Realitätsverweigerung oder Panikreaktion?

Mit dem Juliabkommen 1936 hatte Österreich dem Nationalsozialismus Tür und Tor geöffnet. Nach dem Berchtesgadener Diktat vom 12. Februar 1938 war die Eigenstaatlichkeit de facto beendet. Dennoch betrieb das Regime Schuschnigg durch die „Vaterländische Front“ bis zuletzt eine auf Beschwichtigung, Beschönigung, Friedensbereitschaft und Entgegenkommen basierende, defensive Propaganda, um ihr faschistisch-autoritär regiertes Österreich aufrechtzuerhalten. Wider besseres Wissen wurde so die österreichische Öffentlichkeit getäuscht. Nur einmal – fünf nach zwölf – bäumte sich dieser erpresste Staat auf, wagte Schuschnigg mit seiner geplanten Volksbefragung die offene Konfrontation mit Hitler. Dessen aus Gewalt und Ultimaten bestehende Reaktion bewies, dass mit einer offensiven Kommunikationsstrategie, die der Welt eine konsequente österreichische Widerstandsbereitschaft signalisiert hätte, das nationalsozialistische Terrorregime zumindest zu verunsichern und herauszufordern war.With the July 1936 treaty Austria opened the door to the national-socialist takeover. After the „Berchtesgaden Agreement” signed on February 12th 1938 the de facto-independence of Austria had in fact been terminated. Despite these facts the Schuschnigg regime tried in vain to continue its propaganda of downplaying the grave seriousness of the situation and still attempted to promote peaceful coexistence with Nazi Germany through its „Vaterländische Front” organization in order to defend its fascist, authoritarian power monopoly in Austria. The Austrian public was misled by their government. Only once – already too late – did Schuschnigg try with his planned plebiscite to openly confront Hitler. The reaction of the Hitler regime, full of threats and ultimatums proved that had the Schuschnigg cabinet pursued an assertive communication strategy that would have shown the world a determined will to resist, than the national-socialist takeover would have experienced a serious challenge on its way to being the master of Austria

Österreichs Deutschland-Komplex

TITELBLATT: nur in PRINTAUSGABE! -- Der Umgang des österreichischen Fußballs mit seiner Geschichte ist symptomatisch für seine aktuelle Krise. Eine mythenüberfrachtete, anekdotenhafte und lückenhafte Historiographie durch Journalistengenerationen, die unter Patronanz des Österreichischen Fußballbundes ihre Rolle als „Historiker“ ungehindert spielen durften und dürfen, mußte fast zwingend zu zahlreichen Missverständnissen und Widersprüchen führen. Österreichs 2:3-Niederlage in Neapel bei der Fußballweltmeisterschaft 1934 war ebenso wenig die „Geburtsstunde eines Deutschen-Komplexes“ wie das „Anschluss“-Spiel im April 1938 der „Beginn der Erzfeindschaft“. Die österreichisch-deutsche Fußballrivalität wurzelt in alten Konflikten, beim olympischen Fußballturnier 1912 in Stockholm, oder im Boykott des österreichischen Profifußballs durch den Deutschen Fußballbund in den späten 1920er Jahren. Die Ereignisse in Italien 1934 waren keine Antizipation der österreichischen Opferrolle von 1938. WM-Favorit Österreich scheiterte an Klubegoismen und Funktionärsarroganz, der unprofessionelle Auftritt war selbstverschuldet. Die Kaffeehaus-Idylle der 1930er Jahre, der das „Wunderteam“ entwuchs, verschleiert das tragische Ende einer glorreichen Ära und die Schicksale seiner Hauptprotagonisten: Der Jude Hugo Meisl hatte Österreichs Fußball als Teamchef zur Weltspitze geführt, der nationalsozialistische ÖFB-Präsident Richard Eberstaller ihn 1938 liquidiert – zu einem Zeitpunkt, als der jüdische Wiener Verbandspräsident Josef Gerö bereits ins KZ nach Dachau deportiert war. Mathias Sindelar war keine Gallionsfigur des Widerstandes. Seine bis heute kolportierten patriotischen Akte beim „Anschluss“-Spiel im Wiener Stadion am 3. April 1938 haben nicht stattgefunden. Die reichsdeutsche Auswahl trug im Wiener Praterstadion bereits den Dress des Gastgebers, Sindelar brauchte gar nicht auf „Rot-weiß-rot“ bestehen. Auch zu seinem Freudentanz vor der Nazi-Tribüne nach seinem Führungstor hatte er keine Gelegenheit: diesen hätte der Berliner Schiedsrichter mit Sicherheit unterbunden, und die gleichgeschalteten Zeitungen hätten darüber auch nicht berichtet. Dennoch wird das „Anschluss“-Spiel immer noch als Akt des österreichischen Widerstandes missverstanden. Auch die Behauptung, Österreichs (Fußball)Sport seien 1938 die NS-Strukturen oktroyiert worden, ist widerlegt. Wiener Nazibonzen entpuppten sich als glühende Wiener Fußballpatrioten, während sich Wendehälse im ÖFB und Wiener Fußballverband dem NS-Terrorsystem andienten und nach 1945 als Pioniere des Nachkriegsfußballs auftraten. Bis heute hält die Ursachenforschung über das unerwartete 1:6-Debakel gegen Deutschland bei der WM 1954 an. Die Mythen vom „Fritz-Walter“-Wetter in Basel, von den adidas-„Wunderschuhen“ der Deutschen, von ihrem Traubenzucker-„Doping“ sind langlebig. Für das „Unerklärliche“ musste Österreichs Provinzpresse eigens eine „Verschwörungstheorie“ konstruieren, um die wahren Ursachen – falsche Mannschaftsaufstellung, indisponierte Spieler, mentale Schwächen – zu verdrängen. Friedrich Torbergs Metapher von der „katastrophalsten Niederlage seit Königgrätz“ wurde aus dem zeitlich-medialen Kontext gerissen und eine Publizität zugeschrieben, die sie nicht besaß. „Fußball-Legende“ Ernst Happel, nach dem Debakel von Basel 1954 von den Medien aus Österreich hinausgeekelt, erfuhr durch ebendiese erst als todkranker österreichischer Teamchef eine fast kultische Verehrung. „Cordoba“ 1978 ist zu einem „Verklärungsmythos“ verkümmert. Die Legende von der 47jährigen Sieglosigkeit der Österreicher gegen Deutschland ignoriert unbeirrt Tatsachen wie: das 2:0 gewonnene „Anschluss“-Spiel vom März 1938; sieben Jahre Nazi-Diktatur; langjährige Unterbrechungen des Spielverkehrs vor 1938 und nach 1945; und das Paradoxon, dass österreichische Kicker als Klubspieler gegen deutsche Vereine stets Erfolgserlebnisse, im Nationalteam dagegen angeblich einen „Deutschland-Komplex“ hatten. „Gijon“ 1982 war nie ein Mythos, seine Akteure haben später die Schiebungsgerüchte bestätigt. Anders als glorifizierte (Stamford Bridge 1931) oder mystifizierte (Basel 1954) Niederlagen wurde dieses 0:1 im gemeinsamen, österreichisch-deutschen kollektiven Bewusstsein zu einem „Unentschieden“, das die Rivalität der beiden Fußballnachbarn beendete.The way Austrian football deals with its past is symptomatic for its current crisis. An interpretation full of myths, irrelevant anecdotes and glaring omissions perpetrated by a self-perpetuating caste of professional sport journalists thriving under the protection of the Austrian Football Association has not surprisingly led to such a vast array of misunderstandings and contradictions. The Austrian 2:3 defeat in Naples during the World Football Championship of 1934 did not form the beginning of the „German complex“, neither did the memorable match during the annexation crisis of 1938 cause the „Complex of the German Nemesis“. The roots of the German-Austrian football rivalry reach much further into the past, to events such as the matches during the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, or the boycott of the professional Austrian football by the German Football Association during the late 1920s. The events in Italy in 1934 did not anticipate the Austrian feeling of „victimization“ in 1938. The favorite for the World Cup failed on account of club egoism, inability to see a larger picture and arrogance of the managers, as a result of this unprofessional practice the final defeat could not have been averted, and was indeed self-inflicted. The „Coffeehouse Idyll“ of the thirties that gave rise to the „wonder team“ tends to mask the tragic end of this glorious era and the fate of its main protagonists. Hugo Meisl was Jewish and led the Austrian national football to the top world honors, the Nazi ÖFB-President Richard Eberstaller abolished it in 1938. At this time the Jewish president of the Viennese Football Association, Josef Gerö, already languished in the Dachau concentration camp. Neither was Mathias Sindelar a cult hero of the resistance movement. His alleged patriotic gestures during the „Annexation match“ on April 3, 1938 in the Wiener Stadium have never really taken place. The visiting German team already wore the same uniforms as the hosts, and Sindelar could not have insisted on wearing „Red-white-red“ colors of the erstwhile First Republic. He also never had the opportunity to stage a manifestation of patriotic joy in front of the Nazi honor tribune. Had he actually done it at his leading goal, the referee from Berlin would have surely stopped any such outbursts right on the spot and no censored Austrian newspaper could have reported this story with impunity. Despite these obvious facts many still remember the „Annexation- match“ through the prism of the supposed resistance. The presumption that the local Nazi leaders did not feel any local pride is also a flight of fancy, and not a fact – they cheered the Viennese team while the turncoats in the ÖFB and the Viennese Football League avidly served the Nazi political system. After 1945 they painlessly metamorphosed into the leaders of the newly reinstated Austrian national football. To this day many fans search for the causes of the unexpected, and quite devastating 1:6-defeat against Germany during the World Cup in 1954. The myths of the „Fritz-Walter-Weather“ supposedly favoring the Germans during that match in Basel, of the vaunted adidas-“Miracle-shoes“ worn by the German team, finally of their sugar-grape-„Doping“ are just as long-lasting as spurious. To expose the causes of this catastrophe the Austrian press had to concoct a singularly odd „conspiracy theory“. This obscured the true causes of the defeat – faulty distribution of players on the field; many of whom were less than in top form; psychological weaknesses, all of these had to be buried under a blanket of wishful excuses. Friedrich Torberg‘s fitting metaphor of the „most horrific defeat from the time of the Battle of Sadowa”, was taken out of context and given a significance all out of proportion to what actually occurred that day in Switzerland. The football legend Ernst Happel, tormented by the press after that fateful play in 1954, had to wait to the time of his last illness to receive the praise due to him. The match in Cordoba in 1978 has been slanted to mean a break of the long, 47- year losing streak against Germany. Yet this supposed „curse of fate“ ignores the clear facts- Austria did after all win the 2:0 „Annexation-game“ in March of 1938, the effects of the seven years of debilitating Nazi occupation cannot be underestimated, neither can the long- lasting interruptions on the play circuit during the war and the subsequent Allied occupation. We cannot forget that while the regional Austrian teams tended to regularly win against their German equivalents, the very same players supposedly suffered an inferiority complex when it came to the encounters of the two national representations. Continuing in the same vein, the play in Gijon in 1982 was not what it seemed to be at the time. Unlike the glorified defeat at Stamford Bridge in 1931 or mystified defeat such as in Basel in 1954 its uncertain 0:1 result took the form of a „draw“ in the shared, Austrian-German sports conscience. This event finally managed to put the rivalry of the two neighboring countries to its well- deserved, and long overdue rest

Etiology, risk factors and sex differences in ischemic stroke in the Ludwigshafen stroke study, a population-based stroke registry

Background: Stroke etiology in ischemic stroke guides preventive measures and etiological stroke subgroups may show considerable differences between both sexes. In a population-based stroke registry we analyzed etiological subgroups of ischemic stroke and calculated sex-specific incidence and mortality rates. Methods: The Ludwigshafen Stroke Study is a prospective ongoing population-based stroke registry. Multiple overlapping methods of case ascertainment were used to identify all patients with incident stroke or transient ischemic attack. Modified TOAST ( Trial of Org 10172 in Acute Stroke Treatment) criteria were applied for subgroup analysis in ischemic stroke. Results: Out of 626 patients with first-ever ischemic stroke in 2006 and 2007, women (n = 327) were older (73.5 8 12.6 years) than men (n = 299; 69.7 8 11.5 years; p < 0.001). The age-adjusted incidence rate of ischemic stroke was significantly higher in men (1.37; 95% CI 1.20–1.56) than in women (1.12; 95% CI 0.97–1.29; p = 0.04). Cardioembolism (n = 219; 35.0%), smallartery occlusion (n = 164; 26.2%), large-artery atherosclerosis (n = 98; 15.7%) and ‘probable atherothrombotic stroke’ (n = 84; 13.4%) were common subgroups of ischemic stroke. Stroke due to large-artery atherosclerosis (p = 0.025), current smoking (p = 0.008), history of smoking (p 85 years) was detected. Conclusions: Cardioembolism is the main source for ischemic stroke in our population. Etiology of ischemic stroke differs between sexes, with large-artery atherosclerotic stroke and associated diseases (coronary artery disease and peripheral artery disease) being more common in men

Early Pliocene Hominid Tooth from Galili, Somali Region, Ethiopia

A fossil hominid tooth was discovered during survey at Galili, Somali region, Ethiopia. The geological and faunal context indicate an Early Pliocene age. The specimen (GLL 33) consists of an almost complete lower right third molar likely representing a male individual of advanced age-at-death. Its comparative metrical, morphological and (micro)structural analysis (supported by a microtomographic record) suggests a tentative taxonomic allocation to Australopithecus cf. A. afarensis

Albiglutide and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (Harmony Outcomes): a double-blind, randomised placebo-controlled trial

Background: Glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists differ in chemical structure, duration of action, and in their effects on clinical outcomes. The cardiovascular effects of once-weekly albiglutide in type 2 diabetes are unknown. We aimed to determine the safety and efficacy of albiglutide in preventing cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke. Methods: We did a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial in 610 sites across 28 countries. We randomly assigned patients aged 40 years and older with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (at a 1:1 ratio) to groups that either received a subcutaneous injection of albiglutide (30–50 mg, based on glycaemic response and tolerability) or of a matched volume of placebo once a week, in addition to their standard care. Investigators used an interactive voice or web response system to obtain treatment assignment, and patients and all study investigators were masked to their treatment allocation. We hypothesised that albiglutide would be non-inferior to placebo for the primary outcome of the first occurrence of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke, which was assessed in the intention-to-treat population. If non-inferiority was confirmed by an upper limit of the 95% CI for a hazard ratio of less than 1·30, closed testing for superiority was prespecified. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02465515. Findings: Patients were screened between July 1, 2015, and Nov 24, 2016. 10 793 patients were screened and 9463 participants were enrolled and randomly assigned to groups: 4731 patients were assigned to receive albiglutide and 4732 patients to receive placebo. On Nov 8, 2017, it was determined that 611 primary endpoints and a median follow-up of at least 1·5 years had accrued, and participants returned for a final visit and discontinuation from study treatment; the last patient visit was on March 12, 2018. These 9463 patients, the intention-to-treat population, were evaluated for a median duration of 1·6 years and were assessed for the primary outcome. The primary composite outcome occurred in 338 (7%) of 4731 patients at an incidence rate of 4·6 events per 100 person-years in the albiglutide group and in 428 (9%) of 4732 patients at an incidence rate of 5·9 events per 100 person-years in the placebo group (hazard ratio 0·78, 95% CI 0·68–0·90), which indicated that albiglutide was superior to placebo (p&lt;0·0001 for non-inferiority; p=0·0006 for superiority). The incidence of acute pancreatitis (ten patients in the albiglutide group and seven patients in the placebo group), pancreatic cancer (six patients in the albiglutide group and five patients in the placebo group), medullary thyroid carcinoma (zero patients in both groups), and other serious adverse events did not differ between the two groups. There were three (&lt;1%) deaths in the placebo group that were assessed by investigators, who were masked to study drug assignment, to be treatment-related and two (&lt;1%) deaths in the albiglutide group. Interpretation: In patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, albiglutide was superior to placebo with respect to major adverse cardiovascular events. Evidence-based glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists should therefore be considered as part of a comprehensive strategy to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes. Funding: GlaxoSmithKline

Carbohydrate-based particles: a new adjuvant for allergen-specific immunotherapy

The occurrence of systemic anaphylactic side-effects in the course of allergen-specific immunotherapy has been strongly reduced by the adsorption of allergens to aluminium hydroxide, the most frequently used adjuvant in humans. Using the major timothy grass pollen allergen, Phl p 5b, in its recombinant form for immunization of mice, we demonstrate that carbohydrate-based particles (CBP) exhibit several potential advantages over aluminium-hydroxide as adjuvant for immunotherapy. Similar to alum-bound rPhl p 5b, CBP-bound rPhl p 5b induced a stronger antibody and cytokine response than unbound rPhl p 5b after subcutaneous injection in mice. The antibodies induced by CBP-bound rPhl p 5b, exhibited potentially beneficial activities as they cross-reacted with group 5 allergens from five other grass species and inhibited the binding of grass pollen allergic patients IgE to Phl p 5b. Alum-bound rPhl p 5b induced a preferential allergen-specific Th2-response characterized by high immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1) antibody levels and elevated interleukin (IL)-4 and IL-5 production in cultured splenocytes. By contrast, CBP-bound rPhl p 5b, but not rPhl p 5b alone or coadministered with CBP, induced a mixed allergen-specific T helper 1 (Th1)/Th2 immune response characterized by the additional production of allergen-specific IgG2a/b antibody responses and elevated interferon-γ production. Conjugation of rPhl p 5b to CBP yielded a stable vaccine formulation with preserved immunogenic features of the allergen and, in contrast to alum, induced no granulomatous tissue reactions. Based on these results, CBP is suggested as a potentially useful adjuvant for specific immunotherapy of IgE-mediated allergies