Republican Club - New Austria

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The Republican Club - Neues Österreich is an association in Vienna that combats anti-Semitism , racism and right-wing extremism and sees itself as part of the civil society that campaigns for human rights and education in Austria.

founding

The Republican Club - New Austria was founded in Vienna in 1986 during the Waldheim affair . The original goal of the founders was to deal with the involvement of Austrians in the crimes of National Socialism, because “the Waldheim affair was only the cause, not the cause, of our dispute. Waldheim was just a symbol, not the real problem, but its unsavory symptom, ”as founding member Doron Rabinovici wrote. Furthermore, it is still important to raise awareness of the "real problem". The description of the activities of the Republican Club - New Austria can also be found in the full name of the association: "Association to illuminate recent Austrian history and to promote its treatment in the present".

The Waldheim wooden horse

In 1986, the then Austrian Chancellor of the SPÖ , Fred Sinowatz , said at the press conference on the election of Kurt Waldheim : "So let's take note that Waldheim was not with the SA , but only his horse." This statement was made by the former head of entertainment ORF and inventor of Club 2 , as well as the spiritual father and co-founder of the "Republican Club - New Austria" Kuno Knöbl came up with the idea of ​​a Trojan horse called Waldheim, a wooden horse from whose belly "the ghosts of the past should creep". During a discussion, Alfred Hrdlicka drew up a sketch that would subsequently serve as the logo of the Republican Club - New Austria. The "Waldheim - wooden horse" itself was built within two weeks in a theater workshop for the group "Neues Österreich".

Kuno Knöbl wrote about the first trip of the really large wooden horse on March 12, 1988: “The group" New Austria "had registered a demonstration at Stephansplatz for 2 pm . We reached the square via the Seilerstätte and Singerstrasse, the horse was covered with sheets. At 2.30 p.m. it was revealed, big, new, fresh on the loading area of ​​the truck, about 6 m high above the passers-by - an SA cap on its head that Manfred Deix had painted to follow the quote from Fred Sinowatz. Microphones, files, friends, people ... Rosa Jochmann was one of the first speakers ... in front of 5,000 people, an hour later it was 10,000 and when Ö3 reported on the wondrous event, the ditch, the Kärntner Straße was full of spectators and listeners. A little later: the wooden horse was at the State Opera, opposite the VP headquarters. Texts by Peter Handke , Elfriede Jelinek were read out, Doron Rabinovici, Peter Kreisky , Silvio Lehmann spoke. ". As a result, the horse was to accompany Kurt Waldheim on one of his few trips abroad as Federal President to Rome or within Austria to the Salzburg Festival . In the meantime, the wooden horse has become a historical testimony and has already found its way into the museum, as in 2005 at the exhibition "Now is the bad, the Tennenbaum" in the Jewish Museum Vienna . The "Waldheim wooden horse" is dismantled in the rooms of the Republican Club - New Austria.

Kuno Knöbl and Barbara Coudenhove-Kalergi brought the name "New Austria" into the club's name. In the anthology "From the art of nest pollution" (Ed. Brigitte Lehmann, Doron Rabinovici, Sibylle Summer, 2009, Löcker Verlag) both "The story of the Waldheim - wooden horse" by Kuno Knöbl and excerpts from a conversation by Sibylle Summer were included Kuno Knöbl published "About a Name".

From the beginning, the activists of the Republican Club - New Austria tried to carry the discourse into the public sphere. There were vigils, like the one on Stephansplatz, further demonstrations, discussions on the street etc. The commemorative year 1988 - 50 years of the Anschluss - provided further occasion for discussions and also showed that there was a growing need for such a discussion.

From the sea of ​​lights on February 19, 2000

In 1986 Jörg Haider also became chairman of the FPÖ . Despite his statement in 1988 about Austria as an “ideological freak” and his belittling of the National Socialist crimes with statements like 1991 about employment policy, Jörg Haider was successful in elections, like other right-wing populists in Europe. The popular initiative for foreigners initiated by the FPÖ in 1992 resulted in a broad alliance of opponents. This alliance organized the sea ​​of ​​lights on January 23, 1993 at Heldenplatz . In addition to SOS Mitmensch , the Republican Club - New Austria was one of the main sponsors of this largest demonstration in the Second Republic with 300,000 participants.

Seven years after the sea of ​​lights, on February 4, 2000, the government coalition between the ÖVP and the FPÖ came into being. Massive protests followed. The Thursday demonstrations , which were to continue until 2006, became famous . The preparations for the large demonstration on February 19, 2000 by the Democratic Offensive took place in the club's premises. The Republican Club - New Austria was part of the Democratic Offensive. Again almost 300,000 people came to Heldenplatz, just two weeks after the formation of the black-blue government.

Current

Since 1989, regular discussion events have been organized in permanently rented premises in Rockhgasse in downtown Vienna. Café Hebenstreit, which was deliberately named after the Viennese democrat Franz Hebenstreit who was executed in 1795, is attached to the premises . At these public events , the Republican Club addresses right-wing populism and right-wing extremism, the grievances in asylum laws and education, as well as sexism and everyday discrimination against women, for example in June 2011 with Minister for Women Gabriele Heinisch-Hosek . Socio-economic issues are also an issue. But there are also literary evenings, guest events by friendly organizations from civil society. In 1995 the International Human Rights Tribunal 50 Years of the Second Republic, 50 Years of Oppression and Persecution of Lesbians and Gays - headed by Freda Meissner-Blau and Gerhard Oberschlick - took place in the premises of the Republican Club. The main organizers were the Austrian Lesbian and Gay Forum and HOSI Vienna .

In addition to the events, if it seems politically necessary, a public statement is also made. This happened in the summer of 2011 at the funeral of Otto Habsburg , where the presence of the highest representatives of the republic and the delegations of the armed forces were criticized.

In 2013 the Republican Club - New Austria participates in the counter-activities to the annual Al-Quds Day in Vienna. The current program can be read on the homepage www.repclub.at.

literature

  • Brigitte Lehmann, Doron Rabinovici , Sibylle Summer (eds.): From the art of nest pollution. Documents against resentment and racism since 1986. Löcker, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-85409-496-8 .
  • Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek (Ed.): Now the Tennenbaum is angry. The second republic and its Jews. (An exhibition of the Jewish Museum Vienna April 20 - July 4, 2005). Jewish Museum, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-901398-38-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ www.repclub.at: Doron Rabinovici: NESTBESCHMUTZER?
  2. ↑ ORF report on Waldheim's death , June 14, 2007 (copy of the passage from the ORF original video of the Sinowatz statement contained in the text of the post);
    For the background, see also: Herbert Lackner , Die Geschichte einer Recherche in profil 12, March 20, 2006, p. 32
  3. ↑ www.repclub.at: Kuno Knöbl: The story of the Waldheim - wooden horse
  4. ↑ Martin Staudinger : The brown Lipizzaner in profil 12, March 20, 2006, p. 34
  5. ↑ ots.at: Heinisch-Hosek: Frauenquoten - If the requirements are not met, consider the legal consequences
  6. ^ Habsburg funeral: The polite attacker in Die Presse, July 16, 2011
  7. ^ Alliance Against Al-Quds Day in Vienna