Present

I am the co-owner of a small Internet company located in Vienna, Austria. Meta-Ware is up and running since 1999, which is, as I am told, quite uncommon for so small a company. Currently we are three partners with different fields of expertise. But it is not at all work and nothing else: more importantly, I am married with four sons (in a patchwork constellation).

Past (CV of sorts)

Born in Leoben, Styria, I grew up during the reign of the Sonnenkönig. Names like Karl Schranz, Emerson Fittipaldi and Ponto-Buback-Schleyer resonated during my childhood years. In school I acquired a fondness of the English language, which has not left me since. It was the time of only two TV channels, and on sundays I loved to watch Hollywood comedies in the original version (yes, such movies were actually broadcast back then).

The early eighties of the past century saw me studying philosophy and history of art in Vienna. At the end of the eighties I left Vienna to study in Western Berlin, at a time when you had to cross the GDR to get into the city. Unfortunately, I moved back to Vienna two weeks before the Wall came tumbling down... But I kept returning in Berlin every two or three months, actually to work on my doctoral thesis in the Staatsbibliothek ("Stabi") which I loved to work in.

In the early nineties I finished my thesis on historical thinking in Jacques Derrida, and started to work part time at the "Institute Vienna Circle" (at that time located in the former flat of Otto Klemperer just behind the Volkstheater). Back then the Institute could afford young researchers only by accessing government aids such as those called "Akademikertraining", an aid for graduates of the humanities where job chances always are sparse. Of course such promotions were removed when neoliberal policies reached Austria as well.

At the same time I worked as a lecturer at the Institute for Philosophy of the University of Vienna, hoping to advance my career as a philosopher.

Yet at the millenium I had my own company, after a leap of faith which really was possible only because my former wife at that time earned enough money to support our family - but then again, I looked after the twins a lot, too. Philosophy, as a matter of fact, was shifting into the background. And I am still sorry for that.

So this company of mine provides me with a steady income, and a cornucopia of learning new things: just a few months ago I started to learn Django (a Python based Web framework).

(April 2011)