Ring of Freedom Student

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Ring of Freedom Students (RFS)
Federal Chairman: Lukas Heim
Founding: 1952
Website: https://www.rfs.at/

The Ring of Freedom Students (RFS) is the FPÖ-related student organization at the Austrian universities and the club in the Austrian Students Union (ÖH). In the 2019 ÖH elections, the RFS won 1.99 percent of the votes and is therefore still represented with a mandate in the federal representation of the Austrian Students' Union. The current federal chairman is Lukas Heim.

history

The Ring of Freedom Students was founded on May 26, 1952; the first federal chairman was Norbert Burger . It is a preliminary organization of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), which emerged from the Association of Independents in 1955 , but is not a sub-organization. The RFS is also closely related to fraternities in the tradition of the German National Movement in Austria. There are numerous personal overlaps at both organizations. Due to the great influence of German nationalism and right-wing extremism on academic ground, the RFS was the second largest group in the 1950s and 1960s. At that time there were many right-wing extremists in the RFS, including Norbert Burger, who, along with other RFS members, took part in the South Tyrolean terror. The RFS member Günther Kümel also became known through an act of violence: On March 31, 1965, a demonstration was held by students, former resistance fighters and trade unions against the anti-Semitic university professor Taras Borodajkewycz . A counter rally was organized by the RFS and some fraternities, the participants of which shouted “Proleten out!” -, “Jews out!” - and “Hoch Auschwitz!” - attacked the demonstration. The then 24-year-old amateur boxer Kümel knocked down the 67-year-old protester Ernst Kirchweger and broke his jaw. Kirchweger died two days later without having regained consciousness. Kümel, who had previously been convicted of swastika smearings and, among other things , attacks on the Italian embassy and parliament in Vienna together with Gerd Honsik , was sentenced to ten months in prison for violating self-defense.

From its first appearance in the ÖH elections, the RFS remained the second largest parliamentary group in the central committee until 1974. In the course of the democratization process in the context of the 1968 movement and the opening of the universities due to the introduction of (free) university access in 1972, the RFS lost its importance. The decline in the proportion of votes in the ÖH elections from over 30% in the 1950s and 60s to 7% in 1979 and below 5% in 1997 is seen by the DÖW as a sign of the general loss of importance of right-wing extremism in Austria and especially at universities. The RFS remained strong in the student representatives at the law faculties, which were already strongholds of the NSDAP in the First Republic .

The close contacts with right-wing extremism remained in the 1970s. The National Democratic Party , the Federation of National Democratic Students, the Aktion Neuerechte , founded by the RFS activist Bruno Haas, and the Nationalist Bund Nordland, which was already banned at the time, provided the hall protection at RFS events.

In 1983 the FPÖ tried to establish its own student organization at the universities under its party chairman Norbert Steger . As a result, the Liberal Student Union weakened the RFS, so that in 1985 it could not run for the ÖH election. In 1987 the RFS was able to move back into the central committee with 2%. In 1989, as an alternative to the RFS, the Freedom Student Initiative (FSI) was founded, which was seen primarily by fraternity members as the creation of the liberal Heide Schmidt . By the mid-1990s, however, they again expanded the position of corporates within the FSI; important positions were filled with fraternity members. Schiedel and Zellhofer write that the FSI was oriented towards the new right worldview. In 1992, the journal Identity , which is close to the FSI , published reports that were rated as the "first serious signs of life of the anti-anti-fascist campaign in Austria".

The FSI election results remained in the low single digits. Martin Hobek , later FPÖ district councilor and member of the state parliament in Vienna, took the ambiguous position of the FSI on Austria's impending accession to the EU in 1994 to re - establish the ring of liberal students, the RFS. In 1995 the FSI, the RFS and the List of Leoben students ran together under the name of the List of Freedom Students for the election of the university; The top candidate was Alwine Schachinger from the Freya girls' group . The Freedom Students received 3.9% of the vote. As a consequence of the disappointing result, the FSI merged with the RFS, which since 1995 has again been the sole and free student representation. Regarding the ideological orientation after the liberal phases, Wolfgang Neugebauer thinks that the RFS positioned itself "more strongly than through any programmatic statement [...] with a racist- xenophobic caricature in the ' Stürmer ' 'style in its organ' Der Ring 'in 1996."

In the 2009 ÖH election , the RFS was again able to slightly improve its election result at a low level and achieved 1685 votes nationwide (2.92 percent, but only partially comparable due to the electoral law changed in 2005) and thus a list association mandate in the ÖH federal representation.

In the 2015 ÖH elections, the RFS was able to slightly improve its result despite the changed electoral law and was able to fill another mandate in the ÖH federal representation, which had shrunk to 55 mandates.

In the 2017 ÖH elections, the RFS was able to slightly improve its result again and this time came to 3.05%, but remained with one mandate.

In the 2019 ÖH elections, the RFS fell to 1.99 percent of the vote.

program

The Ring of Freedom Students sees itself as standing in the tradition of the Third Camp in Austria. He advocates a service-oriented ÖH with a university policy focused on the student body.

One of the main demands of the RFS is an end to the "ÖH compulsory membership". Membership should be voluntary and the student body should be organized as a free representation of interests while preserving the student's right to have a say in university committees, in which all members should have the same rights.

The RFS calls for the compatibility of work and study to be expanded. According to the RFS, in order to achieve this it is necessary to “stop the schooling of the curricula”. The range of block courses must be expanded, and access to these courses must be made available to working people. In the first step of lectures, all examination-relevant documents should be made available digitally. In the long term, all courses should be uploaded as mandatory podcasts . Furthermore, the RFS requires examination dates during the lecture-free period.

The RFS sees the ÖH as a supporter and advice center for students. The RFS speaks out against an excessive socio-political commitment of the ÖH to "non-university topics".

In the past, the RFS criticized the General Political Mandate of the ÖH, which in its view was often misused.

Known RFS members

Known persons who belonged to the RFS during their studies or were or are active as functionaries for it:

National groups

Vienna

Ring of Freedom Students Vienna
Party leader Tatjana Schraml
Deputy Chairman Kilian Quester, Florian Köhl
Country manager Verena Mutzatko
Place of foundation Vienna

The Ring of Freedom Students Vienna ( RFS Vienna ) is the Vienna regional group of the liberal student organization in Austria. The current head of the RFS Vienna is Tatjana Schraml. The RFS Vienna is registered as an association under the ZVR number 262728189 in Florianigasse 16/8 in the eighth district of Vienna.

Elections for the Austrian Students' Union (ÖH) 2019

The RFS Vienna does not currently have any mandates at the university representatives of the Viennese universities. For the 2019 ÖH elections, the RFS competed at several institutes and faculties at the universities of Vienna and won 1.7% at the University of Vienna, 1.2% at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna) and the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Vienna) achieve 0.8% for the election to the respective university representatives.

State Board

The regional board of the RFS Vienna currently consists of the following people:

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ ÖH: election result ÖH election. Federal ÖH, 2019, accessed on March 20, 2020 .
  2. ^ Ring of Freedom Students. Retrieved March 20, 2020 .
  3. ^ Entry on Freedom Party of Austria, FPÖ in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
  4. ↑ a b c Heribert Schiedel, Martin Tröger: To the German national corporations in Austria
  5. ↑ Wolfgang Purtscheller : Aufbruch der Völkischen. The brown network . Picus-Verlag, Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-85452-239-8 , p. 42 f.
  6. ↑ 60 years of the Austrian Students' Union ( Memento from February 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; p. 27)
  7. ↑ Völkische history lesson ("At present"). News from the far right - February 2005. In: DÖW . February 2005, accessed March 20, 2020 .
  8. ^ A b Wolfgang Neugebauer : Structures of right-wing extremist organizations and their readiness to use violence . In: Helmut Reinalter, Franko Petri, Rüdiger Kaufmann (ed.): The worldview of right-wing extremism. The structures of the desolidarization . Studienverlag, Innsbruck 1998, pp. 51-61, ISBN 3-7065-1258-0 . Excerpts online under structures of right-wing extremist organizations and their willingness to use violence ( memento from February 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Wolfgang Purtscheller : Aufbruch der Völkischen. The brown network . P. 40.
  10. ↑ Wolfgang Purtscheller : Aufbruch der Völkischen. The brown network . Pp. 63 and 217.
  11. ^ Heribert Schiedel, Klaus Zellhofer: Personnel for the Third Republic. The Studiosi: From RFS to FSI to RFS . In: Wolfgang Purtscheller (Ed.): The right in motion. Clergy and networks of the "New Right" . Picus Verlag, Vienna 1995, p. 47.
  12. ^ Heribert Schiedel, Klaus Zellhofer: Personnel for the Third Republic. The Studiosi: From RFS to FSI to RFS . In: Wolfgang Purtscheller (Ed.): The right in motion. Clergy and networks of the "New Right" . Picus Verlag, Vienna 1995, p. 49.
  13. ↑ Markus Perner, Heribert Schiedel, Klaus Zellhofer: Haiders think tanks. The völkisch avant-garde . In: Wolfgang Purtscheller (ed.): The order they mean. “New rights” in Austria . Vienna 1994, p. 61 f.
  14. ↑ Our team ( Memento from January 11, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
  15. ^ Heribert Schiedel, Klaus Zellhofer: Personnel for the Third Republic. The Studiosi: From RFS to FSI to RFS . In: Wolfgang Purtscheller (Ed.): The right in motion. Clergy and networks of the "New Right" . Picus Verlag, Vienna 1995, p. 50 ff.
  16. ^ ÖH election 2015 results. Retrieved April 15, 2018 .
  17. ^ ÖH election 2017 results. Retrieved April 15, 2018 .
  18. ↑ Federal student union: election result BundesÖH. Federal ÖH, accessed on March 20, 2020 .
  19. ↑ Program - RFS . In: RFS . ( rfs.at [accessed April 15, 2018]).
  20. ↑ Unique: It's fucking political: To defend the general political mandate of the ÖH | Unique. Archived from the original on April 16, 2018 ; accessed on April 15, 2018 (German).
  21. ↑ Dr. Friedhelm Frischenschlager , on parlament.gv.at. Retrieved September 7, 2015
  22. ↑ Mag. Harald Stefan , on parlament.gv.at. Retrieved September 7, 2015
  23. ↑ Heide Schmidt in a portrait. In: DiePresse.com . September 1, 2008, accessed September 7, 2015 .
  24. ↑ Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Helmut Krünes , on parlament.gv.at. Retrieved September 7, 2015
  25. ^ RFS Vienna - Ring of Freedom Students. Retrieved February 15, 2018 .
  26. ↑ Here are the results of the ÖH election in detail. In: fm4.orf.at. May 29, 2019. Retrieved March 20, 1997 .
  27. ^ ÖH election 2019: University of Vienna. In: fm4.orf.at. May 14, 2019, accessed March 20, 2020 .
  28. ^ ÖH election 2019: Vienna University of Technology. In: fm4.orf.at. May 27, 2019, accessed March 20, 2020 .
  29. ^ ÖH election 2019: Vienna University of Economics and Business. May 27, 2019, accessed March 20, 2020 .
  30. ↑ Contact - RFS Vienna . In: RFS Vienna . ( rfs.wien [accessed on February 15, 2018]).