Prewar Austria: vacation and leisure time
“Bilder vom staatlichen Skikurs Radstadt Weihnachten 1933” Horse pulls a sled. People walk and ski in the snow. They point and wave at the camera. Others trek up a hill on skis and ski down. Tree with icicles. A person falls. “Allerlei Allotria” The boys do acrobatics. They ski down another hill. Someone waves. More acrobatics. People on a balcony. 01:03:45 Parade of uniformed military men in the snow. “Hotel Pesl Lisl Jasny” CUs of different people, some dark, some smiling for the camera, at the train station. Train departs, kids wave. (01:05:46) Mixed shots of skiing, and a group of people trying to stand on skis, falling. 01:06:03 Shots from a moving train during a different season. Scenic views. Plants, trees and landscapes. CU, butterfly on someone's hand. Three friends laugh and talk, walk on a country road. They picnic in the grass and sail a kite. They dine at a table and dance at Wiener Stadtbrau. 01:10:21 Brief shot of a film projector. Women with children sit on chairs in a park (Volksgarten?), the boy eats nuts. A young girl smiles in a field, talks to the cameraman. City street, CU, nicely dressed man, a woman playfully covers her face with a scarf. The group eats and laughs (Franz and possibly Walter?), and walk along a dirt path. A woman comes out of an ice cream shop with two cones and alternates eating from each. Gardens behind Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna. A girl in a hat talks and smiles at the cameraman. They take a trolley train ride. Large community pool. Kids play with beach ball “Sport Marathon” in the water. Two women lounge on a blanket. A man lifts one of the woman’s feet into the air. CU, the woman talking. A woman pushes a man into the pool. End.
Walter Hausner (April 24, 1914-February 5, 2003) was a member of the Austrian amateur film society in Vienna. His father, Ferdinand (1883-1957) owned a firm for fabrics and fashion articles with factories in Vienna and Jihlava, Czechoslovakia with business partner Siegfried Furst. Walter’s mother, Wilhelmina Bloch, died from cancer in 1937. Walter and Ferdinand managed to leave Vienna together just before the plebiscite in March 1938 on a plane which was brought down in Berlin. The Nazis required Ferdinand to supply an inventory of his assets. His friend and fashion designer, Claire Rennai, had a visa to go to the United States and married Ferdinand to help him get out of Austria. Walter made it to England where he had planned to establish another factory for the family textile firm. He was interned as an enemy alien. Walter later served in the British Army, where he met a singer, Irene Jones (1921-2014) performing for the troops. They married and emigrated to the New York region in 1948.