Mexico City, where he had professional interests. All of a sudden, so it seemed, in 1958 Jan announced that he was obtaining a divorce. Helen made no attempt to deal with this additional shock in any way; it was beyond her abilities. The Vienna Years The Vienna of the 1920's was a rich and contradictory brew. The Hapsburg Dynasty, dating from the 10th Century was over. The government was socialist, but there was still nostalgia for the late Hapsburg Emperor Franz Josef (1830 - 1916), a relatively liberal monarch. The country had been pulled by Germany into WWI, probably against the will of Franz Josef , and the war was lost. With this loss also came the loss of the sense of grandeur of the great Austro-Hungarian Empire,now split up, but still visible in the architecture of many public buildings. In 1921 Robert Musil began to write his famous massive, questioning novel The Man Without Qualities, (Der Mann Ohne Freud's was published in 1923. Eigenschaften). Ego and the Id Arthur Schnitzler's plays, based on the prevailing lax morals, shocked many. Years later, one of them became Stanley Kubrik's 1999 movie with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Eyes Wide Shut In the 1920's Austria moved from absolute monarchy to socialism and suffered serious inflation. In 1925, Adolf Hitler, an Austrian by birth, became leader of mobs in Germany. Helen was born at home on December 16, 1922 as Helene Marta Mueller to Tomas and Ilsa Mueller, a middle class Catholic couple. (I have referred to her as Helen, for that was her preferred spelling in the USA.) The attending physician was Jewish. The
Mexico City, where he had professional interests. All of a sudden, so it seemed, in 1958 Jan announced that he was obtaining a divorce. Helen made no attempt to deal with this additional shock in any way; it was beyond her abilities. The Vienna Years The Vienna of the 1920's was a rich and contradictory brew. The Hapsburg Dynasty, dating from the 10th Century was over. The government was socialist, but there was still nostalgia for the late Hapsburg Emperor Franz Josef (1830 - 1916), a relatively liberal monarch. The country had been pulled by Germany into WWI, probably against the will of Franz Josef , and the war was lost. With this loss also came the loss of the sense of grandeur of the great Austro-Hungarian Empire,now split up, but still visible in the architecture of many public buildings. In 1921 Robert Musil began to write his famous massive, questioning novel The Man Without Qualities, (Der Mann Ohne Eigenschaften). Freud's Ego and the Id was published in 1923. Arthur Schnitzler's plays, based on the prevailing lax morals, shocked many. Years later, one of them became Stanley Kubrik's 1999 movie Eyes Wide Shut with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. In the 1920's Austria moved from absolute monarchy to socialism and suffered serious inflation. In 1925, Adolf Hitler, an Austrian by birth, became leader of mobs in Germany. Helen was born at home on December 16, 1922 as Helene Marta Mueller to Tomas and Ilsa Mueller, a middle class Catholic couple. (I have referred to her as Helen, for that was her preferred spelling in the USA.) The attending physician was Jewish. The