 Durschmied is best known for his book "The Hinge Factor" (since retitled "How Chance and Stupidity Have Changed History").For the sum of his literary work, (his books are published in two dozen languages) he received the honorary citizenship of Austria.Born on 25 December 1930 in Vienna, Austria, Durschmied got his first taste of war firsthand as a child when the Germans entered Vienna, and the Allied bombers reduced his neighborhood to rubble.