Karl Marx Hof

This is an elevation of Karl Marx Hof—a gigantic housing project more than 1 kilometer long that is near Maggie and Daniel’s house. It was built from 1927 to 1930 by Vienna’s socialist government.



In May 1919, amidst severe food and housing shortages which were the result of Austria’s military defeat in World War I and the collapse of the monarchy, Vienna elected a socialist government. This made Vienna the first major European capital to be governed by a majority of socialists.
From 1923 to 1934, Vienna’s socialists began a campaign to provide housing for working-class residents who were the backbone of their party. There was a serious housing shortage with workers crowded into tiny apartments, sleeping in shifts and as many as 40 people sharing one bathroom. The government constructed 400 apartment complexes—64,000 new apartments in all, that together housed one-tenth of the city’s population.

Well known architects were commissioned to design the apartments. They were called Wiener Gemeindebauten (Vienna Communal Houses.) and were financed by taxes on luxury items. They were spread around the city—Karl Marx Hof is located in what was then and still is now an upscale neighborhood—the 19th district. The apartments were quite small, with the majority of the space being allotted to shared, communal functions. There were kindergartens, clinics, laundries and many gardens. Each of the arches leads into a garden so the apartments are built around a series of courtyards.

The courtyards contain lots of statues—you get the feeling that they were meant to be some kind of mythological symbols of the new socialist society, but I wasn’t able to find any information about them.

As the socialists lost power, the struggle between the right and left became violent. In a final confrontation that ended in a defeat for the socialists, the Austrian army and a right wing paramilitary force fired cannons and artillery into Karl Marx Hof, killing not only the armed socialists who had barricaded themselves inside, but also women and children. In the 50’s the apartments were restored and are in use today. It would be so interesting to be able to talk to some of the people who live there and to see what the apartments look like..

Food and wine

"the wine is here"

There are many vineyards and wineries within the city limits of Vienna and many of them are within walking distance of Daniel and Maggie’s house. The restaurants that serve the wine are called heurigen. If a pine bush is hanging outside it means that they have the new wine. They serve delicious food to go with the wine—you pick out what you want at the front before you sit down. There is a casual atmosphere with wooden tables. On Sunday, the 28th, the three of us had a delicious dinner at the Wagner--a heuriger up the street from Maggie and Daniel's apartment. We didn't get any pictures that night. There are some pictures of just Maggie and me eating there a different night. After we went to the zoo, all three of us ate at a well known restaurant with a famous chef—Plachutta. We ate their specialty which was boiled beef called Tafelspitz. First you eat the broth it was cooked in with vegetables as a soup. Then the meat with different accompaniments like horseradish, creamed spinach. It was really good. I got the cookbook and hope to learn to make Tafelspitz, goulash and schnitzel. Another big favorite of mine was leberkäse a sandwich made with “liver cheese”. I thought this was the same as liverwurst, but after looking it up on the web found out it is made up of corned beef, bacon and onions. Anyway, you can get these fantastic hot sandwiches at many fast food places or even grocery stores. They are so good, you can’t even imagine. I found a picture on the web

Maggie and me at the heuriger--I was really happier than I look


Maggie about to drink at the heuriger and Maggie at a fancy restaurant for goulash

Lebercaese--really good

Jewish Vienna

Vienna has had a Jewish community since the beginning of the 13th century. The first Jewish ghetto was in the inner city. I didn’t get to that section, but there is a Holocaust memorial and a Jewish museum there as well as a medieval synagogue that has been excavated. The present Jewish community has been a center of Jewish life for centuries. It is in the 2nd district, Leopoldstadt, named after the emporer who expelled the Jews from the inner city and made them live there. It’s a beautiful area. I explored it on the afternoon before Yom Kippur began. I wanted to follow the tradition of lighting a yartzeit candle for each of my parents and each of Alan’s parents just before sundown. This was my first real trip on my own without Maggie and Daniel (they were both at work). Leopoldstadt had many easily identifiable Jewish men wearing dark suits and hats all heading for synagogue. I asked for help—everyone was very courteous and most spoke English. The streets were confusing and I would follow the directions I was given until I got lost again at which time I would stop and ask someone else. Finally I found the outdoor market—a mixture of kosher and hallal butchers, lots of fresh vegetables. There weren’t very many English speakers among the merchants there, but they found someone who understood what I wanted and showed me where to buy the candles. Along the sidewalks as I walked I often came across small brass plaques. With the aid of my dictionary I read how many people in a particular apartment on a particular date were rounded up and sent to a concentration camp. And there would be names and birth dates of some of the people. The “Way of Remembrance.” There was something so moving about being a part of this community surviving, living, carrying on but not forgetting.
That evening I met Maggie and Daniel for services at Or Chadash—the progressive Jewish synagogue. In the next row in front of us was a very youthful looking 85 year old man who with his wife had just moved back to Vienna to retire. He was reconnecting with family and friends—he had last lived in Vienna at age 15 in 1938.
Maggie and I fasted and attended Yom Kippur services the whole next day. There was a section of the service where we talked about the holocaust--like there is in every synagogue all over the world on Yom Kippur. The part about the non-Jews who stood up against the craziness and helped Jews seemed especially significant. For me it was emotional, difficult and helpful—all these rituals having to do with death, guilt, forgiveness. We broke our fast at a nearby Italian restaurant with others from the congregation. This was one of those times that I will always remember, and never thought to take a picture.

Mother, daughter, father

View from the kitchen window

This trip feels like a new era for me in being a mother and daughter. All my closest relationships are changing. Both my parents are now dead, so being a daughter is totally different. My daughters are grown up women. Having the family together for Dad’s funeral made this all feel very concrete. During the time we were all together in New Jersey, Maggie said to me that she felt like a daughter of a daughter.

It is one thing to know that Maggie and Rachel have their own homes, their own kitchens. But it was a whole other thing to be there with Maggie. We cooked Rosh Hashanah dinner together. I helped. She was a very fast, confident, efficient, creative cook. She takes more risks than I do I noticed. She delegates well. What a feeling of strong femininity working together in the kitchen with all those good smells.

Maggie cared for me physically—took my arm, worried about my sore leg, made sure I had good food. And she cared for me emotionally, listening, holding my hand, adding her own soft spoken wisdom as I dealt with Dad’s death.

Maggie planning her day 8am
My daughter is making her way in the world and it isn’t easy. But she and Daniel support each other, encourage each other, help each other. Their home is a warm, nurturing place. The dining room table is the starting off point every morning.. Always we had coffee. Some days we had delicious rye bread made by Daniel’s grandmother. Or some cinnamon bread or rye bread Daniel’s parents had brought up from Carinthia. Another morning Maggie made us eggs and toast. I took pictures of each of them starting out their days at the table. Maggie going over a complicated schedule of many different jobs in different places. Daniel going over the newspapers and explaining the Austrian political situation to me.

Parenthood has always, for me, been filled with highs and lows: unbelievable worry and pain when things don’t go well, when you feel like you made the wrong decision, when your child is sick or if you don’t know if they are safe, and such great joy sometimes even just moments after the pain. This trip was one of the great joy times. Maggie and Daniel treated me with so much love, allowed me into their lives. I got to understand their struggles and victories. They shared the beauties of Vienna, and some of their important places. They cared for me in all ways making sure I got everything I needed--spoke for me since I don’t speak German. They also coached me and helped me to make steps going places alone, gave me mini-German lessons. It was really like I was the child and they were the parents now that I think about it.

Daniel reading the paper 8:30am

Dad's funeral

We first met in New Jersey at Dad and Terri's house on Indiancreek Rd. Daniel, Rachel and I came into the house straight from the airport, having been up for 24 hours. The house was full of people, quietly eating. And there were my loved ones--my brothers, my sister,my sister-in-law, my nephews. At first I didn't recognize any of them. The brothers and nephews all in suits and ties. Each one of them looked unbelievably beautiful to me. Later, Alan arrived from Seattle. All of us together at the Best Western in Hazlet, New Jersey.


The funeral service in the light filled church was comforting. Now I can't remember exactly what the priest said--just a feeling of gentleness.
That night, we all went out to eat at what had once been a quiet Inn. Only now it was Big Ed's Barbecue. We were very obviously in New Jersey.
Dad was buried at Brigadier General Somebody's Veterans' Cemetary--45 minutes away--a long drive where we struggled to stay together in our funeral procession. I guess Dad knew about that ceremony--the flag being taken off his coffin, painstakingly folded and handed to his widow with salutes.

In the picture above, I think we all look like we are smiling bravely. This is hard.

So much about these 3 days was so hard. But we have each other. So much love.

More pictures in the Vienna Woods . These were taken on the long, hike we took on the day Dad died. As you walk up into the woods and through the vinyards you can see Vienna spread out below you.








These next pictures were taken when we stopped in a field to eat our snack. The hike was long, but we stopped for food and drinks of "sturm."

Just walk uphill from Maggie and Daniel's apartment and you are in the beautiful Vienna Woods, huge amount of land that partially encircles Vienna, where Beethoven wandered. In the fall the new wine, the "sturm" is done and you can hike through the woods to different vinyards and sample it.
Here are some lusciously ready grapes at one of the vinyards on our 6 hour hike.
Here we are, high above Vienna

Mourners' Kaddish
Translation by David Wolfe-Blank
The great essence will flower in our lives and expand throughout the world.
May we learn to let it shine through so we can augment its glory.
We praise, we continue to praise, and yet, whatever it is we praise, is quite beyond our grasp of all these words and symbols that point us towards it.
We know, and yet we do not know.
May great peace pour forth from the heavens for us, for all Israel, for all who struggle toward truth.
May that which makes harmony in the cosmos above, bring peace within and between us, and to all who dwell on this earth, and let us say, Ameyn.

Tuesday, September 30

Rosh Hashana
Today I was to go to the synogogue for services. But as I look at the maps, the lines of different colors showing the bus and the subway, I know I won't go. I don't have the motivation to explore Vienna, to walk out the door and figure out how to put myself along the journey pictured. Instead I will lie on the couch in Maggie and Daniel's beautiful apartment and think about my father who has always been there. To console me, to give advice, to make me mad, to make a joke or tell a story. From my earliest memory of his singing me a lullaby to strained telephone conversations about his condition.

Old Viennese

Rosh Hashana

greeting card

Second day in Vienna, Sunday September 28

Today, at 9:30 am, Joe Cassidy, my father died. He was at his home in Matawan, with Terri and health care workers. Anne was taking a shower in her hotel, getting ready to go over to 6 Indiancreek Road. When I got back from a long walk in the Vienna Woods with Maggie and Daniel, we saw we had gotten 3 phone calls and we knew. Well, Dad, there are a lot of us who feel sad and lost without you.

First day in Vienna--Saturday, September 27

Today, Maggie and I had coffee in the backyard of Maggie and Daniel's apartment. The apartment is hard to capture in pictures, but I will try. It is in an outer area of Vienna, just on the edge of the Vienna Woods. Here you see the pretty little yard with a hammock and a couple of small picnic tables scattered amongst the pots of flowers, trees and shrubs. We spent the morning and early afternoon waking up, drinking coffee in her back yard. There were still some tomatoes and peppers growing--it feels like the last of summer.

We went into the center of Vienna and saw some of the beautiful buildings of the Ringstrasse.
We ate lunch at a delicious middle eastern take out place in the train station.

We then negotiated the un-geometrical medieval streets in the old central part of Vienna to go to a traditional Viennese coffee house. A trio (bass, violin, piano) was playing classical music--well, it seemed like classical music, but one of the songs was a Big-Band standard arranged like a classical song. People were sitting around talking. There were little ashtrays on each table. Newspapers on sticks like in the library. Lots of dark colored wood. We were both pretty tired when we got there--don't think we had a super profound discussion, but I felt like this would be a good place to do so.

Then we came home where Daniel, who had just returned from his father's 50th birthday at their country home in southern Austria, made dinner. Delicious pizza, a beautiful salad, and wine. Didn't get a picture of the dinner, but here is the dining room table.

Drinking wine, we talked about the American elections, Barack Obama, Sarah Palin. It turns out that not every country is as obsessed with American politics as we are. But it seems that the same forces and fears about the future exist in Austria.

Tomorrow are the Austrian national elections. Because neither of them has enough seats in the Parliament to make a majority, one of the 2 most powerful parties will have to make a coalition either with one of the right wing groups or with the Green Party.

The two smaller right wing parties are extremely anti immigration. (Austria for Austrians) They have become popular by talking about how they can make everyone's lives better if they stop the drain on social services by immigrants and their large families. They promise to lower the price of gas, make people's lives better. They portray themselves as the champion of the common people and exploit their anger and fears about the future. A lot of people aren't that happy with the Green Party, but see it as a matter of votinfeel that they are forced to vote for the least of many evils.
Meanwhile, 16 year olds are being allowed to vote for the first time and are turning out to favor the right wing. How could they do that I thought to myself self righteously? But then I remembered that at 17 I wrote a long research paper on Karl Marx, my main source of information being J Edgar Hoover's book "Masters of Deceit". I was for Goldwater in 1964 and even had an AuH20 hair ribbon (AuH20 was printed over and over on the ribbon). I remember his acceptance speech which I loved: "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."

While we ate dinner, we listened to Simon Boccanegra live from the opera here in Vienna. It sounded really good. We hope to get tickets.

After dinner, everyone went to bed. It was now daytime in California and I was able to talk with Bill. Dad's condition is worsening. Anne is there. Max and Casey and Max's girlfriend too.

Sad news

As I was packing with some interference from Patches the cat and printing out my boarding pass, my brother, Bill called to say that our Dad's condition has worsened...that he has been diagnosed with "terminal agitation." They are giving him morphine every 2 hours and Haldol. Terri, our stepmother asked Bill to call all of us. He is dying, that is certain, but exactly when, no one knows. I cried, tried to figure out what to do.

The fact is that our family is incredibly spread out. There is an upside to this--we are passionate about what we do, we live interesting lives--I think in some ways our children are living out our fantasies in going to live and travel in wonderful places. Our parents were the same way. My father chose to leave Cleveland and go to the Naval Academy--the only one of the 6 children who went further than Columbus, Ohio. He was 18 years old, I think, when he and his mother arrived in Annapolis, Maryland with no money and no place to stay. They went to the local Catholic Church and introduced themselves. A nice family who lived next to St. Mary's Church put them up. Alan's parents left Chicago for California. Maybe it's in our genes to be dissatisfied, to want to explore. But now it seems so difficult.

I made the decision last April, after flying back to New Jersey several times in a few months--made the decision to go to Vienna and see Maggie in September and to go to Boston and help Rachel move into her new apartment in August. I knew if I did these 2 things I wouldn't have the time or money to go to New Jersey until October. But it had gotten harder and harder to be there. We couldn't stay at the house anymore and so the visits became more formal and more exhausting for all of us. And I felt that if I kept going so frequently to New Jersey I would not be able to see Rachel and Maggie at all.

Today I cried and tried to figure out what to do--I decided to continue to Vienna to see Maggie, that if bad news is going to come, we should be together. When my Dad dies, I hope I will be able to hold my 2 girls and Alan. But we don't know how it will all play out. How do I know what is best? I don't. But right now, I'm going to Vienna. As I sat on the subway at the airport, I realized that as the plane flies west, I will be going as fast as possible directly away from him. It has meant so much to me to have been able to physically care for him on my visits. Part of me longs to see him and touch him. As he lies in his bed struggling, my heart is with him, but this seems best. I think.

I'm leaving in a week

On Thursday, October 25 I am off to Vienna to see Maggie and Daniel and to spend the High Holy Days in the City of Dreams. I had planned to learn German, but I have only learned "Vo ist die toilette?".

I've been reading about the city of Vienna, especially the time in the 1800's when the liberals came into power and built important parts of the city. I'm looking forward to seeing the art and architecture from that time. I've also been reading about the end of the 1800's when the liberals ideals were coming into question. That time reminds me so much of our own time and I hope to understand it better.

I will be meeting Daniel's parents and grandparents who live in Carinthia in southern Austria. It sounds beautiful there. Here is a link to the website for Daniel's grandparents' farm: http://www.kanatschnig.at/

I've been reading as much as I can about the Jewish community in Vienna before and during the 1930's. There is a significant Jewish community in Vienna today. Maggie and I (and maybe Daniel) will go to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services in Vienna's only liberal synagogue, Or Chadash. We will have Rosh Hashanah dinner and break the fast at Maggie and Daniel's apartment in the (I think?) 19th district.

Maggie and Daniel's apartment is very near the famous Vienna Woods, so I hope to go on some hikes. And of course, I really hope to see opera!!!!! And I can't wait to experience the famous coffeehouses of Vienna.