How much do we know about RAF Klagenfurt in Kärnten, Austria? Introducing my next book.
- Amelia Marriette
- Feb 1, 2021
- 4 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
I was a curator working in a museum in South Devon in the UK; this was my dream job. Suddenly, the local council made my job redundant because they could no longer afford to keep the role open. This was heartbreaking and depressing, but my life took a turn for the better through a chance meeting with an Austrian woman, Katie, and we became partners. We relocated to Austria, and I set out on a physical and spiritual journey, a journey of self-discovery, repair and rejuvenation through the exploration of nature, centred on my resolution to complete the same 15-kilometre walk through the hills and woods of beautiful Kärnten in Austria every week for a year. By the time that year was over, I knew I had found healing, peace and true happiness.
By coincidence, my father, Leonard Eason, was stationed at RAF Klagenfurt in the Kärnten (Carinthian in English) Region of Austria between 1946 and 48. This is an extract about my father from my book Walking into Alchemy: The Transformative Power of Nature.
Walking into Alchemy-
Chapter 14 (Extract - re RAF Klagenfurt)
4th February
Dad
My sister and her daughter are visiting us in Austria and can’t decide whether they should accompany me today. They are a little disappointed as they had wanted to find Austria in deep snow, but none has fallen recently. I point out that the Koralpe is snow-capped and the Karawanken will almost certainly be so, and that once we have climbed high enough, we will be rewarded by stunning views.
They are convinced, and we depart at 11.30 am. It is a chilly -1 °C but feels colder, as it is very blustery; however, we are heartened by the sight of a beautiful blue sky. As we rise higher, we do indeed see the Karawanken Mountains, which are extraordinarily clear, snow-capped and magnificent. I explain to my companions that they are 135 kilometres away and that they separate Austria from Slovenia – with Slovenia to the south and Austria to the north, and with a total length of 120 kilometres in an east-west direction, the Karawanken chain is one of the longest ranges in Europe.
When I was jotting down some tentative ideas about how I might use the walk to explore tangential avenues back at the beginning of January, it occurred to me that my project might help me to explore more about my father because, by a strange coincidence, he was stationed in Austria from 1946 to 1948. Immediately after the conclusion of the hostilities of the Second World War, my father was posted to RAF Klagenfurt, which lies only 69 kilometres from my new home. RAF Klagenfurt is less than an hour away from Bad Sankt Leonhard. Moreover, Klagenfurt airport is the one we always use to travel between here and the UK – it is sited approximately on the same spot where RAF Klagenfurt once stood. Immediately after the cessation of the hostilities of the Second World War, Austria had been split into zones of occupation and controlled by Britain, France, the United States and Russia. Reg Herschy outlines in his book Freedom at Midnight the problems that the Allied Military Governments of the four powers had to address: the immediate problems not only of hunger but of dealing with the ‘Thousands of refugees that had fled from the advancing armies and great numbers of anti-Tito forces who had been driven over the frontier into the Carinthian region.’
My father was one of the military personnel sent to Austria to help administrate the repatriation process.
The year before he died, I realised that although he had travelled extensively in his long life, he had never returned to Austria. Suddenly, it seemed vitally important to me that he should return, so on his 89th birthday, I asked my father if he would like to visit once again. He readily agreed, as, despite the awful circumstances, he had enjoyed his time in Austria and had been left with a lifelong love of the Austrian landscape. The short trip was planned for October and was a success, and during it, my father spoke more about this formative and early part of his life than he ever had before.
After the visit and within an hour of us returning from Austria and having got my father safely home to Malvern, my father quietly left the living room, went upstairs and came back down with a small box containing his diaries from 1943-1948. I had no idea that they existed. I am sure that I would never have seen them if we had not made the journey back to Austria. Later the same day, I remembered that years before I had seen an old suitcase in the loft marked with a sticky label with the word ‘ART’, scrawled across it. Climbing carefully up the ladder and into the attic, I found the suitcase, opened it and there I saw a neat stack of unframed but completed watercolours, all dating from this period of my father’s life. Later, I was able to match them to the diary entries. As a curator, this was a dream come true.
*******
Walking into Alchemy –
ISBN-13: 978-1861519474 – Full-Colour Version is only available from www.ameliamarriette.com/shop
OR Mereo Books http://www.mereobooks.com/books/genre/mind-body-spirit/walking-into-alchemy
ISBN-10: 1861519478
I am currently working on my new book, An Artist at War and Peace, about my father, Leonard Eason—known to most as Len—a quiet, gifted artist whose life was shaped by the Second World War in ways that were both devastating and unexpectedly mind-expanding. It’s a memoir, but also a family archive, a historical reflection, and a tribute to the creative spirit that endures even in the darkest of times.
You can find out more about my book here: An Artist at War and Peace | Amelia Marriette
N.B. The image of RAF Klagenfurt must not be reproduced without permission, but do contact me if you are interested in the painting.
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