Republic of Kugelmugel
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| Republic of Kugelmugel | |
 Flag |  Seal |
| Motto: ? Musical Anthem: ?, words by ? | |
| |
| Location: | 2 Antifaschismusplatz, Wiener Prater, Vienna, Austria |
| Co-ordinates: | 48°12'55.86"N 16°23'45.95"E |
| Area: | ? km2 |
| Capital: | ? |
| Membership: | 389 |
| Date of foundation: | ? 1982 |
| Leadership: | State President Edwin Lipburger |
| Organisational structure: | Republic |
| Language: | German |
| Currency: | ? |
The Republic of Kugelmugel (German: Republik Kugelmugel) is a micronation created in consequence of a longrunning architectural design and planning controversy, and the judicial processes to which it gave rise - by the primary author of the dispute, and their chief protagonist, Austrian artist Edwin Lipburger (born ?).
Kugelmugel is arguably the smallest territorial micronation in existence. It consists of a timber-framed spherical building that was designed and built by Lipburger in the 1970s, as well as the tiny plot of land upon which it is situated. At it's current location, Kugelmugel's "territory" is a plot about .. metres square, enclosed within a formidable concrete and barbed wire perimeter fence, accessible through a single gate.
The spherical Kugelmugel structure was originally conceived by Lipburger as a multi-use building which - in addition to its function as a piece of public sculpture - could serve a more prosaic purpose as his private dwelling, studio and exhibition space - all of which were to be contained within a single hemispherical room inside the .. metre diameter sphere. The sphere itself was to be situated in an open field, in a semi-rural location near ...
Lipburger commenced construction in the late 1970s, however as the "Kugelmugel" was conceptually highly unorthodox, a visually prominent addition to the landscape, and in the process of being erected without the legally mandated building approvals and permits by an unlicensed builder (Lipburger) it soon came to the attention of Austrian planning authorities; they promptly sought the demolition of what was, in simple statutory terms, an illegal building project.
The artist's dogged refusal to comply with official directives, or even to halt his construction programme, eventually resulted in court action being brought against him, and a series of acrimonious cases ensued. Ultimately, with statutory right on their side, the planning authorities were triumphant, and Lipburger was convicted and imprisoned for his intransigence. However, public opinion was sympathetic and widespread, and the resulting outcry soon prompted the the president of Austria to intervene; Lipburger was pardoned and freed, and the planned demolition of the Kugelmugel was halted.
As time passed the Kugelmugel came to be acknowledged both as a work of significant artistic merit and a subject of significant local historical interest.
As at June 2010, there is no public access to either Lipburger's sphere or the patch of ground on which it sits, however an observer standing on the Austrian side of the "frontier" can easily take in nearly the entire physical geography of Kugelmugel in a single glace, by simply looking through the fence.
Lipburger declared the Kugelmugel structure to be an independent republic, and he its "State President", in 1982, at the height of the dispute. He subsequently referred to his nascent putative polity as a "staat im staat" ("state within a state") referencing Kugelmugel's situation as a miniscule purported sovereign territorial state, excised from but entirely encompassed within the relative vastness of the territories of the Austrian republic.
The Kugelmugel was originally situated at .., but was moved to its present location in the Wiener Prater public park in central Vienna in ....
References
External links
- Republic of Kugelmugel website (German language).
- Edwin Lipburger-Kugelmugel exhibition at the Croy Neilsen gallery, Berlin.
Gallery
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