My native city is Vienna, the capital of Austria. Born on April 7th, 1937 I was raised in Vienna. I studied English and Law (University of Vienna `58/'60) and Political Science (Southern Illinois University, M.S. '61). After 12 years as campaign manager and public opinion expert with the Austrian People's Party (OEVP - Christian Democrats) and two years of market research for the Fritz Molden publishing, house I started to build up audience research for ORF, the Austrian Radio and Television Corporation, in 1979. With the help of my department, the ORF introduced a TV people meter system in 1990 (see paper on "Fernsehforschung").
I was chairman of GEAR (the Group of European Audience Researchers) for three consecutive years. Most of the work of my former department is documented at http://mediareserach.orf.at which you are welcome to visit. The site contains a wealth of information about the electronic media in Austria. Towards the end of my service in the ORF, I took up online research - inspired by the superb performance of ORF ON (cf. http://orf.at and my papers).  Since my retirement at the end of 1998, online research is my main field of interest. I act as a consultant for Fessel-GfK, Austria's leading market research firm (http://www.gfk.at) and its partner companies in Central and Eastern Europe. 

Privately, I am interested in political symbols such as flags, arms, and national anthems. This site contains 
a reference to my book "Die Symbole Oesterreichs" ("The Symbols of Austria", now again available) and to my latest work "The Arms of the 23 Districts of Vienna" .This site also provides a selection of the coats of arms of Austria and her provinces and a concise history of the arms of the Republic of Austria. 

Together with Dr.Trautl Brandstaller I work for the creation of a "House of Austrian History". For details please go to: http://members.aon.at/proaustria