Stefan Franke: "A little bit of complaining, a little bit of reasoning" - Thursday, March 5, 2026

Grumbling, complaining, and letting people know – no one does it quite like the Viennese. In the Austrian capital, there is certainly a certain expertise in these matters, as Stefan Franke's book "A Little Bit of Cursing, A Little Bit of Reasoning" shows. More than a hundred years ago, people in Vienna were already fond of expressing their outrage over various grievances and annoyances.

The book – a collection of reader and complaint letters published in the weekly newspaper "Wiener Hausfrau" in the early 20th century – allows the bourgeoisie of Vienna at that time to vent about everyday issues: dogs running across tables in restaurants, passionately kissing couples on the tram, whispering neighbors at concerts, etc. These and similar annoyances prompted people between 1909 and 1915 to address the newspaper in the flowery language typical of the time, because "in the end, it does help if many people complain about the same thing," as one anonymous writer of such a letter puts it.