2 September 2018

Insights into the Museum of Local History Fischamend, nearby Vienna: Motifs of 19th century painter Emil Jakob Schindler, the origin of 'robot' and aeronautic designs

Fischamend is a small city in Lower Austria nearby Vienna and when the Museum of Local History located at the old tower hadn't collected artefacts from several centuries, the dimension of the area could be underestimated. It's a history loaded city.

On 1st September, Fashion.at visited Fischamend for a walk from the city center to the Danube where the river 'Fischa' ends (the word Fischamend is very probably derived from 'End of Fischa'). But it was a rainy day with heavy, dark clouds! What a fortune that the Museum of Local History Fischamend at the 6-floor tower (dates back to the mid-11th century) was open. (The museum is open every first Saturday of the month.)

At the 2nd floor, Fischamend pays homage to artists; very prominently to 19th century Emil Jakob Schindler (image above, middle) who is internationally probably better known as father of Alma Mahler (who had to flee Austria in 1938). The painter was born into a family which owned a cotton spinning mill in Fischamend and grew up partly in Lower Austria. As painter, Emil Jakob Schindler became famous for his views on landscapes; a large part of his work is contributed to regions of Lower Austria.

On another floor of the tower, an old poster from the 1848-revolution together with a short history of what happened in Fischamend in this year is exhibited. At the poster text in the second row, the word 'robot' appears. It was used in the meaning of 'serfdom' and is derived from the Czech word 'robota' (the Kingdom of Czech or Bohemia belonged to the Austrian Empire). The poster text 'keine Robot mehr' means 'no serfdom any longer'. According to etymological dictionaries, the Czech word 'robota' was already used for 'hard working' in the 14th century. In the early 20th century, Czech science fiction author Karel Čapek of the play 'R.U.R. Rossum's Universal Robots' (published 1920) transformed the word into 'robots' for humanoid artificial intelligence. Since then, the word robot is used internationally for programmable machines.

Not far from the tower of the Museum of Local History, the special exhibition 'Fischamend and Aviation' is on view. Fischamend was once one of the country's centers of aeronautics research, design and production, testing of airships and airplanes; one of the first helicopters - the Petróczy-Kármán-Žurovec, was developed and tested in Fischamend. During World War I., aeronautics scientist Theodore von Kármán was director of the research group in Fischamend. The aviation history leads over two World Wars until 12 April 1944, the day the production plants and parts of the city were bombarded.


more culture>