Alfred Klahr Society
| Alfred Klahr Society | |
|---|---|
 |
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| purpose | Association for research into the history of the labor movement |
| Chair: | Walther Leeb |
| Establishment date: | 1993 |
| Seat : | Drechslergasse 42, 1140 Vienna |
| Website: | www.klahrgesellschaft.at |
The Alfred Klahr Society (AKG for short) founded in 1993 is an association for research into the history of the labor movement . It is based in Vienna and is named after the Austrian political scientist and communist party functionary Alfred Klahr , who was shot by an SS patrol in Warsaw in 1944 . From 1993 to 2005, the AKG managed and opened up the archives of the Communist Party of Austria .
The president of the society is the lawyer Walther Leeb, the scientific secretary is Manfred Mugrauer.
aims
The Alfred Klahr Society , founded in the environment of the KPÖ, is a non-profit organization that serves scientific and popular education purposes. The statutes name three core objectives:
- the scientific processing of social development in Austria
- the scientific indexing of libraries and archives of the labor movement
- the "consolidation of the independence , permanent neutrality and democracy of the Republic of Austria and the promotion of humanistic and international sentiments."
The namesake of the company, Alfred Klahr (1904–1944), was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Austria and a victim of National Socialism . In his writings written in the 1930s, Klahr formulated a theory of the Austrian nation from a Marxist point of view and thus motivated the Austrian resistance to National Socialism on two levels of argument - on the one hand as a fight against a fascist regime of injustice, on the other hand as a national fight for independence against German foreign rule. Klahr's argumentation also shaped the Soviet policy on Austria and thus laid the basis for the Austrian declaration of independence of April 27, 1945. However, the Moscow Declaration in 1943 already mentioned the need for a substantial resistance movement within Austria as a prerequisite for the restoration of state sovereignty. The AKG's commitment to state independence, neutrality and democracy is consequently in an unbroken tradition of the arguments of its namesake.
The founding members of the AKG included numerous communist resistance fighters - such as Vinzenz Böröcz , Otto Brichacek, Maria Cäsar , Franz Kain , Max Muchitsch, Rudolf Schober, Jakob Zanger and Heinz Zaslawski - as well as the former KPÖ chairman Franz Muhri , as well as the specialist historian Hans Hautmann , Gerhard Oberkofler and Winfried Garscha . It was founded primarily to secure and scientifically develop the archive and library of the KPÖ. In addition, the AKG regularly organizes scientific symposia and lectures, maintains scientific exchange with people and institutions at home and abroad and publishes a newsletter four times a year, which has developed from an initially internal newsletter to a scientific periodical on the history of the labor movement . The founding president was the Linz university professor Hans Hautmann, who held this function until 2005.
A well-known supporter of the society was the sculptor Alfred Hrdlicka until his death in 2009 .
Archive and library of the KPÖ
The original main function of the association was the maintenance and indexing of the archive and library of the KPÖ. In 2000 an anthology was published on the society and its archive, including a contribution on “the checkered history and the holdings of the party archive of the KPÖ and the Central Committee library”. The function of full-time archivist has been exercised by Wilhelm Weinert since the company was founded, and he has produced several publications on the history of Austrian anti-fascist resistance. This position was financed with funds from the KPÖ, which, however, no longer wanted to take advantage of this service from 2005 onwards due to the lost Novum process. Weinert's employment relationship was terminated - "Serious maintenance of an archive without an employed archivist who is familiar with its holdings is not possible," which is why the AKG had to reposition itself. The company then put the management of the KPÖ archive back, but the general assemblies in 2004 and 2005 decided by a large majority that the association should continue to exist and continue to operate publicly. The statutes were changed, the previous name of the association Alfred Klahr Gesellschaft. Archive and library association became the Alfred Klahr Society. Association for research into the history of the labor movement changed.
Events and publications
The Alfred Klahr Society regularly organizes commemorative events, lectures, readings, book presentations, film screenings and, since 1995, an annual symposium, which at the beginning was preferably dedicated to anniversaries: 60 years of the International Brigades , 80 years of the October Revolution , 150 years of the Revolution of 1848 , 50 years of the October strikes , 60 years Moscow Declaration etc. In 2004 an Alfred Klahr Symposium took place, in 2005 one in Vienna on the KPÖ as the governing party (1945–1947) and a second in Graz with the title Styria will be free! 1945 - 1955 - 2005, resistance - liberation - neutrality . This symposium was organized together with the educational association of the KPÖ Steiermark and opened by the Graz Communist Party Councilor Ernest Kaltenegger . By moving into the Styrian state parliament in the spring of 2006, the KPÖ gained club status there, which made it possible for them to promote political parties and establish an educational association of the KPÖ Styria . Since then, he has been working closely with the Alfred Klahr Society, especially in the form of joint symposia in the Styrian capital Graz.
Since then, the events of the AKG have been devoted to historical questions of the Austrian labor movement as well as to those with current-political references such as the nationalization question , demilitarization, the world economic crisis from a historical and current perspective, communist works council work or social housing . Non-Communist speakers were also invited to these symposia, be they academics or former social democratic politicians such as Erwin Lanc or Rudolf Streicher . There is still room for remembrance, be it the 50th anniversary of Ernst Kirchweger's death , 90 years of the KPÖ, the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I or the 130th anniversary of Karl Marx's death . The society's affinity for culture is striking, for example in memorial events for Hanns Eisler , Karl Paryla , Jura Soyfer or the Marxist philosopher and psychoanalyst Walter Hollitscher , for whose memorial event several well-known German Marxists such as Hans Heinz Holz , Herbert Hörz and Samuel "Mitja" Found Rapoport .
Since 2000, the Society's book publications have included academic volumes from the Quellen & Studien series , for example by Hans Hautmann on the most important thinkers of Marxism and socialist utopias . Several volumes were written by the Innsbruck university lecturer Peter Goller . There are also volumes by Anja Oberkofler (on the crisis in labor law ), by Charlotte Rombach (on the Austrian Schutzbund children in the Soviet Union) and by Martin Krenn on Walter Hollitscher . On the occasion of the 70th birthday of Hautmann and Oberkofler, all of their contributions and presentations were republished in two anthologies. Furthermore, the lectures at symposia are summarized in this series, for example on Walter Hollitscher's 90th birthday, on the issue of public property vs. Privatization and about economic and financial crises then as now, all three edited by Manfred Mugrauer .
Two publications by Wilhelm Weinert on the anti-fascist resistance struggle have appeared in two or three editions:
- I want you to always stay close to you ... Biographies of communist resistance fighters in Austria (1997 and 2005).
- You can put me out, but not the fire . Guide through the grove of honor of Group 40 at the Vienna Central Cemetery for the executed resistance fighters (2004 to 2011 [3rd, verb. And additional edition]).
On the 50th anniversary of the death of Karl Steinhardt , co-founder of the KPÖ and the Communist International , Manfred Mugrauer published his memoirs of a Viennese worker in 2013 . Since the company was founded, the notices have been published four times a year with a length of up to 40 pages.
Well-known officials and authors
literature
- The Alfred Klahr Society and its archive . Contributions to the Austrian history of the 20th century, published by Hans Hautmann on behalf of the Alfred Klahr Society. Sources & Studies, Vienna 2000, 389 pages, ISBN 3-9501204-0-8 .
Web links
- Alfred Klahr Society , official website
- Literature by and about the Alfred Klahr Society in the catalog of the German National Library
Individual evidence
- ^ Statutes of the Alfred Klahr Society , accessed on May 17, 2015
- ↑ "... that on the occasion of the final accounting it will be inevitable to consider how much [Austria] herself will have contributed to its liberation." From the Moscow Declaration of 1943.
- ^ History and tasks of the Alfred Klahr Society , accessed on May 17, 2015
- ^ Journal of Marxist Renewal : The Alfred Klahr Society, Vienna , written by the long-time President of the AKG, Hans Hautmann, No. 79, September 2009
- ↑ Announcements of the Alfred Klahr Society, 4/2009, p. 28. (PDF; 788 kB)
- ↑ a b The Alfred Klahr Society and its archive . Contributions to the Austrian history of the 20th century, published by Hans Hautmann on behalf of the Alfred Klahr Society. Sources & Studies, Vienna 2000, 389 pages, ISBN 3-9501204-0-8 .
- ↑ A complete list of the public AKG events can be found on the company's website.