This time we are presenting an unusual gay biography on SAMSTAGS UM 4. The artist and author Michael Huey has researched it and traces it in detail in his recently published book. Presentation in English.

In 1935, US tycoon Averell Harriman commissioned Count Felix “Wetti” Schaffgotsche to find a location for what would later become Sun Valley in the American West, granting him free passage on his Union Pacific Railroad and using his considerable influence behind the scenes to support the mission. Schaffgotsche, a gregarious and well-connected Austrian aristocrat, traveled for two months from Seattle to Hollywood and from Yosemite to Denver, finally arriving in Ketchum, Idaho. That same day he telegraphed Harriman that he had found the place he had imagined. Today Schaffgotsche, who developed the resort with Harriman until the outbreak of war in 1939, is remembered for this achievement…and for his enthusiasm for Nazi Germany.

Unpredictable Weather: the Sunny, Surprising, Sad Story of Count Felix ‘Wetti’ Schaffgotsche 1904-1942 is the result of five years of research with exclusive access to Schaffgotsche’s family archive in Vienna. However, it is more than just an account of the early history of Sun Valley. It is also, by necessity, an account of an upper class of society that came under severe pressure in the first half of the 20th century in Austria, and of individuals who were confronted with a rapid succession of regime changes and economic disasters. With each change came the need to reinvent themselves economically and reposition themselves in relation to the respective political leadership. As such, this biography is a determined attempt to grapple with a question relevant to our own time: How does a nice young man from a respectable family come to embrace fascism?

Moderation: Hannes Sulzenbacher

Free admission!

January 31, 2026, 4 p.m.