Vienna, the capital of frivolity and gemutlichkeit, foamed with patriotic hysteria when the official proclamation of the state of war, signed by the Emperor, appeared on the walls of the city. The whole town, an American observer noted, suddenly “went frantic with joy. Total strangers embraced each other ... The nightmare of humiliation, of disdain gulped down like a nauseous drug for ages, was off their breasts.”
