Unsinnsgesellschaft

[4] The members met once a week, on Thursdays, in the inn "Zum rothen Hahn" at Landstraßer Hauptstraße 40 in Vienna.

[5] The handwritten, weekly club magazine Archiv des menschlichen Unsinns - ein langweiliges Unterhaltungsblatt für Wahnwitzige (Archive of Human Nonsense - a boring entertainment magazine for the insane) contained various texts, essays, short plays and illustrations (such as watercolours).

The texts contain numerous allusions to current affairs, political events, parodies of classics as well as a comic epyllion in elegiac distichs (Die Unsinniade by Joseph Kupelwieser).

[6] By means of partly crude jokes, ambiguous puns and metaphors, but also comedies, sarcastic texts and absurdist plays, they mock the private affairs of the association, and topics such as current events, new discoveries, art, literature and everyday life.

[5] They each start with a witty motto,[3] such as:Take up the brushes, let's wax [or wank] bravely!All booklets are divided into sections:[3] Two big parties, so-called Unsinniaden, were planned in the first year and celebrated in private homes: New Year's Eve 1817 was celebrated at Peter Senft's ("Ephraim Spitznabel") and the first foundation anniversary party of the association on 18 April 1818 at Gottfried Beyer's ("the new quartermaster").