Thread: Total Recall: Schwarzenegger opens Austria museum

Total Recall: Schwarzenegger opens Austria museum

Friday, October 7, 2011

(Reuters) - Arnold Schwarzenegger took a trip down memory lane in Austria on Friday, visiting his childhood home to open a museum dedicated to his life.

Hundreds of fans - many clad in Terminator-style leather jackets and national dress -- gathered in the soggy southern village of Thal to see the former California governor and Hollywood action star.


A visitor looks at a robot figure from the movie 'the Terminator', inside the house where Austrian actor, former champion bodybuilder and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was born, in the southern Austrian village of Thal, October 7, 2011.
REUTERS/Herwig Prammer

"It is a little house that stands here behind us, it is an old house, it has been repainted in yellow and it has been freshly renovated. But it was here that I spent my youth," Schwarzenegger told the rain-soaked crowd crammed into the garden.


Austrian actor, former champion bodybuilder and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, unveils a statue of himself in a bodybuilding pose as his son Patrick (R) watches, in Thal October 7. 2011.
REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader

Speaking with a soft Austrian provincial accent, Schwarzenegger said the museum was now home to mementoes including the first bodybuilding weights he hoisted as a teenager and the desk from his governor's office in Sacramento.

The 64-year-old said he hoped the story of his curious transition from bodybuilder to movie star to politician would inspire others.

"It is my great wish that everyone who visits this museum fully understands that everyone can be successful in their own way. Everyone. Stay hungry! That was one of my first movies, it has always been my philosophy. This house should carry this message," he said.

Local officials unveiled a huge bronze statue in the garden of a bare-chested young Schwarzenegger flexing his muscles in a body-building pose, veins bulging from his legs.

Schwarzenegger was born in 1947 in Thal, a small, traditional village set in forest-covered hills.

His passion for lifting weights there as a boy led him to the Mr Universe, Mr World and five consecutive Mr Olympia titles. He moved to the United States when he was 21.

He recounted memorable moments in his life, such as lifting weights 4-5 hours a day, attending film premieres, his marriage to Maria Shriver and the birth of his children.

Schwarzenegger, who in May announced his separation from Shriver after admitting to fathering a child out of wedlock, is working on his second autobiography.

"Everyone can achieve what I did because personal success does not have so much to do with millions, with headlines in the media - that are not always positive -- and nothing to do with the pat on the back from Barack Obama or other big names," he said as his 18-year-old son Patrick, one of four children he had with Shriver, stood beside him.

One fan outside the museum needed little convincing that the star of such blockbuster films as "Terminator", "Total Recall", "Last Action Hero" and comedies such as "Kindergarten Cop" and "Twins" was a good role model.


A figure from the movie 'The Terminator' is displayed inside the house where Austrian actor, former champion bodybuilder and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was born, in the southern Austrian village of Thal, October 7, 2011.
REUTERS/Herwig Prammer

"Arnold is a first class man. He opened our Terminator motorcycle club in Slovenia," Branko Slikar said, clad in a leather jacket, long grey beard and sunglasses.

"He is the number one body builder, the number one actor and the number one politician," he said, pumping his fists in the air.

Schwarzenegger this year halted discussions for a new "Terminator" movie and all other Hollywood projects, saying he wanted to focus on personal matters after admitting to fathering a secret child with his housekeeper 13 years ago.

He was ridiculed in U.S. media over the affair, with some media outlets dubbing him the "Sperminator". Shriver, a member of the Kennedy dynasty, filed for divorce in July after 25 years of marriage.

(Reporting by Sylvia Westall, editing by Paul Casciato)

Total Recall: Schwarzenegger opens Austria museum | Reuters

Posted the second video here, but it doesn't seem to be working. The first video is from the same moments, however entirely in the German language. Anyone here to translate?

From the video's description:
I'll be back -- Arnold Schwarzenegger auf Heimatbesuch. Der Vorzeige-Steirer eröffnete in Anwesenheit zahlreicher Ehrengäste, Fans und Medienvertreter in seinem Geburtshaus in Thal bei Graz das Arnold Schwarzenegger Museum. Ein kleines Haus, in dem man unterteilt in 4 Bereichen, das Leben und den Werdegang des Steirerbuam hautnah erleben kann.

And FreeTranslation.com's translation:
I'll be back -- Arnold Schwarzenegger on homeland visit. The show Steirer opened the Arnold Schwarzenegger museum in presence of numerous guests of honor, fans and medium representative in its birthplace in Thal in Graz. A small house in which one subdivides in 4 areas that can experience life and the development of the Steirerbuam up close.

Steirer stumped Free Translation, however a German-English dictionary offered Styria as an alternative with additional Googling leading to Wiki's entry:

Styria (German: Steiermark, pronounced [ˈʃtaɪ.ɐmaʁk], Slovene: Štajerska) is a state or Bundesland, located in the southeast of Austria. In area it is the second largest of the nine Austrian federated states, covering 16,401 km². It borders Slovenia as well as the other Austrian states of Upper Austria, Lower Austria, Salzburg, Burgenland, and Carinthia. The population (as of 2011) was 1,210,700. The capital city is Graz (255,000 inhabitants).

The YouTube channel misspelled baum (tree in German) as buam.

It's an easy guess to make that the writer was commenting on the "Austrian Oak," but you probably figured that out without five minutes of Googling.