A dream which came true

Rather than military service or civil service, Marcus Reistenhofer from Graz serves Austria in Los Angeles

He has a distinct social conscience and his dream is to become an actor. After graduating from HTBLA (school of technology) Marcus Reistenhofer, age 20, was obligated to do military or civil service. He chose a way which was in accord with his conscience, dream, and duty.

"I already knew that I would not do military or civil service, but rather alternative service, when I was a student at the HTBLA in the department of Automation in Kaindorf an der Sulm", Marcus says. "So I got in contact with Dr. Andreas Maislinger, a political scientist from Innsbruck. I had gotten to know that he ensures that young Austrians can do alternative service in many countries of the world like the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service, social service, and peace service."

More information on that can be found at www.auslandsdienst.at.

Marcus, whose dream was to become an actor, went to Hollywood, Los Angeles. He seems to have inherited his talent for being an actor from his father, Peter Reistenhofer, who was among other things a member of the famous Löwingerbühne.

To reach his goal, Marcus visited two or three day-long seminars four times a year during his last two years in school. "One of them took place during my preparation time for the Matura (graduation). That was stressful! But I went to the seminar and was so lucky to be chosen for the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service as one of few candidates - and moreover was sent to Los Angeles!"

When Marcus, who was 19 at the time, arrived in the Californian metropolis on January 26, 2002, he was extremely happy. Instead of eight months military service, he had to serve abroad for 14 months and come up with his own funds, to a large extent. "It is possible because I saved some money and because of my mom's support", he says.

Since February 1, the good-looking young Styrian has been showing up every morning at the offices of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, which was founded by Steven Spielberg after his worldwide success "Schindler's List". "My main work here is translating German interviews into English for videos or texts. That is quite strenuous, sad and touching because of the content sometimes. In the future, my translations will become part of the biggest Holocaust database in the world."
Marcus Reistenhofer has achieved his dream. After work he attends private acting classes. "It is led by a Russian man who is multi-talented. I have learned a lot of things because the classes are very small and the teachers have a lot of time to spend with each student individually."

Of course you need a car in a city like Los Angeles. Marcus owns one. "One month after I bought it someone broke into it and stole everything including my stereo system. That is Los Angeles, too. The crime statistics are a lot higher here than at home in Graz."

During the first months of his internship Marcus lived in North Hollywood, but he has since moved to an area called Los Feliz. "It is a lot safer here. It is a great area, where Madonna did not get a wink of sleep all night in her young years. Today some stars still live here. Brad Pitt for example - not even far away from me!" Marcus wants to use his remaining time in Los Angeles developing contacts within the movie industry - "maybe I will stay here forever!"