94. Jahresbericht des Bundes-Realgymnasiums Steyr 1976/77

B E R I C H T E FROM THE OUTSfDE LOOKING IN They say first impressions are la st in g and when someone is asked for an unbiased impression of a town in which one has been living for two years then they are a lso perhaps the most accurate. So ... what were they? Back to that first night in August 1975 - that first leisurely stroll over the Zwischenbrücke - totally unbelievable ! Surreal, even !! the Micha,e- lerplatz - was it really my school? Weil, perhaps it woud look better in daylight; along the Badgasse - spooky it was , and onto Fabrikinsel - watch ed all the way ! Now up by the HAK - the other Gymnasium? No! Up to Werndlpark 1vith the new Gymnasium. All these Werndls, who was he anyway? - Hable to make a man confused ! Satisfied with these disco- veries, back to the bright lights of the Bahnhofstrasse; then to the Minich- mayr - our first night in our new home. Over the months these first impressiom have stayed with us; the Zwi- schenbrücke area sti ll has unbelievable examples of a bygone architectu re - roll on 1980 is all I can say, but l leave it with the people who must live with them. The Badgasse is still strangely spooky - thank goodness we couldn't find a room that first night: and we very quickly discovered the importance of Leopold Wernd l - Mr. Steyr - who honomed the town with Europe's first electric li gh t a nd the beginnings o•f what has become a great factory. All in a ll, then , first impressions that have stayed wirh us and that are important features of the Steyr we know . There are, of co urs e, the new housing estates, but which modern town doesn' t have them? "And the Stadtplatz?" you say, "What about our Staidtplatz?" Ashamedly I must admit t hat it remained undiscovered by us for over a week until we y,entu red along the Enge one day, only to be confro nted by this masterpiece of hybrid archi- tecture. Quite frankly, I wo uld hav·e been happier with purely Gothic faca- des but the contrast between Gothic und Rococo is unparall eled. The subj ect of the Stadtplatz in a way brings me to the people who live here - the Steyrers. I say in a way, because like the Stadtplatz, I feel that it takes some time to get to know the in habitants , but I ask if this is neces- sarily a bad thing when 111 a ny of my own countrymen are so similar. One thing we bave noticed is that tbe Steyrer li kes to keep himself very much to himself and unlike the Briti sh does n 't just "drop in" unexpectedly to the same extent . Certainly, bowever, when it comes to a "wee hauf" in the Gasthaus, tben the Steyrer fairly lives up to th e Austrian reputation for "Ge- mütlichkeit " . The impression we have of t he Steyrer therefore, is of a rather conservative, h a rd-worki ng person who, however, thrives 011 a good fling every so often. In oth,er words, in many ways like mm,y of my fellow Scotsmen - t he sim il arity co uld be extended bu t that is not my purpose her,e. I th ink the one sure memory we will take back wit h us is that of the Austrian love of titles - everythin g from the Mini-rats, Hofrats and Ober- 28