>Weird local news of the week: This article turned up in the headlines at the U.S. version of Google News. Assuming that there must be a local discussion going on, I searched the German-language google sites as well as the local papers but found very little. Funny how it ended up over on the U.S. site, then. Do you think there are people who trawl the nets looking for anything that might remotely resemble a sex scandal?

INNSBRUCK, Austria (AP) – An anti-pornography activist wants officials in the Alpine city of Innsbruck to take down a large crucifix bearing a sculpture of a naked Jesus Christ.

Martin Humer, who gained notoriety last year after he painted part of a statue of a nude Mozart and stuck feathers on it, is pressuring authorities to remove the crucifix from a public square where it has been displayed for 20 years, public broadcaster ORF reported Thursday.

Humer, an 82-year-old former photographer, said he and about 100 supporters were organizing a protest for Friday.

Mayor Hilde Zach dismissed the fuss and said she would refuse to remove the crucifix, insisting it is a work of art and is in no way pornographic.

Here’s a photo of the crucifix so you can see it for yourself. Not only is this Jesus naked, he’s appears to be completely sexless as well.
I like Frau Zach. She’s not only a big supporter of the arts, she actually comes to concerts and theater performances on a regular basis. Local musician friends have told me that several of them were waiting outside a classical concert venue, ticketless, when the Mayor arrived. Learning that they had no tickets and that the concert was sold out, she went in and arranged standing room for them. She’s OK in my book.

>I was out of town and missed all this. On the weekend, a Burschenschaft convention was held in Innsbruck. The dictionary translation of Burschenschaft is a fraternity or student league but they are not so similar to American fraternities, in that there a more pronounced ideological and political element to them. In Germany these student leagues are said to be diverse in their political views; in Austria they lean very strongly to the extreme right.
So it was probably inevitable that a Burschenshaft gathering in Austria would be met with demonstrations against rightwing extremism and neo-nazism, and a few thousand lefties did hold a parade through the city, ending with a speech by Rosi Hirschecker (a member of the resistance in Tirol during the Nazi occupation) at the sight of the former Gestapo housing — and interestly close to the convention center. There were, as far as I have heard, no outbreaks of violence between any of the groups, although their local watering holes are uncomfortably close to each other and there are regular fistfights. The Burschenschaftler had their meetings and their flag and sword ceremonies (or whatever it is that they do) up on the Tummelplatz ( a war cemetery up on the hill), met for a picnic on the mountain the next day and dispersed. Police presence in the city was very high.
On that Saturday night, the theater had a performance of an unusual open-air piece which involves the audience taking the Number 6 streetcar, known as the Iglerbahn, to various stops at which there would be scenes in the performance. At one stop (which happens to be a 10 minute hike through the woods from the Burschenschaftler ceremonies), the audience boarded the streetcar and rode to the next stop, and as the performers prepared to board their minibus to get to their next “entrance”, the police arrived, unaware of the theater performance.

What they found: 9 people, all of them foreigners, including 1 man dressed as Snow White (the Drama Head at the theater!) and 7 dancers dressed as dwarves, with some kind of props resembling bombs if you looked at them the right way, and of course no one had any papers on them. Suspicious of the lengths at which political extremists might go in order to carry out an illegal violent act, the police arrested them all.

One hour and several telephone calls later, the artists were released and allowed to move on to their next destination up the hill. Other performers had jumped in for them in the meantime, and a very long intermission evened everything out. The boys in blue even got some nice photos posing with their detainees, some of them female and quite attractive.