U-BOAT. Unrestricted submarine warfare declared by Germany (4 February 1915) as novel strategic response to Entente’s trade blockade of North Sea; discontinued on account of American outrage at sinking of →Lusitania and Arabic (September 1915); resumed February 1916 until May 1916 (→Jutland); resumed January 1917, leading to entry of United States into war (6 April 1917), climax of U-boat activity countered by introduction of convoy system: 159, 176, 193f, 228f, 247, 262, 266, 287f, 295, 298, 318f, 328, 352, 373, 402, 501f, 521, 544, 547.
UKRAINIANS (the minority living within the Habsburg Empire were known as Ruthenians in Kraus’s time), 109, 252, 276, 315, 343, 383, 389f, 416, 431, 478, 532.
UKRAINIAN WOMEN (picture postcard). The photograph of their execution, reproduced by Anton Holzer in Das Lächeln der Henker (p. 33), does indeed show “the faces of numerous soldiers craning their necks … to be immortalized in the picture at all costs” (IV, 29): 383.
UNDER THE HABSBURG BANNER (Unter Habsburgs Banner, 1914–16), patriotic anthology, ed. Alois Veltzé and Paul Stefan: 252.
USZIECZKO (Map G3), Eastern →Galicia, bridgehead on Dniestr, defended against Russians (February — March 1916) until totally destroyed (V, 44): 492f.
UZSOCK PASS, between Galicia and Hungary in eastern →Carpathians south of →Lemberg, taken by Russians (November 1914—high point of Russian penetration into Austrian territory), retaken by Central Powers (December 1914): 221f.
VALHALLA, in Norse mythology and Wagner, home of gods and heroic dead warriors who will rise again to fight final battle; also Leo von Klenze’s doric “Temple of German honour” overlooking the Danube near Regensburg (1830–42): 235, 294.
VARADY, Emil, singer, dancer, comic at →Gartenbau: 534.
VENEDIG IN WIEN (“Venice in Vienna”), a pioneering theme park in →Prater with fake palazzos, canals, and gondolas, designed by the architect Oskar Marmorek in 1895: 31, 38, 241.
VENICE (Map D4), bombed by Austrian naval airmen immediately after Italian declaration of war (23 May 1915): 228, 240f, 244.
VERDUN (Map B3), Battle of (February — December 1916), after initial attack under German →Crown Prince Wilhelm, the French recovered and the resulting stalemate led to heavy losses: 182, 358, 439f, 563.
VIENNESE HANGMAN →Josef Lang.
VILLACH, Carinthia, west of Klagenfurt (Map D4) on River Drava/Drau, close to border with Italy: 115, 245.
VLADIMIR-VOLINSKI (Map G2), main town of Volhynia, important railway junction, strongly defended by Russians (August 1914), taken by Central Powers (late summer 1915): 416.
VOLKSGARTEN (Plan A3/B3), restaurant in garden of that name on Franzensring: 32.
VOLKSTHEATER, Deutsches (Plan A4), founded in 1889 as popular counterweight to →Hofburgtheater; staged such theatrical scandals as →Hans Müller’s Die Dirne (about a prostitute): 32, 211, 471f.
VORWÄRTS, central organ of German Social Democratic party: 461.
VOSSISCHE ZEITUNG (“Voss”, “Tante [Aunt] Voss”), influential Liberal Berlin daily (published by Ullstein): 461.
WAHNSCHAFFE, symbolic name for German super-patriot (“creator of mad delusions”): 293ff, 347ff.
WAHRHEIT, nationalistic Berlin weekly (1905–35): 461.
WALDE, Gerda (1882–1928), popular operetta soubrette and actress, m. →Nikolai von Wassilko (1919): 59, 219, 469.
WALDSTÄTTEN, Baron Alfred von (1872–1952), chief of staff of First Army (1914), chief of operations in High Command (March 1917): 482.
WALTERSKIRCHEN zu WOLFSTHAL, Count Hubert (1871–1916), major, killed during fighting in the Dolomites: 118.
WALZERTRAUM, Ein, operetta (1907), music by Oscar Straus (1870–1954), libretto by →Felix Dörmann (1870–1928) and Leopold Jacobson (1878–1942); with →Fritz Werner in role of Niki, rivalled The Merry Widow in popularity: 483.
WANGLE IT (sich’s richten), leitmotif: to escape military service by bribery or “connections”: 48, 81, 168, 183, 196, 235, 277, 377, 469, 568.
WAR ARCHIVE (Kriegsarchiv), refuge for many men of letters (→Hans Müller, Rainer Maria Rilke), their primary task being to assess applications for military honours and celebrate some suitably stirring wartime exploit: 186, 251, 253ff, 385, 568.
WAR MINISTRY, by 1914 no longer in Am Hof (Plan C2/C3), as marked on our 1905 city plan, but a grandiose new building (the “Sündenburg” mocked by Kraus) on Stubenring beside the Zollamtsbrücke (Plan E3): 53, 89f, 111, 119ff, 217, 223ff, 241, 277f, 310f, 403, 418f, 423, 449, 458, 595.
WAR PRESS BUREAU (Kriegspressequartier), founded in July 1914 under the command of Maximilian von Hoen, with a staff of over 500 operating in variable locations; employed writers and artists charged with boosting patriotism and countering enemy propaganda. Military communiqués issued through →Field Marshal Höfer: 68, 85, 114, 116, 117, 120, 140f, 149, 161f, 178, 200, 216f, 227f, 243, 264, 284, 297, 354, 372, 414ff, 444f, 491, 556ff.
WARSAW (Map F2), Russian onslaught and German retreat (9–19 October 1914); city taken by Central Powers in great offensive (1 July 1915); seat of German General Gouvernement (August 1915, →Andrian): 176f, 197.
WASSILKO, Nikolai von (1868–1924), member of parliament representing →Bukovina (Map G3); ambassador for Western Ukrainian Republic (1919); m. →Gerda Walde: 469.
“WATCH ON THE RHINE”, The (“Die Wacht am Rhein”), patriotic song vowing defence against French claims to river as frontier, and proclaiming reassurance that the Fatherland can rest in peace; music (1854) by Karl Wilhelm (1815–1873) to text (1840) by Max Schneckenburger (1819–1849); German national anthem after 1870–71: “Es braust ein Ruf wie Donnerhall/Wie Schwertgeklirr und Wogenpralclass="underline" /Zum Rhein, zum Rhein, zum deutschen Rhein!/Wer will des Stromes Hüter sein? [Refrain: ] Lieb’ Vaterland magst ruhig sein,/Fest steht und treu die Wacht am Rhein!” 52, 54, 121, 124, 199, 267, 294, 297f, 313, 333, 462, 466, 525, 566, 588, 592f.
WEDDINGEN, Otto (1882–1915), captain of →U-boat that sank three British armoured cruisers in a single day in 1914: 194.
WEIKERSHEIM, Prince Karl Ernst Bronn von (1862–1925), general, intimate of →Franz Ferdinand and his intended Comptroller of Imperial Household: 38, 40, 41.
WEISKIRCHNER, Richard (1861–1926), Christian Social politician, minister of commerce (1909–11), mayor of Vienna (1912–19): 56, 57, 78, 175, 222, 235, 497, 531.
WEKERLE, Alexander (1841–1921), successor to →István Tisza as Hungarian prime minister (August 1917–October 1918): 430f.
WELT AM MONTAG, independent, republican-leaning Berlin weekly for politics and culture: 461.
WERFEL, Franz (1890–1945), Expressionist poet, proclaiming universal brotherhood, later dramatist and novelist; on Eastern Front (1916–17), then in →War Press Bureau (1917); delivered propaganda lectures: 252.