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Nature, living or inanimate, knows no boundaries. If there is one, keyword "Iron Curtain", that stands in the way of research, it is important to look for solutions. This is what happened in 1960. In order to clearly regulate the legal rights surrounding oil and gas deposits near the border in Weinviertel, Lower Austria, a bilateral agreement was concluded at the highest political level with what was then Czechoslovakia. On January 23, 1960, the “Principles of Geological Cooperation between the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and the Republic of Austria” were agreed. A strict protocol was used at alternating annual meetings - in Brno in 1988 and in Vienna in 1989 - to coordinate research projects and discuss mutual visits by geologists. In this way, personal contacts increasingly emerged, and many became friendships over the years.
Small souvenirs were always in their luggage; hardly any Czech crossed the border without the herbal bitters Becherovka or Karlsbader Wafers. Occasionally wishes were expressed, Reinhard Roetzel (Federal Geological Survey, GBA) remembers: "In May 1990, after the fall of the Iron Curtain, we went on an excursion in the northern Vienna Basin in the Czech Republic and eastern Slovakia. Pavel Čtykorý and Pavel Havlíček (Czech Geological Survey) led us. We went back via Bratislava, where we Geologist Ján Seneš had asked in a letter whether we could bring him some shaving foam, since it was impossible to get any in Bratislava since the Austrians had bought Bratislava empty after the fall of the Wall. For Roetzel, this experience was “touching.” But that's not all. "It was also a bit embarrassing for me as an Austrian how happy Seneš was about the shaving foam back then." Neither of them had any idea at the time that in 2004 Roetzel and Havlíček would be responsible for publishing the "Geological map of the Thayatal and Podyjí National Parks / Geologická mapa národních parků Thayatal a Podyjí" with a bilingual legend: This map represents an internationally acclaimed milestone in scientific cooperation.
Harald Lobitzer (GBA), who coordinated bilateral exchange programs in the geosciences for many years, has culinary and cartographic reminiscences: "For colleagues in all former communist countries, the respective individually relevant geological specialist literature was always highly valued in all countries, alongside the sweets and seasonal delicacies that were common here at the time - such as Kletzenbrot." One specific thing was cards. "In the former Yugoslavia, colleagues were able to give great pleasure with the special 1:75,000 geological maps of Dalmatia etc. that were recorded during the monarchy and available at the GBA for a ridiculous price. They were forbidden rarities because of their large scale." He was also often in Russia. "In the end of the Soviet Union, floppy disks were a big hit as small tokens, but customs at Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport always wanted to know whether there was anything illegal on them anyway."
As far as the Central Asian region is concerned, paleontologist Gudrun Höck (Natural History Museum) has personal memories. Between 1993 and 2017, she led numerous large expeditions in Mongolia and worked with nomads here - each lasting several weeks. The aim was to research the animal and plant world between 32 and eight million years ago. "Particularly popular souvenirs were small tools, sewing needles, pocket knives and even fabrics. Souvenir photos were just as well received as toys for children or Mozartkugeln, which were eaten straight away." On the return journey she always had dried edelweiss with her, which is very popular in this country. “This plant is as widespread in the Mongolian steppe as dandelions or daisies here,” says Höck
In the early 1970s, Russian geologists discovered beryllium- and lithium-bearing rocks in Afghanistan. In 1972, as part of a development aid agreement, a team of geologists from the GBA traveled to Nurestan (Afghanistan). Their task: Create a geological map (1:50,000) and carry out detailed investigations. On June 9th, Gerhard Fuchs, Alois Matura and Othmar Schermann traveled in a VW bus from Vienna via Belgrade, Sofia, Istanbul, Ankara, Tehran to Kabul (arrival: June 23rd). A journey that is unrealistic today. One of the three geologists' first destinations was the Ministry of Mines and Industry, where they introduced themselves. This is also where the "handover of the cuckoo clock to Chasi Khani", the responsible governor in the ministry, took place, as Alois Matura noted in his diary.
This gesture from the Austrians should prove to be an important door opener for the work in the next few months. When there were problems on site, Anton Ruttner, the then director of the GBA, quickly took a plane to Kabul. The visit was formative, as Ruttner commented in his memoirs: "I will never forget the situation when I - with my own hands and under the gaze of around 20 turbaned Afghans - attached the clock to the wall of the governor's office, [...]. From then on, our geological group had every possible support from him." So everything was back on track.
Before departure he bought a sleeveless fur jacket for his grandson; but Ruttner wasn't very familiar with children's sizes. Back in Vienna he knew better. And so he turned to the expedition leader Gerhard Fuchs: "May I ask you, or one of the gentlemen remaining in Kabul, to get me a beautiful and well-made sleeveless fur jacket and bring it with you? It should have a back length of 52 cm and a circumference of at least 85 cm." On November 15th, Fuchs wrote: "I or one of my comrades will get the jacket. I can still remember the deal." In the postscript he added: "The cuckoo clock hangs in a prominent place under the portrait of the king."
The background: The geologist Carl L. Griesbach (1847-1907) initially worked in Vienna before pursuing a career abroad. After a few years in Africa, he went to the Geological Survey in India in 1878, where William King (1834-1900) was director. Griesbach was in Afghanistan in the 1880s. In 1891 he sent a collection of fossils, mainly ammonites, from the Himalayas to Vienna. The address: Eduard Suess (1831-1914), full professor at the University of Vienna, at that time the first authority in geology. King suggested a collaboration between the University of Vienna and the Geological Survey of India to process the fossils. In Vienna they reacted quickly. The Academy of Sciences sent Carl Diener (1862-1928) to the Himalayas.
Helmut Flugel (Graz) edited the Suess correspondence with King, so the following passage also became evident. On March 9, 1892, King turned to Suess with a personal request. Servant should bring him a meerschaum pipe with geological carvings, if available; if not, so would the emperor's carved head. "By the way, may I ask you to a kindness for me: that is to send out by Diener a meerschaum pipe for me, not a cigar mouthpice, but a pipe. I should prefer the head carved with some geological device if such are extant. Otherwise a head of the Emperor Franz Joseph, or failing that some other head." The wish was probably granted, because King thanked him for a “magnificient meerschaum pipe” – what it looked like is not known. Diener arrived in Calcutta at the end of April 1892 and was accompanied by Griesbach. The Himalayan expedition of 1892 was scientifically successful and Diener had a distinguished university career over the next few decades.
Servant, it must be emphasized, also has brown downsides. In 1922/23 he was rector at the University of Vienna and belonged to the "Bear's Cave" clique, an anti-Semitic community of professors. Among other things, as Klaus Taschwer showed in the STANDARD, he advocated "a numerus clausus for Jewish university members and, above all, students." In the "Reichspost" of December 10, 1922 (!) he supported a memorandum from the German student body and wrote on the front page: "The dismantling of the Eastern Jews must today have a prominent place in the program of every rector of a German university." (Thomas Hofmann, December 13, 2021)