WWI links with a focus on Austria-Hungary

From the BBC, 'Music on the brink' -- mostly Viennese music of the time; and a BBC postcard from Vienna by Professor David Wyn Jones, read by Jonathan Pryce.

John Horne reviews Tim Butcher's new book on Gavrilo Princip, and so does Robert Fox.

Review of a book about Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Countess Sophie Chotek. The book is The Assassination of the Archduke.

In WWI, one of Robert Musil's second-cousins, Alois Musil (aka Sheikh Musa al-Rweili), was Austria-Hungary's version of Lawrence of Arabia, except that Alois Musil, unlike Lawrence, had a mastery of many Arabic dialects.

Quoting Colin O'Connor, 'During the First World War, [Alois] Musil was sent to the Middle East to counteract the efforts of the great English Arabist T. E. Lawrence - or Lawrence of Arabia as he is known to many.' Back in Europe, Musil had a career as a theology professor. Some of his documents have been translated into English. Here's a pdf with a bio and photos.

Chris Kelly on her Austro-Hungarian ancestors, including Count Franz Clam-Gallas.

Stefany Anne Golberg quoting from Béla Zombory-Moldován's memoir of the first eight months of WWI in a Hungarian unit:

Nature slumbered … flowed on its course, impervious to the absurd behavior of men … The whole world was manifestly indifferent in the face of the life-and-death struggles of men: it neither took their side nor opposed them, but simply paid no attention.

More about this memoir, The Burning of the World: A Memoir of 1914. Here's an excerpt.

Kafka's diary entry for August 2, 1914: 'Germany has declared war on Russia. Swimming in the afternoon.'

Robert Zaretsky revisits 'Kafka's "The Trial" and World War I'.

English version of a comprehensive survey of WWI from an Austro-Hungarian perspective.

Here's the first item in Spiegel Online International's WWI series.