Vorarlberg on jochum.dev

Manifesto for the Music Box — A Bolder Austria

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This manifesto grew out of a conversation about a music box. Someone walks through Feldkirch at medium volume and wonders whether that is a good idea. From that question came three articles and one insight: Austria does not have a volume problem. It has a permission problem.

I. The Diagnosis

France has written into its constitution that resistance to oppression is a fundamental right. Austria has written into its culture that one should not stand out.

Two Chords and an Amplifier — The Defunct Punk Scene of Vorarlberg

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Third part of the series “Rebellion as Civic Duty”

The first two articles dealt with the big question: why does France rebel, and Austria does not? With Hofstede and Milgram, with police and media, with systems and structures. This article goes back to the beginning — to the moment when rebellion in Vorarlberg actually happened. Briefly. Loudly. And then it was over.

Feldkirch, 1977: Two Weeks to the First Concert

At the end of 1977, a few young people came together at the Graf Hugo youth center in Feldkirch. Galle, Franz, Slaughter, and Chy — four guys who had heard about punk in England through the German magazine Sounds and, yes, Bravo. The spark didn’t come from Vienna, not from Innsbruck, and certainly not from any Austrian institution. It came from a Zurich DIY fanzine called “No Fun,” published by Peter Wittwer and Martin Byland. Inside was a sentence from an English punk magazine: “Buy a guitar, learn a C, learn a D, learn an E and join a band.”

About Me

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A blog by an Austrian fool who crosses boundaries in every sense — in thinking, in writing, in faith. Nothing is too set in stone to be reconsidered.

I have been programming publicly for over 24 years. Parts of that work can be found online at @jochumdev and @r3j0.

I am a Highly Sensitive Person — once, especially as a child and young adult, a curse; today a gift.

I worked in social services in IT — in various roles, over many years. Since 2011 I have also been a client (Bipolar 1 and non-substance addiction). What I have experienced on both sides shapes how I think and write.