August 17, 1915, Tuesday

Marienbad. Celebrations in honour of Emperor Franz Joseph I on the occasion of his 85th birthday commence.

On the eve of the jubilee, at seven o’clock in the evening, a concert for the war aid campaign takes place at the Municipal Theater. The program includes: the first part, which is a tribute of the Austro-Hungarian people to the emperor, Jubel-Ouvertüre 1 and Volkshymnen (People’s Anthem), i.e. the Austro-Hungarian national anthem, and the second part the propaganda operetta Gold gab ich für Eisen (Gold for Iron 2) with a libretto by Victor Léon and music by Imre (Emmerich) Kálmán 3. Tickets for the concert were offered in a pre-sale at the theatre ticket office 4.

The jubilee celebrations certainly took place in a special atmosphere on the streets of Marienbad. In the resort, as in other places of the Empire, the residents decorated the streets with flags, flowers and garlands, and the owners of hotels and guest houses took care of the proper setting 5. (mo) (transl. mw) 

  • 1
    It is probably the Jubilee Overture of Johann Joseph Abert from 1855, dedicated to Franz Joseph, for which he received a ring from the emperor in gratitude. But it could also be the popular at the time Jubel-Ouvertüre in E major, Op. 59 by Carl Maria Weber from 1818.
  • 2
    Literal translation from German: “I gave gold for iron”. Both the title and the story told in the piece refer to the actions of donating valuables for war or patriotic purposes, which had a long history at that time.
  • 3
    See a unique theatrical copy of the Library of the Lviv Theater in the Silesian Digital Library [https://sbc.org.pl/dlibra/publication/330642/edition/312501/content?format_id=2] access date: 20 August 2019).
  • 4
    See supplement of August 14, 1915 to Liste der angekommenen Kurparteien in Marienbad für die Saison 1915, Marienbad 1915, online [https://www.portafontium.eu/iipimage/30280172/soap-ch_knihovna_marienbader-kurliste-1915_1420], scan 142 (access date: August 20, 2019).
  • 5
    See for example, leaflets from Lviv (picture on the website), Ljubljana and Čáslav, respectively: Wehrschild in Eisen 1915 – Laibach – Mehrsprachiges Plakat (online https://www.europeana.eu/pl/item/9200290/bildarchivaustria_at_Preview_14266898); Jan Zimmer, [Výzva k výzdobě domů u příležitosti 85. narozenin by Františka Josef I], Čáslav 1915 (online https://www.europeana.eu/pl/item/9200290/bildarchivaustria_at_Preview_14256615 (access date: 23 December 2020).