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the most interesting European type, yet at the same time he is always also the most dangerous. The Austrian is very probably the most dangerous type altogether, more dangerous than the German, more dangerous than any other European, the Austrian is definitely the most dangerous political type, this has been demonstrated by history, and time and again this has brought the greatest misfortune upon Europe and indeed very often upon the whole world. No matter how interesting or unique we may find the Austrian, who invariably is a common Nazi or a stupid Catholic, we must not allow him to seize the political rudder, Reger said, because an Austrian at the rudder always and inescapably steers everything into a total abyss. A sleepless night and exasperation over these everlasting political scandals, Reger then said. Yes, I thought first thing in the morning, you will be meeting Atzbacher at the Kunsthistorisches Museum to put a proposal to him, and you know perfectly well that you will be putting a totally nonsensical proposal to him, but you will put the proposal to him. A ludicrous matter and nevertheless a monstrous one, Reger said. For two months after the death of his wife Reger did not leave his flat on the Singerstrasse and for six months after the death of his wife he did not meet a single person. For these six months he was being looked after by his vulgar and dreadful housekeeper and not once did he go to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, where for decades he had been every other day with his wife, I now reflect. His housekeeper cooked for him and washed his clothes, even though doing everything in an outrageously slovenly manner, Reger said time and again, but at least he did not go to seed completely. A person suddenly left alone goes to seed very rapidly, Reger himself said, for months I ate nothing but semolina pudding, Reger said, because with my unrepaired dentures I could no longer eat any meat or even any vegetables. The Singerstrasse flat has become silent as the grave and empty, this was Reger's own description of the state of affairs when I met him at the Ambassador for the first time after his wife's death, haggard, pale, supporting himself on his stick nearly all the time, his laces undone and his winter longjohns slipping out from his trouser legs. We do not wish to go on living when we have lost the person closest to us, he said to me at the Ambassador then, but we have to go on living, we do not kill ourselves because we are too cowardly for that, we promise by the open grave that we shall soon follow and then, six months later, we are still alive and we have a horror of ourselves, Reger said to me at the Ambassador then. His wife was eighty-seven, but she could certainly have lived well into her hundreds had she not had that fall, Reger said to me at the Ambassador then. The city of Vienna and the Austrian state and the Catholic Church, Reger said to me at the Ambassador then, are responsible for her death, because if the city of Vienna, which owns the approach to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, had gritted the approach to the Kunsthistorisches Museum my wife would not have had a fall, and if the Kunsthistorisches Museum, which belongs to the state, had notified the ambulance service at once and not half an hour later, my wife would have got to the Merciful Brethren Hospital sooner than an hour after her fall, or if the surgeons at the Merciful Brethren Hospital, which belongs to the Catholic Church, had not bungled the operation, my wife would not have died, Reger said to me at the Ambassador then. The city of Vienna and the Austrian state and the Catholic Church are responsible for the death of my wife, Reger said at the Ambassador, I now reflected while sitting next to him on the Bordone Room settee. The city of Vienna fails to grit the approach to the Kunsthistorisches Museum on a day when it is icy and the Kunsthistorisches Museum notifies the ambulance service only after repeated requests and finally the surgeons at the Merciful Brethren Hospital bungle the operation and in the end my wife is dead, Reger said at the Ambassador. We lose the person we have loved most devotedly of all people solely through the negligence of the city of Vienna and through the negligence of the Austrian state and through the negligence of the Catholic Church, Reger said at the Ambassador then. We lose the person most important to us because the city and the state and the Church have acted negligently, Reger said at the Ambassador then. The person with whom we have shared our life for nearly forty years, in the most natural way and with respect and love, dies because the city and the state and the Church have acted negligently and infamously, Reger said at the Ambassador then. We are suddenly left alone by the one person whom, basically, we had, because the city and the state and the Church have acted thoughtlessly and irresponsibly, Reger said at the Ambassador then. All of a sudden we are cut off from the person to whom we owe
basically everything and who in fact gave us everything, Reger said at the Ambassador then. We are suddenly alone in our flat without the person who has kept us alive with the greatest care for some decades, simply because city and state and Catholic Church have committed the crime of negligence, Reger said at the Ambassador then. We stand by the open grave of the person whom we have never been able to imagine living without, Reger said at the Ambassador then. The city of Vienna and the Austrian state and the Catholic Church are responsible for my being alone now and for my having to be alone as long as I live, Reger said at the Ambassador then. The person who had always been in good health and who had every conceivable virtue of an intelligent and female person and who in fact had been the most loving person in my life dies and leaves me only because the city of Vienna does not grit the approach to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, only because the Kunsthistorisches Museum, which belongs to the state, does not notify the ambulance service in time and because the surgeons at the Merciful Brethren Hospital bungle the operation, Reger said at the Ambassador then. My wife might have lived into her hundreds, I am convinced of it, if the city of Vienna had gritted the approach to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Reger said at the Ambassador then. And she would certainly still be alive if the Kunsthistorisches Museum had notified the ambulance service in time and if the surgeons at the Merciful Brethren Hospital had not bungled the operation. Strictly speaking I should not have entered the Kunsthistorisches Museum again, Reger said, having entered it again seven months after the death of his wife. Now the approach to the Kunsthistorisches Museum is gritted, now that my wife is dead, Reger said. And why did they have to take my wife to the Merciful Brethren Hospital, of all places, to a hospital of which I have never heard a good word, Reger said. All these hospitals with the word