BSA - Association of Social Democratic Academics, Intellectuals and Artists

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Association of Social Democratic Academics, Intellectuals and Artists
(BSA)
logo
legal form Association
( ZVR : 978642308)
founding May 9, 1946
Seat Vienna
main emphasis Social democracy
Action space Austria
Chair Andreas Mailath-Pokorny (President)
Managing directors Franziska Führer (General Secretary)
Website bsa.at

The Association of Social Democratic Academics, Intellectuals and Artists ( BSA for short ) is an Austrian interest group. The association was founded in 1946 as a union of socialist academics . According to its own definition, it sees itself as an “open forum for academics , intellectuals and artists who feel they belong to the social democratic movement or who sympathize with it”. Its aim is to “ promote and realize aspirations for freedom , equality , justice and solidarity ”.

history

Shortly after the founding of the Austrian social democracy in the monarchy , predecessor organizations of the Federation of Social Democratic Academics, Intellectuals and Artists emerged , even then national social democratic academic and student associations, which were also continued in the First Republic .

On May 9th, 1946, the association "Association of Socialist Academics" was registered with the association authorities. The report of the constituent meeting said of the goals of the BSA: “It is a first attempt, the goals of which are in three directions. The socialist party is about to become a state party in this country. It is no longer the party of workers and employees alone, but of all the other strata that are grouped around this core. The League of Socialist Academics has to organize this penetration into the strata of the intellectuals. The task is not to be a discussion club, but to attract the intellectuals. It is also important to provide experts. "

Central to this was to bring together the already existing socialist academic organizations such as the Socialist Doctors' Association, the Association of Socialist Engineers or the Association of Socialist Jurists under one roof. After the establishment of the BSA for Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland, the regional organizations of Styria and Upper Austria were formed in autumn 1946, in 1947 in Salzburg, Tyrol and Vorarlberg, and in 1948 in Carinthia.

In the first year of the BSA's existence, President was Alfred Migsch, who, however, took over the Ministry of Energy in 1947 and resigned as President. He was followed by Theodor Körner in 1947, Karl Waldbrunner in 1950, Leopold Gratz in 1973, Sepp Rieder in 1990, Caspar Eine in 2002, Maria Berger in 2008, Wolf Frühauf as managing director in 2009 and Andreas Mailath-Pokorny in 2010.

Dealing with former National Socialists

The penetration of the BSA with former National Socialists after 1945 caused much criticism. Simon Wiesenthal , for example, said : “The Association of Socialist Academics (BSA) was only known as BSS among connoisseurs until the 1960s.” And even Bruno Kreisky recalled that “BSA was pronounced B-SA by malicious people because a large number who is said to have been a member of the SA "

Since the SPÖ leadership refrained from systematically bringing back its expelled party functionaries after 1945, it set the course towards opening the BSA to the former National Socialists against the background of the decline in denazification for society as a whole . From the beginning of 1947, the BSA began to recruit former National Socialists. While in the western federal states ( Salzburg , Upper Austria , Styria , Tyrol ) the admission of the Nazis was strongly promoted due to the noticeable shortage of technical and economic specialists, there were resistance fighters , especially in the Viennese professional associations with the largest proportion of former concentration camp prisoners and emigrants critical comments on this integration. In 1948, 70% of the BSA Styria consisted of members of National Socialist organizations who had to register, in Upper Austria 58% of BSA members were ex-Nazis, in Salzburg 26% and even in Vienna 15% of the members were former Nazis, with the Vienna Medical Association alone 126 registered former National Socialists with a membership of 365 people.

For public attention made decades later, the case of the doctor and BSA member Heinrich Gross , who during the NS dictatorship in Austria as a doctor in the context of euthanasia -Programmes the mirror base is said to have been involved in the killing of nine handicapped children, but never convicted has been. After the war, he made a successful career as a forensic doctor and was a member of the SPÖ and the BSA.

In 2005, the BSA worked on its historical role after 1945 with the documentation archive of the Austrian resistance as part of a research contract and with the publication of the book Der Wille zum Aufrechtegang .

The BSA today

The BSA sees itself as an organization that is shaped by social democratic ideas. In 2010, the then Vienna City Councilor Andreas Mailath-Pokorny was elected President and confirmed in office in 2016.

In his presidency he focuses on strengthening the role of the BSA as a driving force and think tank . For this purpose, annual focal points were created in the BSA, whereby the broad content-related expertise in the BSA has again found its way into the public and internal party discussion. In particular, the elaboration of a comprehensive educational program that covers the entire field of education - from kindergarten through school and university to lifelong learning - should be mentioned at this point. In addition, it is the President's goal to strengthen the BSA again as a general association by launching interdisciplinary event formats such as the BSA Lectures and BSA Controvers, as well as a central excursion program, the BSA Explorations, for informal networking among the members.

structure

The structure of the BSA is both vertical and horizontal. The Viennese specialist groups and the federal state organizations are primarily structured according to regional and topic-oriented principles.

Specialist groups are currently (2018/2019):

  • Federal specialist group for media professions in the BSA
  • Society for the humanities and social sciences
  • Social democratic doctors
  • Association of Social Democratic Engineers in Vienna
  • Association of Social Democratic Officers and Civil Servants in the Federal Army
  • Society for social and economic sciences
  • Association for psychology, education and psychotherapy
  • Association of social democratic members in health and social professions
  • Association of Social Democratic Lawyers
  • Association of social democratic artists and cultural workers
  • Association of social democratic teachers at general secondary schools
  • Association of Social Democratic Teachers at Vocational Middle and High Schools
  • Association of Social Democratic High School Graduates
  • Social democratic veterinarians and natural scientists
  • Association of social democratic university and technical college teachers in the BSA

In addition to these specialist groups, there are special interest groups for women , young people, Europe, ÖBB and senior citizens . They are established across the specialist groups and country organizations.

In addition to the specialist and interest groups, there are separate sub-organizations in eight Austrian federal states. In addition, 21 BSA district groups are present in Vienna and make an important contribution to anchoring the BSA and its values ​​in the local district parties.

BSA work in practice

The BSA supports the work of the Social Democratic Party of Austria by developing a lively event activity. Due to its decentralized organization, the individual groups (both the specialist and the district groups) are given a lot of freedom.

It is true that essential impulses come from the “headquarters” of the General Secretariat, e. B. Event series such as the BSA Lectures and the BSA Explorations. Most of the events and activities are based on the initiative of the individual groups.

In the past few years dozens of information events on current politics, developments in the party and social get-togethers have been organized. By setting annual priorities, the integration of academically educated people with social and human attitudes into the political system is to be supported and encouraged to critical reflection.

Functionaries

Federal Chairperson

Members of the Presidium

Secretary General

  • Franziska Führer

Finance officer

  • Richard Bock

State chairman

Publications

  • The club magazine Akzente is published by the BSA every six months . The predecessor of Akzente is The Socialist Academic .
  • The BSA's monthly program appears monthly.
  • BSA visions - ideas & concepts for a new SPÖ party program

literature

  • Wolfgang Neugebauer , Peter Schwarz: The will to walk upright. Disclosure of the role of the BSA in the social reintegration of former National Socialists. Edited by the Association of Social Democratic Academics, Intellectuals and Artists, Czernin, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-7076-0196-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Simon Wiesenthal: Right, not vengeance . Frankfurt / Main-Berlin 1988, p. 355 .
  2. ↑ Bruno Kreisky: In the stream of politics. The second part of the memoir . Vienna 1988, p. 210 .
  3. ↑ Contemporary history: The red Nazi washing machine. In: profil.at. January 15, 2005, accessed September 19, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Wolfgang Neugebauer, Peter Schwarz: The will to walk upright . Ed .: Association of Social Democratic Academics, Intellectuals and Artists. Czernin Verlag, Vienna 2005, p. 64 ( bsa.at [PDF]).
  5. ↑ Martin Ladstätter: Heinrich Gross has died - the expected end of a post-war scandal. In: bizeps.or.at. February 22, 2006, accessed March 23, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Principles. In: BSA.at. Retrieved September 19, 2019 .
  7. ^ Ernst Kainersdorfer: Andreas Mailath-Pokorny. In: wienerrathaus.at. Archived from the original on May 28, 2015 ; accessed on September 3, 2019 .
  8. ^ BSA: Andreas Mailath-Pokorny was re-elected as President of the Association of Social Democratic Academics with 99 percent. Press release. In: ots.at. BSA, October 8, 2016, accessed October 3, 2019 .
  9. ↑ BSA education manifesto - achievement instead of origin. (PDF; 126 KB) In: bsa.at. Retrieved September 26, 2019 .
  10. ↑ BSA accents. In: bsa.at. Retrieved December 15, 2018 .
  11. ↑ BSA visions. In: bsa.at. Retrieved September 21, 2019 .