Gombrich, however, had been brought up in the Viennese culture of Bildung and was concerned with wider issues of cultural tradition and the relationship between science and art.

In 1939, Schulz co-founded the 'Austrian Exile Theatre Laterndl' that attempted to preserve Viennese culture through performances of cabaret and stage plays until August 1945.

But the approaching cataclysm has yet to make itself felt in the glittering Viennese culture Tallis captures in all its fin de siècle grandeur.

When he became Ambassador in April 1986, Mr. Lauder was welcomed in Austria as an ardent fan of Viennese culture.

Vienna's coffeehouses are prominent in Viennese culture and known internationally, while Paris was important in the development of "café society" in the first half of the 20th century.

Set in the rarefied world of Viennese high culture, it functions equally as a psychodrama and a scornful allegory for the national character.

Carl Schorske's effort to show how, at the turn of the century, the various forms of Viennese culture related to one another and to politics is, in its own right, "ethnographic."

But nothing could be more foolish than to compare 18th-century Viennese culture with our own.

"New York preserved the best of Viennese culture and history during the war," said Dr. Scholz, who recently visited Dr. Crew in Brooklyn.