1975-79 various on zettel
christian ide hintze: "zettel". ca. 1,2 million copies of more than 300 short texts with address & telephone number on tiny handbills / flyers / leaflets, handed out at the streets of austria, germany, switzerland & holland. 1974-1979
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"the action recalls somewhat the book people in truffaut’s movie "fahrenheit 451" (hintze has already got successors in graz, people who nail inscribed and colourfully painted clapboards at the trees). like them he tries to give an impetus to reading in our time of poor communication and hostility to literature. he will certainly be one of the first, should literature once completely go out of fashion and paper get unaffordable, to learn by heart his own and other people’s texts and forward them to anyone interested."
(werner, journalist, salzburger tagblatt. report on ide's day-by-day action of handing out small poetry leaflets in the streets. salzburg, austria, august 12, 1975)
"he is waiting there everyday for his tea. obviously he is bored while waiting and he thinks along the way of all sort of things. one time, he was thinking of whether he will get a one schilling coin or six one schilling coins as change, the next time, whether he will get a clean or a dirty glass or which colour a saucer will have or which drink the man ahead does order or whether the cashier woman will be in a good or a bad temper. he waits there everyday, his whole life is filled with waiting. he waits for his tea; the tea is therefore his goal. his troubles (which change, a clean or a dirty glass ...) are actually irrelevant."
(alena urbankova, literary scholar: on christian ide hintze’s zettel poetry, a seminary at the department of cultural and intellectual history of the university of vienna on the topic "elements of frustration in austrian literature". winter semester 1975/76)
"your writings consist of obscenities and word games. there is no need for that kind of writing in the german democratic republic."
(comment by an officer of the people's police who types in the proceedings of the interrogation after ide has been taken into custody because of "forbidden distribution of pamphlets" in the streets of east berlin. on september 27, 1976. the officer sits beneath a portrait of lenin. the deliquent stands in front of a white wall and answers questions. comprehensive report published in: christian ide hintze: "zettelalbum". street diary. schönemann-verlag. kisslegg, germany 1978. pp. 118)
“you have constrained the pedestrian traffic on 1977-04-02 at 7.20 pm at vienna 3d district by distributing prints and thereby committed a regulatory offence according to § 99(3) and in relation with § 78 lit c stvo (traffic regulations). according to § 99(3) a stvo a fine of 250 schilling will be imposed on you in application of § 47 of the law of administrative penalty from the year 1950. in case of uncollectiblity, a compensatory arrest for 24 hours will be imposed on you.”
(dr. schw. , direction of the federal police vienna, district commissioner’s office landstraße. this is the text of a writ which was delivered with the mention "to the attention of". vienna, austria, may 16, 1977. published in: christian ide hintze: zettelalbum. diary. schönemann-verlag. kisslegg, deutschland 1978. p. 150)
"just when he was about to distribute his small leaflets to the guests in the foyer in front of the big hall, he got straightforwardly bundled out. and there was no explanatory statement. probably, "ide" was thought to be a political agitator, an extremist who wanted to disturb the book exhibition. probably it was held against him that he uses to wear a hat even while disseminating his leaflets in closed locations."
(thomas borgmann, reporter, stuttgarter zeitung. stuttgart, germany, november 17, 1978)
"for a while i couldn’t get him but bit by bit i nearly began to admire him. i thought, either this is an exceedingly stubborn or consistent person. either an obsessive or an idiot but if anything, someone of the kind of mad myschkin. in the past four years he has been distributing, believe it or not, 1.2 millions leaflets."
(peter henisch, writer, extrablatt, magazine for culture & politics. "zettel als botschaft" ("leaflets as message")", a portrait of the author. vienna, austria, february / march 1979)
"he is the result of 1.2 millions contacts, a hand-to-hand resuscitator, a bard of the street, a singer searching for dialogue. whoever likes françois villon will reach hintze more easily. he motivates the anonymous pedestrian, brings nearer to him the 21st century, in which humanity is either dead or sociable."
(herbert holba, cineast & reviewer, f, film magazine. review on "zetteldämmerung" ("the dawning of zettel"), a cinemafilm on ide's street life & poetry leaflets directed by alfred kaiser. vienna, austria, august / september 1979)
"ide first caught attention in the seventies by distributing his poetry on the streets. quick to take advantage of the xerox revolution, ide littered the sidewalks with poems on scraps of paper, taped them on lamp posts and grinned when they became accidental bookmarks for weary streetcar riders. few knew or even cared who the poet was, but everyone knew his poetry."
(biographical note in: homepage austrian cultural institute new york, at the occasion of christian ide hintze being online-poet in residence, new york 1995)
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"the action recalls somewhat the book people in truffaut’s movie "fahrenheit 451" (hintze has already got successors in graz, people who nail inscribed and colourfully painted clapboards at the trees). like them he tries to give an impetus to reading in our time of poor communication and hostility to literature. he will certainly be one of the first, should literature once completely go out of fashion and paper get unaffordable, to learn by heart his own and other people’s texts and forward them to anyone interested."
(werner, journalist, salzburger tagblatt. report on ide's day-by-day action of handing out small poetry leaflets in the streets. salzburg, austria, august 12, 1975)
"he is waiting there everyday for his tea. obviously he is bored while waiting and he thinks along the way of all sort of things. one time, he was thinking of whether he will get a one schilling coin or six one schilling coins as change, the next time, whether he will get a clean or a dirty glass or which colour a saucer will have or which drink the man ahead does order or whether the cashier woman will be in a good or a bad temper. he waits there everyday, his whole life is filled with waiting. he waits for his tea; the tea is therefore his goal. his troubles (which change, a clean or a dirty glass ...) are actually irrelevant."
(alena urbankova, literary scholar: on christian ide hintze’s zettel poetry, a seminary at the department of cultural and intellectual history of the university of vienna on the topic "elements of frustration in austrian literature". winter semester 1975/76)
"your writings consist of obscenities and word games. there is no need for that kind of writing in the german democratic republic."
(comment by an officer of the people's police who types in the proceedings of the interrogation after ide has been taken into custody because of "forbidden distribution of pamphlets" in the streets of east berlin. on september 27, 1976. the officer sits beneath a portrait of lenin. the deliquent stands in front of a white wall and answers questions. comprehensive report published in: christian ide hintze: "zettelalbum". street diary. schönemann-verlag. kisslegg, germany 1978. pp. 118)
“you have constrained the pedestrian traffic on 1977-04-02 at 7.20 pm at vienna 3d district by distributing prints and thereby committed a regulatory offence according to § 99(3) and in relation with § 78 lit c stvo (traffic regulations). according to § 99(3) a stvo a fine of 250 schilling will be imposed on you in application of § 47 of the law of administrative penalty from the year 1950. in case of uncollectiblity, a compensatory arrest for 24 hours will be imposed on you.”
(dr. schw. , direction of the federal police vienna, district commissioner’s office landstraße. this is the text of a writ which was delivered with the mention "to the attention of". vienna, austria, may 16, 1977. published in: christian ide hintze: zettelalbum. diary. schönemann-verlag. kisslegg, deutschland 1978. p. 150)
"just when he was about to distribute his small leaflets to the guests in the foyer in front of the big hall, he got straightforwardly bundled out. and there was no explanatory statement. probably, "ide" was thought to be a political agitator, an extremist who wanted to disturb the book exhibition. probably it was held against him that he uses to wear a hat even while disseminating his leaflets in closed locations."
(thomas borgmann, reporter, stuttgarter zeitung. stuttgart, germany, november 17, 1978)
"for a while i couldn’t get him but bit by bit i nearly began to admire him. i thought, either this is an exceedingly stubborn or consistent person. either an obsessive or an idiot but if anything, someone of the kind of mad myschkin. in the past four years he has been distributing, believe it or not, 1.2 millions leaflets."
(peter henisch, writer, extrablatt, magazine for culture & politics. "zettel als botschaft" ("leaflets as message")", a portrait of the author. vienna, austria, february / march 1979)
"he is the result of 1.2 millions contacts, a hand-to-hand resuscitator, a bard of the street, a singer searching for dialogue. whoever likes françois villon will reach hintze more easily. he motivates the anonymous pedestrian, brings nearer to him the 21st century, in which humanity is either dead or sociable."
(herbert holba, cineast & reviewer, f, film magazine. review on "zetteldämmerung" ("the dawning of zettel"), a cinemafilm on ide's street life & poetry leaflets directed by alfred kaiser. vienna, austria, august / september 1979)
"ide first caught attention in the seventies by distributing his poetry on the streets. quick to take advantage of the xerox revolution, ide littered the sidewalks with poems on scraps of paper, taped them on lamp posts and grinned when they became accidental bookmarks for weary streetcar riders. few knew or even cared who the poet was, but everyone knew his poetry."
(biographical note in: homepage austrian cultural institute new york, at the occasion of christian ide hintze being online-poet in residence, new york 1995)