The Guest Book at Schloss Neukloster / Novi Klošter (1904–1941)

Paul Parin’s father, Otto Pollack, was given the castle-like Neukloster (Novi Klošter in Slovene) estate, situated near Heilenstein (Polzela) in Lower Styria, by his parents in 1904. It was originally a Dominican monastery; this was dissolved during the reign of Joseph II. Otto Pollack (later Parin) developed a model farm here and worked primarily in cattle breeding and growing hops.

Paul Parin spent his childhood and most of his youth on the estate. The Neukloster years form the background to many of his stories that are characterised by autobiographical elements. A few guests also appear as characters in these stories (most under other names).

Otto and Renée Pollack, alias Parin, introduced a guest book soon after they acquired Neukloster and kept up the book continuously until they fled in 1941. This unique resource reveals an abundance about the family’s milieu. Readers can categorise their visitors according to various criteria or assign them to particular spheres: relatives, prestigious relationships (e. g. with local dignitaries or the aristocrats who still remained at that time), business contacts and many others.

Moreover, the guest book indirectly reflects the great upheavals of the 20th century – the First World War, the dissolution of the Habsburg monarchy and the establishment of new states and borders.

The rural Neukloster served as a social attraction in the area, for it lay at the intersection point of the urban centres of Vienna, Graz, Ljubljana, Zagreb and Trieste. The guest book also reveals quite a bit about the lifestyle that was led here, for instance when guests participating in hunting parties, tennis tournaments or dance circles added their entries to it.

Visitors included distinguished personalities such as architect Adolf Loos, mountaineer Julius Kugy, entomologist Hans Krekich-Strassoldo von Treuland, inventor Franjo Hamann, ophthalmologist Alfred Bielschowsky and travel writer Alma Karlin.

The entries in the 115-page guest book are diverse: often, they consist only of a name. However, occasionally they provide more particular information about an occasion or the course of a visit. Most are dated. A few, more creative guests left behind poems or drawings. Of the nearly 700 names that appear, to date around 600 have been deciphered.