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"In Berlin the situation is serious but not desperate; in Vienna, the situation is desperate but not serious."

January 1, 1970

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Added on April 10, 2026

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Columnists Theatre critics Authors from Austria Translators from Austria

Original Language: English

Sources

Reported in: John Derbyshire, "Desperate But Not Serious". The Straggler (National Review), vol. 112 (2 April 2012): "The point of the quip is to show the different outlooks of Prussians and Austrians: the first soldiering on to the end in dogged hope, the second in fatalistic acknowledgment that while the curtain may indeed be about to fall, there is no point forgoing life's normal pleasures in the interim." A different translation is given by Gilbert Carr, "'Hopeless but not serious'", letter

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alfred_Polgar

Reported in: John Derbyshire, "Desperate But Not Serious". The Straggler (National Review), vol. 112 (2 April 2012): "The point of the quip is to show the different outlooks of Prussians and Austrians: the first soldiering on to the end in dogged hope, the second in fatalistic acknowledgment that while the curtain may indeed be about to fall, there is no point forgoing life's normal pleasures in the interim." A different translation is given by Gilbert Carr, "'Hopeless but not serious'", letter