Foot affair

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The Vorarlberg passenger ship in 2001

A political dispute in Austria in 1964 became known under the term Fußachaffäre (often also Fußach 1964 ) . The name of the small Vorarlberg Lake Constance community of Fußach has become synonymous with a scandal that sparked the christening of a Lake Constance ship (later the motor ship Vorarlberg ). The attempt by the Federal Ministry of Transport to name the ship in the name of the former Federal President Karl Renner was seen as a provocation by large parts of the Vorarlberg population. The anger about this, which was also fueled by the Vorarlberg media, resulted in violent protests in the Fußacher shipyard on the occasion of the ship's christening on November 21, 1964. The events in Fußach have since become a symbol of resistance against centralist efforts in Austrian federal politics and are still referenced in federalism discussions to this day.

prehistory

Former Federal President Karl Renner (around 1905) - the ship was originally to be christened in his name

When asked by the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) to suggest a name, the Vorarlberg state government decided in 1955 to baptize a Lake Constance ship in the name of Vorarlberg . It was not until the winter of 1963 that construction of the ship began, which the ÖBB financed with its own loans. The Ministry of Transport, to which the ÖBB was assigned, thus had the formal right to give the name. Despite the renewal of the state government's resolution, rumors arose in April 1964 that the ship would be baptized in the name of the former Austrian President Karl Renner. The city of Bregenz intervened and warned that there had been no personal names as ship names on Lake Constance to prevent personality cults since the end of the Danube Monarchy .

Nevertheless, the Austrian Transport Minister Otto Probst officially announced on October 1, 1964 that the ship would be baptized in the name of Karl Renner . Further interventions by Vorarlberg in Vienna were unsuccessful. In this situation the daily newspaper Vorarlberger Nachrichten (VN) came into play with its reporting. When the radio referendum took place in the same year on the “coalition centralists” in Vienna, the launch of the ship was not inconvenient for her to further distinguish herself in Vorarlberg. On November 17, the Vorarlberg state government decided , after having previously acted rather passively, not to send any official representatives to the ship's christening. This boycott was joined not only by a number of other Vorarlberg regional authorities and the local press, but also by various representatives of federal authorities in Vorarlberg.

The name Karl Renner , promoted by the Transport Minister, played a subordinate, if not unpiquant role - on May 11, 1919, 80% of the Vorarlberg population voted in favor of negotiations with Switzerland on Vorarlberg's accession to the Swiss Confederation . However , there was never a referendum on actual membership . The political elites of Vorarlberg accused the then State Chancellor Renner of not having brought this matter up to the peace negotiations in St. Germain , and as a result felt neglected , even during Renner's federal presidency after the Second World War . In Vorarlberg's perception of the Fußach affair, however, federalism - understood as a right to self-determination - plays a central role. However, it was less the name itself than the way it was implemented that caused displeasure.

Ship christening

On November 20, the Vorarlberger Nachrichten wrote in its Friday edition of rumors about an allegedly imminent demonstration. The following day, they used their entire front page to call for a demonstration. On the morning of November 21, 1964, around 1,000 people gathered at Bregenz train station to protest against the launch of the ship, which was scheduled for the same day . When the special train with the festival guests from Vienna arrived at the Bregenz train station, they were pelted with tomatoes (matching the choruses of fruit for Probst ! ) And booed. For the festival guests, the further journey to the Fußacher shipyard, where around 20,000 demonstrators finally turned up, was difficult. The last part of the walk was a gauntlet for them. They were pushed by the demonstrators, pelted with tomatoes and rotten eggs, and sometimes even attacked with sticks. As a result, the demonstrators pushed in the fence of the shipyard, about 130 gendarmes were unable to hold them back. The festival guests fled to a second waiting ship called Austria . From there they could watch as the Austrian flag was torn down from the lectern and the demonstrators carried out an “ emergency baptism ” in the name of Vorarlberg . The Vorarlberg SPÖ member Ernst Haselwanter was pelted with clods of earth and stones and had to be brought to safety by the gendarmerie in a building shed.

Transport Minister Probst traveled across Lake Constance in a motorboat, but turned back on the advice of the gendarmerie because of the aggressive atmosphere. The official christening of the ship was then canceled, and Probst returned to Bregenz, where he tried to have the two daily newspapers Vorarlberger Volksblatt and Vorarlberger Nachrichten confiscated because of “calls for open riot”. The Feldkirch public prosecutor's office rejected this request.

In addition to three injured gendarmes, the physical balance of the day included torn down fences, torn flags, three damaged cars and several criminal charges.

Effects

Debate in the National Council

The Fußach affair was debated in the National Council on November 25, 1964 in a politically heated atmosphere that went beyond the already very bad climate in the grand coalition at that time .

Even in advance, the parties of the grand coalition in the Council of Ministers had not been able to agree on a joint position on the riots in Fußach. The debate in the National Council then took place as part of two urgent questions : SPÖ MPs wanted to know about the status of the surveys from Interior Minister Hans Coppel , while ÖVP MPs asked Justice Minister Christian Broda why he had requested the delegation of the criminal proceedings from Feldkirch to Vienna .

As a result, the ÖVP was ready to condemn the violent riots in Fußach, but in return wanted to extend this condemnation to all violations of the law that had occurred that year, which would have to be treated according to the same legal principles. The SPÖ fought against this, as the unrest surrounding the dismissal of Interior Minister Franz Olah (SPÖ) had not led to criminal prosecution up to this point.

In the subject areas of the response from Justice Minister Broda, in which he reported on the reasons for the intervention or non-intervention of the judiciary in various previous cases, one can clearly see the then very restless domestic political environment of the scandal: attack on Broda in Löwelstrasse, lights switched off at Wiener E-Werk, incidents in Berndorf, “Schleinzer-Wall” complex, doctors' strike, bakery workers' strike, trade workers' strike, incidents in Wiener Neustadt. Warnings from the President of the National Council to the MPs also cast a telling light on the heated political atmosphere: "I ask you to consider that [...] the house here should not be attacked by mass psychosis", and a little later: "Please calm down for the Lord Minister, otherwise I'll have some bromine distributed from the medicine cabinet . "

Criminal charges

The preliminary investigations against the “ringleaders” of the demonstrators did not lead to a judicial charge. In the case of the Vorarlberger Nachrichten , an editor and the publisher were investigated for § 300 StG (incitement). In September 1965, at the request of the Federal Minister of Justice , Federal President Franz Jonas (SPÖ) ordered the criminal proceedings to be discontinued.

Final naming

The ship in the port of Bregenz, which was finally baptized with the name Vorarlberg

After the initial excitement about the unrest at the officially canceled ship christening had subsided, a name carousel began to revolve around the Bodensee ships of the ÖBB. On July 14, 1965, the party executive of the SPÖ finally decided to call the ship Vorarlberg . On July 30, 1965, Probst officially christened the Lake Constance ship with the name Vorarlberg - on the "high seas" at the Korneuburger Werft shipyard . On land they did not want to hold the celebrations for fear of new rallies.

media

The commentators of the SPÖ-affiliated newspapers were reminded of the 1930s and complained that they believed that there was still latent fascism in Austria , for example in the Arbeiter-Zeitung of November 24, 1964:

“And then imagine that these methods of enforcing a political will set a precedent in the other federal states. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see where this is going. To where Austria was once before and where violence and terrorism, the open civil war […] Even Dollfuss and Hitler started small […] The events in Fußach should and must make all upright democrats clear how unstable the political situation in this country is [...] politicians and officials of the ÖVP are preparing the ground for the agitators [...] and are now trying to cover their retreat and turn the terror movement into a home rally with tearful speeches and national anthems [... ] "

In addition to the ÖVP, the FPÖ in particular was made responsible for “forming this terror movement”. In addition, in the eyes of the SPÖ, there were the “private capitalists”, to whom the owners of the bourgeois daily newspapers, in particular the Russ family as owners of the Vorarlberger Nachrichten, were counted.

Although the bourgeois press condemned the violent, law-breaking elements of the demonstration in Fußach, on the other hand, understanding for the demonstrators was shown. In the daily newspaper Neues Österreich of November 22, 1964 it was stated:

“It's pent-up anger against Viennese centralism , the federalists' animosity, fueled to the boil, that found an outlet in the launch of the ship on Lake Constance. Ultimately, it's not about whether the ship should be called 'Karl Renner' or 'Vorarlberg'. [...] It's about the right of the smaller community to have a say in the decisions of the larger, about federalism. "

The Fußach affair also made headlines in German, Italian, Spanish and even Australian newspapers.

The subsequent attempts to implement criminal law provisions on the “degradation of the state and its symbols” (only in 1974 according to Section 248 of the  Criminal Code) were also referred to by the media as “Lex Fußach”.

Political symbolism

In the Fußach affair, a lot of political symbolism was used. While the Vorarlbergers first hyped the naming of the new Lake Constance ship as a symbol for self-determination or oppression by the center, the Austrian national flag was negotiated as a symbol of loyalty to the federal state of Austria during the discourse on the incidents on November 21 . Reports on the events in Fußach reported that the Austrian national flag had been violated. This was seen by the Federal SPÖ as proof that the demonstration had been carried out by anti-republican forces opposed to the Austrian state. The Arbeiter-Zeitung wrote on November 26, 1964: “For the first time since 1938 this flag was kicked in the dirt on Austrian soil. Incidents like those that took place in Vorarlberg only find a parallel in events during the occupation of Austria by Hitler. ”Demonstrators and Vorarlberg authorities, on the other hand, claimed that the flags were only raised at half-mast by the demonstrators and then only unintentionally through the intervention of the gendarmerie been torn to the ground.

Icon Fußach

While the Fußach affair had a lot to do with political symbolism (ship name, flag), Fußach has meanwhile become a political symbol itself. Newspapers from other Austrian federal states made reference to Fußach again and again in the 1980s: for example, commentators recalled Fußach in connection with the congress building at the UN City, the controversial military training area on the Dachstein or the conflict over shop closing times in Salzburg.

The sale of the Lake Constance fleet by the ÖBB to a private carrier, which has been discussed since spring 2005, also pointed out the important role played by Lake Constance shipping in Vorarlberg's understanding of identity. The sale could not be prevented in the end, but the repeated discussion about the foot affair shows its importance for the federalist state of Vorarlberg.

The Vorarlberg is still in use on Lake Constance today.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ No protection for red-white-red? In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 26, 1964, p. 2 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on May 11, 2006 .