Week 16/2026
In den bunten Frühling hinaus!
NSFW (Nikolaus' Song For the Week)
This week's song is the meanest comment about spring and/in Vienna that I know.
I chose it not only because it fits so well here, and not because there is a funny yet unsolved copyright case behind it (more on the case in Der Standard),
but mainly because the song is 1 of 100 in a beautiful publication that I want to warmly recommend everybody interested (somehow) in Austrian popular music:
Thomas Mießgang and Walter Gröbchen wrote a wonderful book on Austrian pop (thank you, Buchhandlung Riedl, for having it) describing its history in 100 paradigmatic songs.
This is a great compilation of songs everybody knows and surprises with nicely written texts about them and what unites and what seperates them. Some of the tunes mentioned were already NSFW (such as Sodl with I am a woman in Week 30/2025), others not yet - but could make it here. Finding Kreisler in there, was, however, a (positive) surprise, but I understand the arguments for having him.
Retrospect
Peter Zöchbauer
With big sadness I learned that Peter Zöchbauer passed away earlier this week. I had the honor to collaborate with him quite closely during the last 20 years or so - not so much in subject matters, but primarily as he was a very skilled and dedicated lecturer and thesis supervisor in the LLM-program I am responsible for. He was outstandingly committed and friendly to the students (and us) and was a role model for so many of them. My friend Markus from the program wrote an obituary on our website.
Sky ECC
I learned from Dr. Sven Thorstensen how an oral pleeding at Austria's Constitutional Court feels like and how the court reflects whether French chatprotocols from the SkyECC hack may be used in Austrian Court proceedings.
WZ (Wiener Zeitung)
I attended the advisory board (§ 1 section 6 of the tle law on Wiener Zeitung) of WZ (formerly known as Wiener Zeitung) for the first time. I learned that a reason of the rebranding from Wiener Zeitung (the oldest newspaper in the world, founded 1703, ceasing operations in print in 2023) to WZ was that Wiener Zeitung sounds too much like Vienna for members of their target group who are not Viennese. I didn't find too much public information about the board when preparing myself, apart from a LinkedIn-post yet, but as one can see there, its composition is promising and conversations were interesting.
It was another possibility to get to St. Marx Media Quarter once again and I was, again, quite impressed by the sterility and facelessness of the buildings - outside and inside - that should serve creatives to become, well, creative.
Torts Law
I hosted technically episode 27 of "Recht neugierig" on torts with Prof. Dr. Barbara Beclin.
Wiener Bluttage
I attended a very interesting session of Wiener Bluttage - which is not an operetta but a medical conference. "My" slot was very diligently chaired by Dr. Christan Cebulla. Dr. Moritz Buchmann gave a highly up-to-date overview on the Electronic Health Data Space in Austria - and its implementation into ELGA. Prof. Dr. Jens Meier, Kepler Universitätsklinikum, dealt with AI in medical treatment - just as I did, but his presentation was much more practical than mine and rhetorically and contentwise just brilliant.
Legal Podcasting
Later that day, I joined a panel debate on legal podcasting, masterfully organised by Žiga from the department, in cooperation with Juristenverband.
Dora Bertrandt (Paragraphinnen) and Dr.in Theresa Kamp, LL.M. (Law & Beyond) gave plenty of practical insights, Dr. Bernd Simon (Knowledge Markets) contributed a lot on the topic's marketing facets.
I felt a little like a dinosaur, reporting on endless video recording sessions with Dennis Jlussi and Christian Hawellek (student assistants then) in RRZN Niedersachsen anytime around 2005.
In preparing this, I had found a (relatively) early video reporting on this from 14 years ago (but decided to share it not with the audience, but only with you :-) )
(and for whatever reason a 15 years old version of the very same video). It's really funny (and a little nerdy) to see what we (in particular: Christian) had "programmed" back then. The internet doesn't forget.
It was also nice to see many fellow podcasters in the audience, including Boris from the department (and Jusprofi host), Hannah from the department (and Pro Bono host), the team around the LLP with "Recht freundlich" and Elisabeth Maier (Manz Podcasts) .
Prospect
#arsboni
I will have a conversation with my (Austrian) colleague and old friend Oskar J. Gstrein from University of Groningen on Thursday, April 16th, at 9.30. We will discuss digital sovereignty and data autonomy at European Universities.
LL.M.-Café
UNIVIE's master-programs host an event at Juridicum on 15/04/26 from 9.00-11.00 am - the LLM-Cafe allowing (prospective) students to orientate. "My" program, represented by Markus, will be there too. He did an Insta-reel to announce this.
Long Night of Research 2026
On Friday, April 26th - in two weeks - UNIVIE will open its doors again with lots and lots of research related content to see at the Long Night of Research 2026. More than 60 booths will be at your service, including one from us from the department (main building, G 06). Quite some of our projects will be present and I will join as well.
AI and Robotics
Prof. Dr. Martin Ebers, one of the editors, announced on LinkedIn recently, that the second edition of this 1.500 pages brick is going to be out in the very near future.
I had the privilege again to contribute on this with a chapter on IT-security, written together with my outstandingly brilliant ex-student and ex team-member Dr. Paul Eberstaller.
Look and Feel
Kneissl, again
Normally, I try not to repeat myself here, but this time I have to make an exception, as the last two episodes of "Kniefall. Die Radikalisierung der Karin Kneissl" are out and they are just as magnificent as the first four. This is a very well done and very well researched podcast with lots of new information.
Also in its (important) legal parts the story looks very solid, which is also the merit of one of my ex-students Balázs Esztegár - a specialist in citizenship law appearing in one of the episodes explaining why it might not be such a good idea to revoke Kneissl's Austrian citizenship as suggested by NEOS. I was, in particular, stunned by the close ties Kneissl seems to have with Russia Today.
Due to the podcast, I also stumbled across Zwischenbrücken which is an interesting example of (hyper)local journalism, covering Vienna's second and twentieth district. Zwischenbrücken has an interview on the making of the podcast with Elisalex Donnersmarck and Paul Koren - that is also worth being seen:
Krastev, again
Ivan Krastev held another remarkable speech that can be heard in Falter Radio. I wish, he'd become more optimistic again.
Plastic Love
A very dear friend directed me - coincidentally in the very same week I am reading Walter Gröbchens beautiful book mentioned above - to another list with another 100 songs: OE1 Radiokolleg is currently broadcasting 100 Songs: Geschichte wird gemacht.
What a treasure this is!
My friend recommended, in particular, the episode on Mariya Takeuchi – Plastic Love (Japan, 1984), full with references and information about the 80ies in general and in Japan in particular.
Here's the song's music video:
The most popular YouTube comment on the video describes it perfectly: "My non existent memories from my time living in Japan in the mid 80’s are kicking again."
And I am sorry, but this can't end now without the greatest cover (Thank you for the music, Ane Brun!) ever written and sung of a world famous song from the very same year (1984) "Big in Japan" from Alphaville - a song that isn't about Japan, actually :
If you know Ane Brun's version already (possibly because it was NSFW in Week 41/2024), the original is fun too (and so unbelievably pathetic!):
Have a wonderful week and take care of yourself!
Kind regards
Nikolaus (Forgó)
