AUSTRIAN 44 ETON."

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 99, 29 April 1939, Page 14

AUSTRIAN 44 ETON."

OXAXOI TO 3TAZI SCHOOI* i ' VIENNA, The "Theresianum," college of the Austrian nobility for almost 200 y«»™> will soon be converted into a political school of th* National Socialist party. This open* a new chapter in the records of an institution which enjoyed international reputation and was closely connected with Austria's past. The ancient building of the "Theresianum," as it still stands in the_ Favoritenstrasse to-day, was erected in the years 1687 to 1890 as an imperial chateau, which was the scene of many pompous court festivals in the period of Emperor Charles VI. In 1740, when Empress Maria Theresa succeeded her father, the castle was sold to the Jesuits, who founded in it a school for the sons of the Austrian and Hungarian feudal families, and called it "Collegium Nobilium." Nine years later it became the "Theresian Knights' Academy," and under a shortened version of this name it lived on until the present day. Since 1787 it was a lay school, but it ha* At All times been very exclusive. To be a "Theresianist" in the monarchy a similar distinction as being an Eton boy in England. After the war the school lost much of its former influence. The plan now is to give it again a privileged position in the great!y changed educational system of tie Third Reich.