More Leopoldskron history

There were several interesting stories that I learned about the schloss that I just had to share.  One was in the Reinhardt days and two were from WWII.
The first one was about a particular statue that Reinhardt bought to furnish his palace.  Remember the schloss had changed hands often and the art work was sold off through the centuries.
Max was a director and an artist, but he also was a businessman.  He had enough money to buy and rebuild the schloss...
He had seen this statue over a building in Vienna and liked it.  He thought it would be great for his entrance hall(the Great Hall we call it now).  He wasn't able to buy it himself, so he sent a trusted cousin(female) to do the transaction.  No one is sure exactly why, but maybe because she would be underestimated by the owner of the statue.
So she knocks on the door and says that Max Reinhardt really likes your Madonna and would like to have it.  The owner of the house refuses saying the Madonna is protecting my girls.  The cousin(who's name I never got) is a bit taken aback and realizes the sign is advertising a brothel.  So oops.  But after going back to Max and then back to the owner of the brothel(realizing maybe that she has a price for this along with everything else).  She did.  So Max got his Madonna.  I don't know what he paid for it in the end, but it is very nice.

So the next little vignette takes place in the 1940's.  The Schloss was seized by the Nazi's after the Anschluss.  The schloss was fought over by member of the Nazi party.  It was used a staging area for people who were going to the Eagle's Nest in Berchtesgarten.  (Berchtesgarten is on the other side of the Untersberg so close...) But a Princess who was a fan of Reinhardt managed to finagle the schloss for a while and shipped out most of Max's things to him in California.  I don't know how, and would love to know.  Because it was 16 crates of stuff.  She got 16 crates of an enemy of Nazi Germany(and a Jew) stuff across war torn Europe to California.  I mean this wasn't just a few suitcases of clothes and paying a extra baggage fee on Lufthansa! 
This blows my mind.  16 crates of stuff!  Across war torn Europe!  To a Jewish director in the USA!

The final story had evidence scattered around the schloss.  This was late in the war.  An American bomber was flying over the area and was looking to drop his bomb.  Engine trouble I think.  He saw the lake and thought, Oh good a lake.  So he dropped the bomb.  Well the lake isn't really deep.  So he blew most of the water out of it and the concussion broke all the windows in the lake side part of the schloss.  So many areas have holes in the walls.  My favorite is in the White Room.  One of the portraits looks like he has a GSW in the forehead.
I don't have a photo of that, but here's one from the Chinese room.

Reinhardt and Leopoldskron

So now that you have the basics of how the schloss came to be it's time to move to the 20th century.  So here enters the hero of the piece.
After the First World War Max Reinhardt bought the schloss and spent the next 20 years and a great deal of money renovating.  As someone who spent the majority of her time in his office I can attest that it was worth every cent and second he lavished on the place.  Here's one of my favorite views.  This is looking out to the library from the Reinhardt office.

Many people have not heard of Max Reinhardt these days.  So here's a few facts about him(thanks to the finding aid of the SUNY- Binghamton Special Collections, which holds the Reinhardt archives)  Max Reinhardt started his work life as an actor.  He was best known for his portrayals of old men, but he quickly tired of the scripts and the style of acting at the time and founded his own theatre in 1901.  Known as Schall und Rauch it helped Max develop a directorial style for his later years.  He moved around from Vienna, Salzburg, and Berlin during this time.
He quickly became a well known director who used new technologies and experimented with locations for his productions.  This came in handy when he and Richard Wagner and Hugo von Hofmannsthal revived and expanded the Salzburg Festspiele.  Reinhardt convinced the Archbishop to let him direct Hofmannsthal's play Jedermann(Everyman) in front of the Dom Cathedral to open the Festival.  This is something they still do today at the opening of every festival, unless it rains, of course.  Here's a shot of the front of the Dom on Palm Sunday.   A partial view of what it could be like for the play.

After the war he left Berlin for Salzburg where he lived until 1938.  As a Jew he was unwelcome in Austria after the Anschluss.  All his property including Leopoldskron was seized by the Nazis because he was considered an enemy of the state.  Luckily for Max he was in the U.S. at the time where he lived in until his death in 1943 at the age of 70.  Some think losing the schloss broke his heart.  I don't know about that, but it is known that he was saddened by it's loss to the Nazis.  When his possessions(all 16 crates of them) were returned to him by an admirer he replied to her "Thank you, but what are 16 crates when one has lost Leopoldskron?".
So the schloss is still working it's magic on the owner.  Like the original owner it was hard to leave the place that he loved.

The Library office

I miss my(Max's) office.  Okay it was dusty and there's no storage and the computer was slow.  But honestly it's a great view and it's such a pretty office.  And I think the desk was bigger than my current one.  I especially miss the view.  Ah the Untersberg.

 It's so clean and organized now....

 And more fireproof too!

And if I had another few months I could have done more wonders with the closet.

Library updates

Well, I finished shifting the downstairs and created an oversize and a folio section in the library.  Now I am doing some cataloging and creating a Max Reinhardt space.  I even wrote a sign explaining the space.  It's really more of a local history space than a Max space.  But because he created the library and helped found the Salzburg Festival, and refurbished the schloss, and his widow offered the schloss("Max's schloss") to the founders of the Seminar it's dedicated to him.

I have to finish it soon though.  The internship is winding down.  It still feels like there is more to do.  And to be truthful there is.  In fact, I think there's more to do now than when I got here in March.  I know I underestimated the cataloging. 
I talked to one of the program guys about how to create patrons in the library and he had some great ideas.  A writer/artist retreat for one.  Which makes sense since this was one during the Reinhardt times as well as in the 18th and 19th century.  What is old is new again?

First day

Monday was my first day, officially, of work. I got signed into the office computer, unlocked the doors and got down to library science.

It's sorta inspiring being in this office. I mean if I get bored or frustrated I just swivel around in my chair and look out the window.
Made a few lists of things I need to do. Dusting is there. Which means I'll see the mountain better. I'm going to clear some space for a Max Reinhardt area in the library proper. Lots of his stuff is crammed into the nooks in the office and he deserves better. Kinda thinking he needs a little exhibit. We like Max around here.

I got my first resource assignment for a session! I have a bunch of reports, articles and links to organize for an upcoming seminar on agriculture. I will admit to being a bit overwhelmed at first since I wasn't sure at all how to do it. But with some help that was a phone call away I got started on it.
Also I learned that the stuff in the Meierhof is also part of the library, so I'll organize some time to shelve and do some serial sorting. Two separate spaces, same library.
I also have to shelve and shelf read in the library space. Plus dust off the shelves. It's a bit sneezy in some spots.

So going to be busy for a while.

There's research to be done and lists to be made. Also books to catalog(damn Melvil Dewey)