Das Hemd. 1863 – 1914 – 2014

In the anthology Das Hemd [The Shirt], 33 authors remember the First World War through stories, poetic texts, and essays. “The red thread through the writings is weaved by the shirt, the garment that lies closest to the human skin and that leads to associations about daily life, baptism, and death of the historical, personal, and archetypical kind. The writings by the authors from the former lands of the Habsburg monarchy, the Entente Powers, and the Central Powers touch you because they talk about the experiences and fates of those who don’t have a place in the annals of Big History.” (Cultural Centre Minoriten Graz)

In this publication the shirt symbolises a bridge – a bridge between two cities: Graz and Sarajevo. Upon his birth at the Palais Khuenburg on Sackstraße in Graz, Franz Ferdinand was no doubt robed in his first shirt. In Sarajevo a deadly bullet out of the gun of his assassin brutally made its way through his last shirt that can nowadays be seen at the Museum of Military History in Vienna. The shirt – a piece of clothing that after his assassination became a loyal companion into death for millions of people in the form of the military uniform shirt, for many turning into their burial shroud.