Erstellt am: 21. 1. 2011 - 17:34 Uhr
Bruno who?
APA/JAEGER ROBERT
As a non-Austrian who hadn’t been living in Vienna for very long, my first lesson as to the significance of the name Bruno Kreisky came on July 29th 1990. The day he died. It manifested itself in the affect the news of his passing had on an Austrian friend of mine - I was quite taken aback by his visible sense of loss. Of course it has to be said, this was a friend from a staunchly social democratic background. Nevertheless, to witness tears was to understand the iconic stature of a politician who had obviously touched many lives. The ensuing tributes and TV documentaries provided a crash course in an essential chapter in Austrian history.
It was a history lesson I was to find useful in conversations back in Britain. Sadly, the kinds of news stories about Austria that make it into the British media have always been very narrowly defined - with a few exceptions they have focussed very much on former Nazis, neo Nazis and far-right politicians. Confronted at home with such distorted perceptions, I discovered a sense of loyalty to my adopted country. What I had learned about Bruno Kreisky was valuable ammunition when it came to countering those distorted perceptions.
It’s easy to feel a kind of political nostalgia for an era in which so much change could be accomplished. And a sense of despair to contemplate the political stagnation faced today. Of course, the world in the second decade of the 21st century is very different. Back in Kreisky's day Austrian membership of what was then the European Economic Community was a hope for the distant future and the world was just on the edge of a technological revolution which would connect people in ways few then could have imagined. So what lessons can be drawn for today from an icon of the past? Wolfgang Moitzi, the chairman of the Sozialistische Jugend, stresses "dass [Kreisky] auf tagesaktuelle politische Fragen Schlüsse ziehen hat können, die mit seiner Ideologie vereinbar waren". I spoke to Wolfgang for this week's Saturday Reality Check Special on and in tribute to Bruno Kreisky, and he reckons that Kreisky would still have political relevance in today’s world.
Reality Check Special on and in tribute to Bruno Kreisky
Saturday from 12 to 13.