Joseph, also Josef Kyselak (9 March 1798Lorenz, 2015 – 17 September 1831) was an Austrian civil servant,

mountaineer Mountaineering, mountain climbing, or alpinism is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas that have become sports ...

and

travel writer The genre of travel literature or travelogue encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs. History Early examples of travel literature include the '' Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' (generally considered ...

. He became famous for his habit to tag his name onto prominent places during his hikes across the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...

Life

The son of a family of civil servants, Kyselak was born in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, where he attended the

Piarist The Piarists (), officially named the Order of Poor Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools (), abbreviated SchP, is a religious order of clerics regular of the Catholic Church founded in 1617 by Spanish priest Joseph Calasanz ...

'' Gymnasium'' in the

Josefstadt Josefstadt (; ; "Joseph-Town") is the eighth district of Vienna (). It is near the center of Vienna and was established as a district in 1850, but borders changed later. Josefstadt is a heavily populated urban area with many workers and resi ...

district. After he took his ''

Matura or its translated terms (''mature'', ''matur'', , , , , ', ) is a Latin name for the secondary school exit exam or "maturity diploma" in various European countries, including Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech ...

'' degree, he worked as a fiscal, from 1825 in the rank of an assessor. Allegedly as a wager, Kyselak began to write his name onto numerous places in the

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...

lands and beyond. In 1829 he published a comprehensive account of an 1825 travel through

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Styria Styria ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian Federal states of Austria, state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's second largest state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and cloc ...

Carinthia Carinthia ( ; ; ) is the southernmost and least densely populated States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The Lake Wolayer is a mountain lake on the Carinthian side of the Carnic Main ...

Berchtesgaden Berchtesgaden () is a municipality in the district Berchtesgadener Land, Bavaria, in southeastern Germany, near the border with Austria, south of Salzburg and southeast of Munich. It lies in the Berchtesgaden Alps. South of the town, the Be ...

Tyrol Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, f ...

, and

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, describing the engraving on Oberkapfenberg Castle. According to legend, he became so well known that Emperor

Francis I of Austria Francis II and I (; 12 February 1768 – 2 March 1835) was the last Holy Roman Emperor as Francis II from 1792 to 1806, and the first Emperor of Austria as Francis I from 1804 to 1835. He was also King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, and served ...

ordered him to stop tagging public buildings and Kyselak promised to comply. The emperor found Kyselak's name carved into his desk following the audience. Kyselak is even said to have climbed the peak of Mt.

Chimborazo Chimborazo () is a stratovolcano situated in Ecuador in the Cordillera Occidental (Ecuador), Cordillera Occidental range of the Andes. Its last known Types of volcanic eruptions, eruption is believed to have occurred around AD 550. Although not ...

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

, where

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, natural history, naturalist, List of explorers, explorer, and proponent of Romanticism, Romantic philosophy and Romanticism ...

found his graffito in 1837. In fact, Humboldt visited the mountain already in 1802. Kyselak died as a victim of an 1831

cholera Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...

epidemic in Vienna.

Film

mentary in cooperation with the Austrian Broadcasting Company ORF: ''Kyselak – The First Graffiti Tagger''

Legacy

Kyselak has been regarded as a predecessor of contemporary tagging and popular culture expressions, such as

Kilroy was here Kilroy was here is a meme that became popular during World War II, typically seen in graffiti. Its origin is debated, but the phrase and the distinctive accompanying doodle became associated with G.I. (military), GIs in the 1940s: a bald-head ...

Peter-Ernst Eiffe Peter-Ernst Eiffe (1941 - c. December 1982), also known as "Eiffe, der Bär" (German for 'Eiffe, the bear') was probably the first Graffiti artist in Germany. During the German student movement of May 1968, he distributed his messages all over H ...

. Numerous ''Kyselak'' graffiti are preserved, however often imitations. His habit earned him an entry in

Constantin von Wurzbach Constantin Wurzbach Ritter von Tannenberg (11 April 1818 – 17 August 1893) was an Austrian biographer, lexicographer and author. Biography He was born in Laibach, Carniola (present-day Ljubljana, Slovenia).He later went on to complete a cou ...

's ''Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich'' (Biographical dictionary of the Austrian Empire, 1856–91). Kyselak is also mentioned in

Joseph Victor von Scheffel Joseph Victor von Scheffel (16 February 1826 – 9 April 1886) was a German poet and novelist. His novel '' Ekkehard'' (1855) became one of the most popular German novels in the 19th century. Biography He was born at Karlsruhe. His father, a reti ...

's poem ''Der Aggstein'' (1863).

References

External links

* Michael Lorenz
"Concerning Kyselak"
Vienna, 2015

The Kyselak Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kyselak, Joseph 1798 births 1831 deaths Writers from the Austrian Empire Austrian mountain climbers Austrian travel writers Deaths from cholera