Foreign service in Austria
The term foreign service refers to the general term, namely a replacement of the Austrian civil service or a voluntary service abroad, as well as a certain association, which as a supporting organization gives young Austrians the opportunity to get involved on an international level every year. Be it in the broadest sense as an extended civil service in the interests of the Republic of Austria as an alternative to basic military service, be it as a volunteer in global non-profit projects instead of the voluntary social year (FSJ) , which is limited to the domestic market . There are three different ways in which an international service can be provided:
- Memorial service
- Social service
- Peace service
Association of Austrian Foreign Service
The Austrian Foreign Service Association is a sponsoring organization recognized by the Federal Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection in accordance with Section 46 (5) of the Voluntary Act, which offers participants the opportunity to do voluntary or alternative civilian service abroad. It is the only organization through which all three types of international service can be completed. It is distinguished by the variety of its deployment locations, which are spread around the world on all continents. The locations can be geographically grouped into nine areas. The different areas also differ greatly in terms of the type of service performed. While in the First World there are mainly places of work for memorial service, social services predominate in the southern hemisphere (except Oceania).
The nine operational areas are - clockwise:
- Area South America
- Area Central America
- Area North America
- Area Western Europe
- Eastern Europe area
- Area Mediterranean
- Area East Asia-Oceania
- Area South Asia
- Area Africa
The service
Young volunteers can choose from a range of types of work. You can decide for yourself without restrictions on a project and for how long you want to work. However, in order to be able to count towards civil substitute service abroad, the minimum duration of ten months of free assistance must be demonstrably fulfilled. The service must be in the interests of the Republic of Austria and can only be carried out through a state-recognized, non-profit-making organization that supports a project related to Austria according to the following criteria:
Work in memorial service
This form of service deals with the consequences of National Socialism and its victims. He takes on the majority of volunteer work abroad. The work consists mainly of the figures and organizing tours and events, archive -Work, the holding of lectures at universities and schools, and interviews with witnesses and documentation, can not be buried by their stories and the through-made forgotten The principle is : "For a never again"
Work in social service
The project work aims to support the social or economic development of a country, or has set itself the goal of environmental protection . Social workers are involved in educational institutions or children's homes, in the care of refugees, promote awareness of the importance of our environment in public lectures or events such as clean-ups and are used worldwide in medical care.
Work in peace service
Institutions with the deployment of peacekeepers contribute to achieving or securing peace in crisis areas with armed conflict. They analyze compliance with human rights , organize workshops and joint initiatives with the conflicting parties to support people in their endeavors to eliminate tension and conflicts.
history
prehistory
From the end of the 1970s, Andreas Maislinger campaigned for this type of alternative military service to be legally anchored in Austria, the aim of which was to educate people about the Holocaust . On October 10, 1980, at the invitation of Anton Pelinka, he had the opportunity to present his "community service in Auschwitz" in the ORF program "Kreuzverhor" directed by Dolores Bauer . However, Federal President Rudolf Kirchschläger had rejected his concept that an Austrian had nothing to atone for in Auschwitz . Later, however, Kirchschläger recognized “the positive result” of the memorial service that Maislinger “implemented”.
In 1980/81 Maislinger and Joachim Schlör volunteered in the Poland department of the German Action Reconciliation Service for Peace , headed by Volker von Törne and Christoph Heubner . At the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum he looked after German youth groups. After his return he was even more convinced that a similar program would be implemented in Austria. He was supported above all by Simon Wiesenthal , Teddy Kollek , Ari Rath , Herbert Rosenkranz , Gerhard Röthler and Karl Pfeifer . One of Röthler's sons later did a memorial service and Pfeifer published an interview in the IKG magazine “Die GEMEINDE”.
realization
In May 1991 Andreas Maislinger was finally informed in a letter from Interior Minister Franz Löschnak that the memorial service had been approved by the Austrian government as an alternative to civilian service and that the necessary funds would be borne by the Federal Ministry of the Interior within a specified framework .
On September 1, 1992, the first memorial servant took up his duties at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum .
development
In November 1997 a new legal regulation of the foreign service was decided, which from this point on also made social and peace services possible outside of Austria.
In 2001, under Minister of the Interior Ernst Strasser, a foreign service support association was set up, which distributes the funds to independent sponsoring organizations such as the Austrian Foreign Service.
According to the Austrian Volunteer Act, men and women have been given equal status since 2016. Interested young women can now do all kinds of foreign service. At the same time, the general willingness among the young population to do voluntary service abroad has grown rapidly and, it seems, has become really attractive. The sponsoring organizations have recently been exposed to a rush of interested parties that they cannot yet meet due to limited possibilities and funding resources. It is now jointly hoped that the funding from the Republic of Austria will be adjusted.
In the meantime, more than 1,000 young Austrians have completed their community service abroad. Today the Austrian Foreign Service Association is the only supporting organization that offers memorial, social and peace services and is active on all six continents.
financing
The Republic of Austria provides each foreign service sponsoring association with a certain budget through the association for the promotion of foreign services within the meaning of Section 12b of the Civil Service Act - foreign service sponsoring association . Each financed foreign servant is funded with a maximum of 9,000 euros. The supporting organization can, however, make reallocations so that a larger number of foreign servants can be supported, whereby the amount of 4,500 euros per person obliged to do civil service must not be undercut. Due to these limited funds, it is therefore not possible for everyone interested in doing a sponsored service abroad.
Approved carriers
Support organizations for memorial service
→ Main article: memorial service
- Austrian service abroad
- Memorial Service - Association for historical-political educational work and international dialogue
Support organizations for peace service
Support organizations for social service
- CHICA Austria
- CONCORDIA Austria, social projects
- Limitless - intercultural exchange
- Help that arrives
- One world - Upper Austrian Landlerhilfe
- International volunteer work CÖ gGmbH
- INTERSOL - Association for the Promotion of INTERnational SOLIDARITY
- Austrian service abroad
- VOLUNTARIAT moves
Deployment sites with the cooperation of Austrian supporting organizations
Small excerpt from the various places of work:
Country | City, place | Project name
Object name |
Type (FD, GD, SD) | Supporting organization |
---|---|---|---|---|
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Tirana | Caritas Center | Social service | International volunteer work |
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Buenos Aires | AFI - Asociacion Filantropica Israelita | Memorial service | Association memorial service |
Santiago del Estero | Parish of Espíritu Santo | Social service | International volunteer work | |
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Gyumri | Emili Aregak Center for Children and Youth with Multiple Disabilities | Social service | International volunteer work |
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Melbourne | Jewish Holocaust Center | Memorial service | Austrian service abroad |
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Brussels | CEGESOMA - Center d'Étude Guerre et Société | Memorial service | Austrian service abroad |
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Santa Cruz | PROBIOMA - Productividad Bisofera Medio Ambiente | Social service | INTERSOL |
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Petrópolis | Casa Stefan Zweig | Memorial service | Austrian service abroad |
Rio Grande do Sul | Casa Madre Giovanna | Social service | Limitless | |
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Sofia | Sveti Konstantin | Social service | CONCORDIA |
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Santiago de Chile | Hogar Beit Israel | Memorial service | Association memorial service |
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Nanjing | John Raven House | Memorial service | Austrian service abroad |
Shanghai | Center for Jewish Studies | Memorial service | Austrian service abroad | |
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La Gamba | La Gamba tropical station | Social service | Austrian service abroad |
Puntarenas | Finca Sonador , Longo Mai | Social service | Austrian service abroad | |
San Jose | ACI - Costa Rica | Social service | Limitless | |
San Jose | Obras del Espíritu Santo | Social service | Limitless | |
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Berchtesgaden | Institute for Contemporary History - Documentation Obersalzberg | Memorial service | Austrian service abroad |
Berlin | ne Frank Center eV | Memorial service | Association memorial service | |
Berlin | Jewish Museum Berlin | Memorial service | Austrian service abroad | |
Munich | Jewish Museum Munich | Memorial service | Austrian service abroad | |
... | ||||
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/45/Tropentstation-la-gamba.jpg/220px-Tropentstation-la-gamba.jpg)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dd/JewishMuseumBerlin.jpg/220px-JewishMuseumBerlin.jpg)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/69/Yad_Vashem_Hall_of_Names_by_David_Shankbone.jpg/220px-Yad_Vashem_Hall_of_Names_by_David_Shankbone.jpg)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0b/Hiroshima_Peace_Memorial_Museum_%28right%29.jpg/220px-Hiroshima_Peace_Memorial_Museum_%28right%29.jpg)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/Museum_of_jewish_heritage.jpg/220px-Museum_of_jewish_heritage.jpg)
- London - Royal London Society for the Blind
- London - The National Yad Vashem Charitable Trust
- London - Institute of Contemporary History and Wiener Library
- Oradour-sur-Glane - Center de la Mémoire d'Oradour
- Paris - La Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Déportation
- Paris - Amicale de Mauthausen
- Paris - Alliance Israélite Universelle
- Quetzaltenango - Instituto de Formacion e Investigacion Municipal,
- Santa Rosita - Casa Hogar Estudiantil ASOL
- Auroville - Auroville Village Action Group (AVAG)
- Dharmshala - Nishtha - Rural Health, Education and Environment Center
- Dharmshala - Tibetan Children's Village
- Dharmshala - Tibetan Welfare Office
- Kerala - Mata Amritanandamayi Mission
- Jerusalem - Austrian Hospice for the Holy Family
- Jerusalem - St. Vincent-Ein Karem
- Jerusalem - Yad Vashem
- Como - Istituto di Storia Contemporanea " Pier Amato Perretta " (ISC)
- Milan - Centro di Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea (CDEC)
- Prato - Museo della Deportazione
- Hiroshima - Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation ( Hiroshima Peace Museum )
- Montreal - Holocaust Memorial Center
- Montreal - Kleinmann Family Foundation
- Toronto - (Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Center)
- Nairobi - Kenya Water for Health Organization
- Jasenovac - Jasenovac Concentration Camp Memorial
- Antalaha - D'Analalava
- Mexico City - Museo Memoria y Tolerancia
- Bandipur - Himalayan Welfare Service Center of Helpless Children
- Oslo - Jodisk Aldersbolig
- Lahore - SOS Children Villages Pakistan
- Lahore - proLoka Pakistan
- Huancayo - sub-organization of the Peruvian Ministry of Health
- Lima - Centro de Información y Educación para la Prevención del Abuso de Drogas ( CEDRO )
- Krakow - Polish Humanitarian Organization
- Krakow - Judaica Foundation - Center for Jewish Culture
- Krakow - Galicia Jewish Museum
- Oświęcim - Auschwitz Jewish Center
- Warsaw - Jewish Museum Warsaw
- Großau - Upper Austrian Landler Aid
- Großpold - Upper Austrian Landler Aid
- Iași - Nădejdea Copiilor din România
- Neppendorf - Upper Austrian Landler Aid
- Oberwischau - Upper Austrian Landler Aid
- Timișoara (planned)
- Moscow - Russian Research and Education Center "Holocaust"
- Moscow - SOS Children's Villages
- Moscow - Center for Social Development and Self-Help Perspective
- Moscow - Dobroje Delo
- Saint Petersburg - Faith Rehabilitation Center
- Laibach - National Museum of Contemporary History
- Stockholm - Forum för levande historia
- Uppsala - The Uppsala Program for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
- Prague - Jewish community
- Istanbul - Jewish Museum Istanbul
- Fort Portal - Mountains of the Moon University (MMU)
- Kabale - Diocese of Kabale - Bishops House
- Zigoti - a chance for children
- German Mokra - Upper Austrian Landler Aid
- Königsfeld - Upper Austrian Landler Aid
- Kiev - The Jewish Foundation of Ukraine
- Chicago - Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center (2010)
- Detroit - Holocaust Memorial Center
- Houston - Holocaust Museum Houston
- Los Angeles - Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust
- Los Angeles - Simon Wiesenthal Center
- Los Angeles - USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education
- New York - Gay Men's Health Crisis
- New York - Museum of Jewish Heritage
- New York - Anti-Defamation League
- New York - American Jewish Committee
- Reno - Center for Holocaust, Genocide & Peace Studies
- Richmond - Virginia Holocaust Museum
- Saint Petersburg - The Florida Holocaust Museum
- San Francisco - Holocaust Center of Northern California
- Minsk - Belarussian Children's Hospice
- Minsk - Dietski dom no.6 - Children's home no.6
- Minsk - Kindergarten for Children with Special Needs
Well-known former foreign servants
- Heinz Chen (music teacher)
- Tim Cupal (ORF correspondent)
- Ralph Gabriel (architect)
- Christian Klösch (historian)
- René J. Laglstorfer (journalist, OÖNachrichten)
- Gebi Mair (member of the Tyrolean state parliament)
- Andreas Th. Müller (international lawyer, University of Innsbruck)
- Florian Niederndorfer (Journalist, Der Standard)
- Gregor Sieböck (author & world wanderer)
literature
- René J. Laglstorfer: Homesickness for the world. 20 years of service abroad. Foreword by Andreas Maislinger, afterword by Alejandro Boucabeile, Kyrene Verlag, Innsbruck 2012, ISBN 978-3-902873-03-3 .
- René J. Laglstorfer: Foreign Service Adventure. Foreword by Andreas Maislinger, Verlag Anton Pustet, Salzburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-7025-0873-9 .
- Anton Legerer: crime scene: reconciliation. Action atonement in the FRG and the GDR and memorial service in Austria. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt , Leipzig 2011, ISBN 978-3-374-02868-9 .
Web links
- Book: “Homesickness for the world. 20 years of service abroad "
- Federal Ministry of the Interior : Community service agency
- Federal Ministry of the Interior: Organization responsible for the international service, as of July 1, 2010 (PDF; 951 kB)
Individual evidence
- ^ Markus Kerschbaumer: Abroad instead of community service. In: WeltWegWeiser. Retrieved September 22, 2019 (German).
- ↑ Projects Abroad, IT Office: FSJ Alternative Abroad: Voluntary Social Year | Projects Abroad. Retrieved September 22, 2019 .
- ↑ Voluntary service at home and abroad. Retrieved October 8, 2019 .
- ^ Austrian Parliament: Excerpt from the law. In: Jusline. Austrian Justice, January 1, 2018, accessed December 29, 2019 .
- ↑ Florian Anton Ocenasek: Deployment sites abroad. In: Austrian Service Abroad. Retrieved December 29, 2019 .
- ^ Austrian Parliament: Civil Service Act. In: Legal information of the Austrian federal government. Retrieved December 29, 2019 .
- ↑ Community Service Agency Austria: Voluntary service in Germany and abroad. Accessed December 30, 2019 .
- ↑ Press archive and letter archive ( Memento of May 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) document the aforementioned commitment to the memorial service since 1977.
- ↑ "Community service in Holocaust memorials" , Dr. Peter Huemer and Dr. Andreas Maislinger, ORF Moment - Leben heute, March 9, 1988
- ↑ Andreas Maislinger: "ZIVILDIENST" in Auschwitz ( Memento from March 9, 2001 in the Internet Archive ), Stattblatt - Linzer Programm- und Belangzeitschrift 22/1980
- ↑ Rejola: The alternative to the army. In: THE PRESS. Accessed December 30, 2019 . Document not available, May 22, 2020.
- ^ Letter from Dr. Rudolf Kirchschläger to Dr. Andreas Maislinger , Vienna February 3, 1995. Document not available, May 22, 2020.
- ↑ Lonely among angels of peace: Conscientious objector Andreas Maislinger exemplifies alternative peace service , PROFIL, July 12, 1982
- ↑ "Community service in Holocaust memorials" , Dr. Peter Huemer and Dr. Andreas Maislinger, ORF "Moment - live today", March 9, 1988
- ^ Teddy Kollek on the memorial service project , Tiroler Tageszeitung, January 12, 1993
- ↑ Interview with Dr. Andreas Maislinger ( Memento from March 9, 2001 in the Internet Archive ), Die Gemeinde, December 22, 1982
- ^ Letter from Interior Minister Franz Löschnak to Andreas Maislinger , Die GEMEINDE, July 22, 1991
- ^ Positive response to Austria's first civil servant who serves in the former Auschwitz concentration camp ( Memento from March 9, 2001 in the Internet Archive ), Tiroler Tageszeitung , 12./13. September 1992
- ^ Zivildiener: New Association for Foreign Services - "Association for the Promotion of Foreign Service" , Der Standard, March 5, 2001
- ↑ Foreign service - experience for life? ep.12, # Europa4me. Accessed December 30, 2019 .
- ↑ The Standard Gerald John: Hard Cut at Memorial Service, The Standard November 10, 2010
- ^ A b c Austrian Ministry of Social Affairs: Approved institutions. In: Volunteer Web. Accessed December 31, 2019 .
- ^ Ministry of Social Affairs Austria: Deployment sites. In: Volunteer Web. Accessed December 31, 2019 .
- ↑ Homesickness for the world. 20 years of service abroad ( Memento from January 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive )