Waltz Becomes Austrian

Actor Christoph Waltz – leading actor at the Burgtheater in Vienna and winner of the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor last March for his performance in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards – has been granted Austrian citizenship.

Born, raised and educated in Vienna, Waltz was the son of a German stage designer and thus had received his father’s citizenship at birth. Having completed his education at Vienna’s Theresianium and the renowned Max Reinhardt Seminar before turning to film, Austrian authorities granted his citizenship application.

The 53-year-old globe trotter, who lives in Germany and England, seems unconcerned about his nationality, regarding it as a "juridical banality". When Waltz was awarded the Oscar in March, Austrians assumed that one of their countrymen  was now holder of the award.

Waltz himself is often described as representing ambivalent, borderline and melancholic characters on screen. The immediate approval of his citizenship application, however, fuelled the debate on Austria’s immigration and citizenship policies that are regarded at heavily biased in favor of celebrity.