tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650609952674727820.post5576102877217617342..comments2024-03-27T15:55:32.875+01:00Comments on W-wa Jeziorki: Railway history of former south-east PolandMichael Dembinskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05657728002439035765noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650609952674727820.post-23874687730512351772010-04-01T09:19:31.447+02:002010-04-01T09:19:31.447+02:00The Austro-Hungarian Empire and its twelve nationa...The Austro-Hungarian Empire and its twelve nationalities and official languages -- thoughts brought to mind, of the splendid novels by John Biggins, first thereof “A Sailor of Austria”: fictional memoirs of Ottokar Prohaska, career officer and submariner in the Austrian Navy in the Empire’s last 15 –20 years. Poignantly nostalgic for the days of the Empire – not because the supposed narrator was a fanatical devotee of the Habsburgs, just because he suspected that anything that replaced them would be no better, and quite likely worse.<br /><br />In one of these novels, Prohaska recalls that for a while he commanded a submarine whose crew comprised “the full set” of the Empire’s twelve nationalities – plus, as no. 13, a Gypsy with the wonderful name of Attila Barabbas – IIRC Gypsies, having no written language, were not counted officially as a nationality.Robert Hallnoreply@blogger.com