Description

In his laudatory and commemorative speeches for seven historians (Richard G. Plaschka, Helmut Rumpler, Ferenc Glatz, Horst Haselsteiner, Andreas Kappeler, Max D. Peyfuss, and Wolfgang Mueller), for the sociologist Leopold Rosenmayr and the quantum physicist and Nobel laureate Anton Zeilinger, as well as in addresses commemorating World War I in the Austrian Parliament and May 8, 1945, at the Federal Chancellery, the author highlights numerous networks within European academia that extended as far as the United States, Canada, Israel, China, and Japan. In a clear presentation of biographies, the important role of Austrian scientists in terms of science policy between the 'free West' and the 'Eastern Bloc' becomes clear, especially with colleagues in Hungary, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and the Soviet Union. The opening speech of the exhibition "A war of All against All? - The Habsburg Monarchy in the First World War" conveys the drama of a world war unleashed by the European powers, which led not only to the downfall of the Habsburg Empire, but also to the political reorganization of East-Central and Southeastern Europe. In memory of the end of the Nazi regime on May 8, 1945, both the heavy sacrifices for many Austrians and the responsibility of many participants in the Nazi regime are commemorated. Finally, two laudatory speeches also address Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.