeah, you, it's really nice. It's like straight off a fairy tale.

Mr. Giggles:

Yeah, it's straight off a fairy tale If you've ever been to Hallstatt you know why I've never been, but I've been on the train that goes past it and I feel like that is enough. Based on what I've read about going there, is that you take your picture, take a picture. You take your picture. That everybody's taken. The locals are suffering because of it, but feel free to visit Hallstatt visitors if you want to come to Austria and take a little side trip.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Don't come to.

Mr. Giggles:

Vienna. Oh, come to Vienna, say hello to Schnitzel and Giggles and then go off to Hallstatt. Give us a high five and go to Hallstatt for five months. Five months, that's a long time, okay. Another picture question Okay, can you identify this medieval Austrian castle? So you know you're not giving me any options again no options. It's too easy. You get one chance to choose which castle you think that they would have pictured here.

Dr. Schnitzel:

on this test, on this quiz, Well, there's about I don't know, 300 castles. There's plenty of castles to think of.

Mr. Giggles:

But which one would they put on a quiz on the wanderlustcouk website?

Dr. Schnitzel:

well, one of the most famous ones is the one in salzburg. That is the one ding, ding ding you win way to identify that picture.

Mr. Giggles:

Good job. Well, okay, all right, so now we're moving away from the picture questions. It's really too hard, but we're staying in salzburg. Uh well, that's a good tip. Which famous composer was born in Salzburg in 1756?

Dr. Schnitzel:

Was it Eminem? Well, let me try again. Let me try again.

Mr. Giggles:

Not Salzburg Michigan, oh Salzburg Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. Little known fact that Eminem's actually from a small Salzburg outside of Detroit.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Maybe Eminem from Salzburg is going to call us one day, if he listens to this podcast.

Mr. Giggles:

Sorry, eminem, not a sponsor.

Dr. Schnitzel:

But I guess I have to go with Wolfgang Amadeus Rock me.

Mr. Giggles:

Amadeus, you're right. Yes, wonderful, okay, good. Next question Austria is home to the biggest ice cave in the world. What's it called? That's not the actual question. I just want to ask this question what's it called? What's it called? Oh, that's the one. I know the largest ice cave. Is it the?

Dr. Schnitzel:

Eiskustar or something Welten, it's.

Mr. Giggles:

Eisriesenwelt Eisriesenwelt. Yeah, that's Okay. The question is how big is it? Do you want a multiple choice on this one? Is it bigger than Eminem? Let's give you multiple choices, okay, either 12 kilometers, 21 kilometers, 33 kilometers or 42 kilometers. Here I just have to take a guess. It sounds like it, yeah, 21. 21,. He guesses he's wrong. I didn't know either. I had to wait for the green to come up and tell me it is in fact 42 kilometers, the largest number available for the largest number. Okay, so what is the next?

Dr. Schnitzel:

question. I slipped on that.

Mr. Giggles:

I oh you slipped on this question. Oh, moving on, yes, quickly. Which of these dishes? I'm not going to give you the options. What is the name of the dish that is often named as austria's national dish?

Dr. Schnitzel:

it's maybe the one that has something to do with the name of our podcast, which of these dishes is often named as Austria's national dish Are you going to give?

Mr. Giggles:

me some multiple options now or not? No, I wasn't going to give you any options. I thought you were going to name this Lickety Split.

Dr. Schnitzel:

I mean, there's the schnitzel, of course, to go to, but there might be others as well, because we have more than schnitzel, let's go with others.

Mr. Giggles:

Let's try others let's try others, as in just a regular meal type of yeah, just a meal that you would order at a restaurant there's a Schweinsbraten, there's a Kaiserschmarrn. I'm just saying because you haven't even had any. On the multiple choice, this was, to my understanding, the favorite meal of the Emperor Franz Josef before, before he tried the Frankfurter.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Oh, I was going to say Frankfurter because, I've heard an episode about that. Yeah, callback, Callback. Yeah, Before the Frankfurter there was even.

Mr. Giggles:

Something he really enjoyed to eat. Yeah, I mean, this is about your, my Kaiser. Taking far too long on this?

Dr. Schnitzel:

Yeah, it's probably Do you want options.

Mr. Giggles:

It's going to be obvious. Okay, here's the options. Yes, roasty, mm-hmm Fondue, sour Braten.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Tafelspitz. Okay well, tafelspitz is definitely.

Mr. Giggles:

Austrian, that's the answer. Okay, man, but I was going through the wholenitzel is way more famous, sure.

Dr. Schnitzel:

But I would guess what they could be getting at is that it's hard to get a taffelspitz outside of Austria. Right, you can get a schnitzel in Germany, yeah.

Mr. Giggles:

Some would say you're not really getting a schnitzel in Germany with all their sauces?

Dr. Schnitzel:

No, what they're doing with the schnitzel? There is something that's a whole different story, a whole different episode.

Mr. Giggles:

All right, moving on, which small village hosts the Liszt Festival? Liszt Small village which?

Dr. Schnitzel:

small village Okay, liszt Festival.

Mr. Giggles:

That's, I'll give you options. Okay, give me options, I'll give you options Kufstein, zellamsee, reidling, badgastein, badgastein, selamsee, reidling, badgastein, badgastein, badgastein Not to be confused with good.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Badgastein, it's good, Gastein so list. It was a composer right. Well, you wouldn't know, Sure.

Mr. Giggles:

There's a picture of a dude in front of a building. So yeah, maybe, maybe, reidling, maybe, reidling. It is indeed Reitling. Yeah, well done, I've heard that before. Okay, which town in Austria was added to UNESCO's Great Spa Towns of Europe list in 2021?

Dr. Schnitzel:

Breaking news. Breaking news, that's pretty recent Spa.

Mr. Giggles:

Do you want options St Pulte, eisenstadt, baden-by-wien.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Bielach. The only one that makes sense geographically is Baden-by-Wien.

Mr. Giggles:

Okay, and you're right, and it has the Baden name, but maybe that could have been a distractor.

Dr. Schnitzel:

What I was going to go for is I thought this was already part of the UNESCO World Heritage, because it's that famous, so I thought maybe was already part of the UNESCO World Heritage, because it's that famous.

Mr. Giggles:

So I thought maybe, like years and years ago, they would have already added it. Apparently, it's a recent addition.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Because if you had told me, give me one name, I would have given you that name, all right.

Mr. Giggles:

Another picture. Okay, what is the name of this waterfall? It's Austria's highest. It's in English, so I had to listen to what you said Kriemel Watsefeller. Wassefeller, it's in English. I had to listen to what you said, you're correct?

Dr. Schnitzel:

Yes, you're correct. As a matter of fact, I think it's even the highest of Europe. Oh, all right.

Mr. Giggles:

The oldest mountain huts in Austria called Jagdhausalmen. Too many Jagdhausalmen Can be found in which national park. That's a very specific question.

Dr. Schnitzel:

I think I've been to a spa more recently than I've been hiking. Than to an old mountain hut To an old mountain hut, yeah.

Mr. Giggles:

They're beautiful. Of course, I can give you some options. Give me options. Gezäuse National Park, kalkalpen National Park, hohetauen National Park, donauauen National Park. Ithe Tauern National Park, donauauen.

Dr. Schnitzel:

National Park. It definitely could be the Donauauen, because there's no mountains there, no mountains near Donau. The Hohe Tauern has old history. So I mean the others, maybe two, I just like the Hohe Tauern, okay.

Mr. Giggles:

Hohe Tauern, you're correct, well done, hey. Two questions left, we're almost at the end.

Dr. Schnitzel:

everybody, I'm getting exhausted already?

Mr. Giggles:

Yeah, this has been a tiring quiz. What is a yaozi? What is a yaozi? Yeah, what is a yaozi?

Dr. Schnitzel:

I thought there was something else. You thought I was curious. I was thinking do you want to have a yaozi? Because it's the snack in between, usually between breakfast and lunch or in the afternoon, would you say.

Mr. Giggles:

it's a daily afternoon coffee break Can also be, yeah.

Dr. Schnitzel:

But even you say that it is some kind of break, like a coffee break, but could also mean like a snack for students in school. Okay, so you would also have yaozi at 10 o'clock in the morning, that's one.

Mr. Giggles:

So the option I have is a daily afternoon coffee break.

Dr. Schnitzel:

It could pretty much be part of your daily routine, as in breakfast, lunch and then dinner, so that would make sense. All right, okay, final question True or false?

Mr. Giggles:

False, we're ending Okay.

Dr. Schnitzel:

I thought you were saying final question True or false?

Mr. Giggles:

We only have one more question. Okay, okay, austria has beaches, but doesn't have a coastline. Yes, true, true. Find the word All right. True, find the word all right. Find a word, uh, true, it is indeed true. Okay, so you got 15 out of 16. Well, which does that make me austin, though? Or it says sergut, which means very good, just reading uh, you got 15, which means you know a thing or two about Austria. It actually means you know 15 things about Austria, to be specific. And then it asks where will you go on your next adventure? Only time will tell, I suppose. All right, well, so I guess we've confirmed your credibility as an expert in some things.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Austria, yes, thank you All right, I brought some stuff for you as well today, but it's the next step in this episode, okay? So today we have something exciting waiting for us. Okay, I'm ready, you're ready, I'm prepared. You think you're ready, but you're not. You're not ready for what's coming next. I promise ready, you're ready, I'm prepared, you think you're ready, but you're not. You're not ready for what's coming next. I promise you, okay, because with modern technology, there's so many great things happening right now. There's artificial intelligence yeah, I've heard of it, and what we're going to introduce today is something the world has never seen, never heard before.

Mr. Giggles:

Because, there's a little something called the Austroficial intelligence.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Oh boy, austroficial intelligence I have not heard of this yet it's breaking news.

Dr. Schnitzel:

It's ai okay, very austrian, specific. Yeah, that's why it's austroficial intelligence, okay, and it works like this. We can ask it questions and I thought, um, you know, since, since these, these apps and these devices, they're so smart, we might ask it for a suggestion. But you can have like a short conversation with it. You can, you know, you can ask all kinds of things, okay, and we'll just have to see what happens when we talk to it. Just have to address it.

Mr. Giggles:

Okay, so you have this thing loaded up. Should we try this?

Dr. Schnitzel:

Yeah, is it on? Is it on? Yeah, it's, I pulled it up, it's there, okay, so if I just, you know, I have to prompt it somehow, like I have to ask you a question and then hopefully it's going to respond. Okay, I haven't tried it either all right, so this will be exciting, yeah. So austrofacial intelligence, could you maybe introduce yourself to us?

Mr. Giggles:

yeah, hello, I'm the austrofacial Intelligence.

Dr. Schnitzel:

I'm brand new and I'm here just for you.

Mr. Giggles:

Oh, austrofacial Intelligence, can we call you E? Well, you could, but then you'd be wrong. Oh, so what do we call you?

Dr. Schnitzel:

Call me by my name Austrof Austrian.

Mr. Giggles:

Intelligence. It's so hard to say, sir, are you sure you don't want to be referred to by something easier to say no, no way around this, it's impossible. It's really impossible.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Okay, well how can we use it? It seems stubborn.

Mr. Giggles:

It's very Austrian, pretty Austrian, yeah, no way around that.

Dr. Schnitzel:

How about? Yeah, we need a topic for today, so maybe we'll ask it for some suggestion.

Mr. Giggles:

Yeah.

Dr. Schnitzel:

I guess it's probably a little bit more creative than you are. Yes, probably. It has all the data of Austria stored in it, so let's ask it another question. Okay, austria Official Intelligence. Give me a suggestion for some austria related topic that we could talk about on a podcast. So the best suggestion for austrofacial intelligence is the following word nazi. Oh my god.

Mr. Giggles:

Okay, that was unexpected, wow okay, okay, uh, can we ask?

Dr. Schnitzel:

maybe choose a different. We're asking for some, uh like, non-austrian related topics. All right, All right.

Mr. Giggles:

Austria official intelligence. Austria official intelligence. Thank you for that last suggestion. Maybe is there a topic that is unrelated to Austria that you could give to us. An unrelated topic that's not related to Austria would be space.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Space is very general, right? Yeah, okay, let's ask it. Okay, artificial intelligence. Could you put those two words together for us and make it a theme and a topic for our podcast? Oh, my goodness, I'm not ready to talk about this do it. The suggested topic is space nazi oh, I was worried about this space nazi.

Dr. Schnitzel:

okay, oh, I don't know what the intelligence is referring to, or maybe I know. Have you seen the movie Iron Sky? It's like years ago. I think it was early 2010s or some time. I can't say that I have. Okay, you probably never heard of it because it's a European production.

Mr. Giggles:

I feel attacked on that. I'm pretty cultured.

Dr. Schnitzel:

That time you actually lived in austria, right like early 2010s. Yeah, you could have heard of it. You're basically european back then. Yeah, pretty much okay, so, but I haven't heard.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Well, some people say it's it would be even better to have not heard about this. Okay, well, good, I'm glad I haven't heard about it. The basic plot of the movie is it kind of plays in the present time, like the 2010s, and there's like some exploration, like a space exploration going to the moon, okay, and they're shocked when they find out on the like, on the dark side of the moon, the back side of the moon, nazis have survived since 1945, okay does that ring a bell?

Mr. Giggles:

maybe no, it doesn't ring a bell at all. I feel like I need some details. What country is exploring?

Dr. Schnitzel:

I think it's the US going to the moon again.

Mr. Giggles:

Okay, so we're using it as our base for Mars. Is that the reason? Or they just want to go there?

Dr. Schnitzel:

No, actually they just go there with a regular rocket and they find out the Nazis have been preparing on the moon for like 70 years to attack earth. And that's kind of the whole movie. What's it about freaking? Nazis, okay, wow okay, I don't think that's the thing we're going to talk about, but it seemed like we were talking about it but if you ever want, when I watch the movie it's I think it's a finnish production or something.

Dr. Schnitzel:

There people have said it's something that you've never seen before. It's not like another rip-off of another story. It's very unique. Oh they're right, I've never seen it before it even got a sequel, but it's really bad Wow.

Mr. Giggles:

Did you know?

Dr. Schnitzel:

that the voice of an actual Nazi is traveling throughout a space.

Mr. Giggles:

I'm not kidding. No, I'm not kidding.

Dr. Schnitzel:

See, these are the things you need to know when you're going to be in Austria.

Mr. Giggles:

Are we going to ask our official intelligence for any more details on this?

Dr. Schnitzel:

or do you have them all? I think I'm onto something. It served its purpose. I think I'm triggered. Now here comes the story On the farthest human-made object from earth. Okay, yeah, it's traveling through space. Yeah, it's actually entering interstellar space, like outside of a solar system. Okay, there's a voice record of an austrian and, by the way, he fought with the nazis in the war.

Mr. Giggles:

Like they just spun a record out there, or did they put it well, it rocket.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Well, it's not like Frisbee throw. And first of all, here's a spoiler. Okay, spoiler alert, it's not Hitler we're talking about. Okay, so that's good, I suppose. But have you ever heard of the Voyager program? Sure, I mean, that's American right. Yeah, sure, so the Voyager, what do you call it? Probes? No, it's Voyager. I think it's a probe. Voyager, probes, I think so. They actually, yeah, they sent out into space Rocket scientist Thought you were a rocket surgeon, but that's another question. They were launched in the 1970s.

Dr. Schnitzel:

And they've been flying and flying and flying, ever since. They passed ever since they passed jupiter and saturn and that too, and so they're, they're out there and they have a message from from humankind to any possible extraterrestrial beings.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Okay, but let me just go back for a moment. Yeah, because, um, there was this one man who was born in austria and, um, he was kind of an austrian diplomat. He was even the federal minister of foreign affairs. Okay, that was like in the 1950s, 1960s. He ran for Austrian president in 1971. 71. So that's kind of a long time ago.

Dr. Schnitzel:

The Voyager probes were launched in 1977, I think this guy, this Austrian, lost the election, yeah, and so he was like, okay, I'm gonna do next, because I mean, the highest office of of austria is not available to me, but he still was. Okay, I'm gonna go for a step further. And eventually he became the secretary general of the united nations. Wow, okay, so that's pretty good. Yeah, good thing for him. So this guy like we're talking about the 1970s, he's the man, he's in charge of the UN, united Nations Sure, he's got some power. He wanted to become the president, but then he became the secretary of the United Nations.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Back then in the US, the NASA program, the Voyager program, was being prepared, and there's scientists I think his name was Carl Sagan. Yeah, he was, uh, commissioned to prepare. Kind of it's a hard job. It's like I think he had one year to prepare, like put everything that's relevant of of humanity, of humankind, into one box, more or less, so he can shoot it out into space. Yeah, that was his job, so he put on some music there, like like from Bach and Mozart and Beethoven.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Classic 1970s music yeah, they also put Johnny B Goode on there. Okay, so 60s, yeah, so a few modern, but also some classical music. They put a lot of images about what life looks like on Earth, you know, trees and humans and so on and sounds, yeah. And then they thought, okay, what's? We need to add a message to the aliens as well. Sure, but the question is, of course, who do you choose to tell a message to possible aliens? Sure, yeah. So I mean, you could have chosen the president of the US, but Well, it doesn't really represent the world. But then maybe, yeah, because the Soviet Union was still around.

Mr. Giggles:

Yeah, they don't want that.

Dr. Schnitzel:

They could have asked the Queen of England back then too, Sure why they could have asked the Queen of England back then too, why not her? So many people they could have asked so here's my quiz question to you today, sir Of the President of the US, the Queen of England or the Secretary General of the United Nations, who do you think got chosen?

Mr. Giggles:

Well, I think, based on the fact that you told me they didn't do it, I'm going to go with option number three the Secretary General.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Oh my, I gave away the answer too soon.

Mr. Giggles:

Man, I wonder if their classes are this easy.

Dr. Schnitzel:

So, and this guy's name, by the way, was Kurt Waldheim, kurt Waldheim, kurt is a very German-Austrian name. Kurt or Kurt, well, kurt, Kurt, k-u-r-t. Okay, and basically you don't really pronounce the R in it, so it's more like Kurt, kurt, yeah, all right, I mean you can say Kurt, but that's a little over the top, seems silly, seems silly, yeah. So Kurt Weidheim was his name, so he basically has a spoken greeting on these records. They're like golden records, I think. They're copper like covered with some gold.

Mr. Giggles:

What language was he doing this?

Dr. Schnitzel:

He was doing it in English though, because it was kind of still the international, like UN language, I guess, yeah, it should be in German, right, like this could be more frightening. It should be in alien because we don't know what language that is. Yet yeah. Back then you had this record player still, so I think they sent out like a golden record, like this big.

Mr. Giggles:

Okay, I've heard of the golden record. Is that what we're talking about?

Dr. Schnitzel:

No, that's a different thing. Oh, okay, that's a different thing, different thing. Yeah, it's the one thing you win. You do not blast it out into space.

Mr. Giggles:

No, like they actually made the record out of gold.

Dr. Schnitzel:

No, I thought you were saying like golden records.

Mr. Giggles:

No, not like the platinum and gold. Platinum and gold records no no, I meant like this record, okay, well then, you've heard of it.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Yeah, that's what I just said. But coming back to Kurt Weidheim, yeah, yeah, that's a pretty nice achievement for your CV, right?

Mr. Giggles:

Sure, I mean, I don't know what other job he's shooting for, but yeah.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Well, glad that you asked. And he's like oh, there was this idea that I had earlier in the 70s the thing with president of Austria, Right, so he tried that again.

Mr. Giggles:

Oh, so he took a little step back. So he took a step back, but yeah, but he's got more experience, more experience, get more experience.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Now maybe and that was a really good advertising of him, because the former un secretary general of the un being president and being like connected internationally, like and super diplomatic competence and so on and so on, that was really great.

Dr. Schnitzel:

So he, he stepped up and he won the election okay however, the day after he they kind of decided that he should become the candidate like some newspaper article came out and uncovered that he had been part of the Nazi army. Of course he was Back in the war. It was that generation, it was a young man back then. How does it just come up? Well, that's the thing he was. Maybe that was his mistake. He had just released like an autobiography. He told everybody and the thing is, how did you guys figure this out? He told everyone and he kind of dismissed the years like the late 30s and the early 40s. Oh, just a missed chapter. It's like, oh, and so that was the one thing where journalists started digging deep. It's like, why are there so many gaps and so many things that are unexplained? So they found out he was. He was actually not a really high-ranking officer, but he was kind of a somebody in the Nazi army.

Mr. Giggles:

But he wasn't just a poor kid who had just gotten pulled into the military. No, he was not just like a soldier. No.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Like I said, he had some diplomatic background. Even he spoke a couple of languages. So they used him more in the southern region, like the former Yugoslavia area. That's where he was stationed, but he had more of a desk job, so he was never really they could never prove that he actually killed someone. However, when I say desk job, it kind of meant that he knew a lot of those things that were going on Right, very well documented, a lot of things coming across his desk Coming across his desk, yeah, so that was the pitiful thing that he kind of was like I don't really know if I kind of forgotten these things or I don't want to think about these anymore.

Dr. Schnitzel:

So this was actually very famous back in the 80s. So we're talking about he was elected in 1986 as the Weidheim Affair and only a couple of years ago there was a documentary released. It's called the waltham waltz. Oh, clever, yeah, it's a clever, yeah, and the funny thing is a funny not to say no, funny is not the right word for it but english isn't your first language.

Mr. Giggles:

It's fine, that's funny, you know well, uh, what waltham was claiming.

Dr. Schnitzel:

He's like he got wounded in 42 and was just released from the army. That's kind of his story. But then I mean that was true, but he got re-enlisted later on and so he was actually in the war until 45, until it ended. Yeah, so his political opponents they of course liked that, sure, because they're like, hey, we can't vote a nazi. Yeah, nobody wants a nazi. Who wants to like?

Dr. Schnitzel:

um well, sadly some people do, but well, the point is there was this campaign against weidheim going on then in in the in the pre-election times, and the problem that the political opponents did not consider was I mean, basically the majority of the people alive back then were the war generation. Yeah, the ones have been through the war, so they're voting so and they're the voters, yeah. And so once they they kind of tried to ridicule, I mean, or even, yeah, like get rid of waldheim altogether. His campaign, his counter campaign was, they call it yes, there's like now more than ever, oh boy.

Dr. Schnitzel:

And so so they leaned into the lead into the thing because most of the time he was like more like a symbol for this war generation. Yeah, and standing up and he was always saying in public I was never pro-war, but I just had to fulfill my duty, otherwise I would have been executed. And this, of course, connected well with with the population in austria. Yeah, and made him the austrian president. And that's how history played out, although I've got to say, other than this golden record floating in space and maybe chances of connecting with aliens in the future, yeah, this story really took a turn.

Dr. Schnitzel:

There's something good that came out of it, because up until that point, the Austrian public was doing its best to forget about World War II and all the events connected to that, and Austria was really leaning into this idea. We're not the bad people, the Germans were the bad people, but we're the Austrians, and you've heard of that. So Austria refused to admit its role in the Holocaust and all the war crimes that were committed and even like by the 1970s, they had stopped persecuting the Austrian Nazis. I mean, they were electing a president. Well, yeah, and so you know, austria said they will never pay any compensation to the victims of Nazism. They never wanted to talk about it.

Mr. Giggles:

Yeah.

Dr. Schnitzel:

They were like, okay, germany is taking the blame for it. It's great, yeah, and Austria always presented itself as the first victim of Adolf Hitler, yeah, of the whole Nazi regime. But as we know now, as we could have known even back then, it's not as easy to draw the line here, because many Austrians welcomed the Nazis, correct, and some rejected them. But of course, those who rejected them, the number became smaller and smaller. At least the voices became less and less heard. That was the part of this whole police state that was in place that the Nazis started. So when Weizheim became president, it basically also marked the first time that a public discussion took place about the past of Austria concerning the 1930s and 1940s.

Mr. Giggles:

So it pushed it back out into the public stage, so they can't just ignore it anymore. Now we've got a Nazi as a president, so it pushed it back out into the public stage so they could just ignore it anymore. Now we've got a Nazi as president, so we have to deal with it.

Dr. Schnitzel:

The irony of it is that, waldheim, he got elected, as I just said, but he ended up in diplomatic isolation. He was never invited to any other countries to visit or receive any visits, except a few Arab states and a few other smaller states. When he died, the only person representing another country officially was the head of state from Liechtenstein, alright. He died in 2007. 88 years old, okay, so he lived kind of a long life and in a way, he's going to live on because his voice has left our solar system by now.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Yeah, I'll tell you what. Like in a way, he's going to live on because his voice has left our solar system by now.

Mr. Giggles:

Man, I'll tell you what. Like in a thousand years, maybe less, with all the alien talk, they come back and they're like Where's Kurt? Yeah, they're like we want to talk to Kurt, like we looked into this guy, we really like him, man, I hope the aliens aren't Nazis.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Gosh, what a great way to end this episode, yeah.

Mr. Giggles:

Wow, yeah, I hope the aliens aren't Nazis, that'd be the worst.

Dr. Schnitzel:

But the whole history of Nazis in Austria is very troublesome and we just scratched the surface here.

Mr. Giggles:

Yeah, I thought we were going to avoid it as long as we could. Thanks a lot, our surreal well, visual intelligence, that's.

Dr. Schnitzel:

That's the old mindset that you have avoided as long as you can. You fell for the trap, fell for the trap. Yes, just to finish that story. I think it was still well while he was president, like in the early 90s was the first time that the Austrian chancellor, the top man of the state, was publicly announcing that Austria cannot avoid to admit that it has some guilt and some part in those Nazi crimes.

Dr. Schnitzel:

So he was the first politician to say that Like the Germans were. Of course they were like in I don't know 1940s. To say that In Austria it was the 1990s yeah, that's how far behind the austrians were in admitting those things. But ever since then lots of things have changed and they tried to make amends as best as they could. Like talk about um restitution, yeah, of property, still to this day. Not justice has not been done for everyone, of course, no, not at all. But the mindset has shifted ever since and in a way we can thank Kurt Weidheim for that, although it was not his intention. But he actually made history. But he's not very well known amongst like I mean, in history lessons, I don't know, worldwide. You don't hear much about him, but the world would be a different place if it wasn't for him, because this weitem affair is still to this day is called the most sensational of all post-war nazi scandals.

Mr. Giggles:

Wow, so there was never anything that was more shocking to the world oh sure, because I guess most of the like post-war nazi scandals, if you will, or news events were like nazis dying yeah. So yeah, that's, that's a lot like you know, surface level, yeah, great news.

Dr. Schnitzel:

But for this to, for a guy to still be involved, active in politics, that would probably shake, you know, the thinking that we were past that if you were like watching the news in 1985, 86, austria would have been sure we both were international, yes, sure, but austria was on the news a lot these days, yeah, and it got to the point where the austrian chancellor back then said we're not going to have the world tell us who we should be, would should elect for president. Oh, because, like the media so was putting on so much pressure. And also, I have to say this, is that a lot of things they kind of discovered was false information, was fake news, even about my time. So they had to take it back later on. Okay, but his reputation was ruined for his life, yeah, but, like I said, he maybe could have avoided it if he had not been a Nazi that's a great tip I could have with a lot of this problem, but then at least come clean.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Sure, but the problem is like again we come back to the same issue that this generation was not the kind of generation to come clean, because they just couldn't talk about these things that they've witnessed.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Yeah, they didn't want to accept the shame or whatever. Yeah, and that has been the experience for many Austrians, like the grandchildren asking their grandparents who fought in the war. Yeah, and the grandparents would never even speak about it at all. They would say no word because the trauma was so deep. And so, in some ways, the scars that the war has inflicted still affect us decades later? Sure, do, wow, well, that was a happy moment.

Mr. Giggles:

Shits and giggles, huh.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Shits and giggles.

Mr. Giggles:

I mean shits and giggles. Woo, I mean schnitzel giggles. You're letting that one out.

Dr. Schnitzel:

Yeah, but if you want to see the Nazis fight the Americans again in space, or like invading from space, iron Sky?

Mr. Giggles:

Iron Sky.

Dr. Schnitzel:

All right. Well, great actors, great CGI. I bet Strange plot.

Mr. Giggles:

I bet.

Dr. Schnitzel:

From the.

Mr. Giggles:

Finns From the Finns.

Dr. Schnitzel:

All right, that took us to the finish line, yeah.

Mr. Giggles:

Well, with that guten bye-bye, Guten bye-bye.

People on this episode

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Lukas Marsak (Dr. Schnitzel)

Host
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Michael Johnstone (Mr. Giggles)

Host