4 November 1916, Saturday

Drogobych. After spending almost a year at home, Bruno Schulz leaves for Vienna again.

He departed probably at 18:10 from the Railway Station in Lviv by the Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway1. The road to the west ran through the depressing regions of devastated Galicia2, but also through the picturesque landscapes of the unpopulated part of the Carpathians. Unless there were longer stops, Schulz disembarked at North Railway Station in Vienna (Nordbahnhof)* on Sunday around 12:00. It is possible that the decision to return to the capital of the monarchy was dictated by the will to continue engineering studies at the local College of Technology. (js) (transl. ms)

  • 1
    Waldheim‘s Kondukteur, Fahrpläne der österreichischen, ungarischen und bosnisch-herzegowischen Eisenbahnen und Dampfschiffe mit einer Eisenbahnkarte, Ausgabe Nov. 1915 – April 1916.
  • 2
    Months of fights with Russia brought the counties in Eastern Galicia to ruin. Until the end of September alone, the monarchy’s authorities recorded the following war damage in one hundred and twelve cities: over 85,216,000 completely destroyed houses and farm buildings, almost 64,000 homeless families and 119,866 destroyed public utilities – industrial buildings, churches and synagogues (“Der Wiederaufbau Galiziens. Amtliche Statistik der Zerstörungen”, Neue Freie Presse, 30 October 1916).