Domestic political situation

All regional theaters: Concerns about the “cultural nation”

The Linz artistic director Hermann Schneider - one of a total of nine artistic directors who wrote a joint statement.(Bild: PETRA MOSER)

There may not yet be a government, but the negotiations between the ÖVP and FPÖ alone are causing concern in the theater scene. State theater directors in the federal states are worried about the future of "Austria as a cultural nation" - and have issued a joint statement calling for the values of an "open society" to be upheld. The Linz University of the Arts is also appealing in this direction.

Austria's future government - in whatever coalition - faces major challenges. "Overcoming these means considering what our country stands for: Because Austria, as a cultural nation, is not only geographically located in the middle of Europe, but as a country it has been a center for artistic impulses for centuries," reads the statement from the state theater directors.

Nine directors in the federal states
They are all concerned about the future of "Austria as a cultural nation". The signatories are Irene Girkinger (Tiroler Landestheater), Stephanie Gräve (Vorarlberger Landestheater), Marie Rötzer (Landestheater Niederösterreich), Andrea Vilter (Schauspielhaus Graz), Michael Lakner (Bühne Baden), Ulrich Lenz (Oper Graz), Carl-Philip von Maldeghem (Salzburger Landestheater), Aron Stiehl (Stadttheater Klagenfurt) and Hermann Schneider (Landestheater Linz). 

The Linz University of the Arts also expresses its opinion(Bild: Linzer Kunstuni)

The constitution says so
In an official statement, they insist on the constitution of the Second Republic, which provides a basis for an open-minded society that respects human rights and civil freedom. 

And they appeal to politicians to "take responsibility for living up to these values in the future and thus prove themselves worthy of this cultural nation."

Linz Art University rejects rhetoric of hate
The Senate of the Linz University of Art refers to the fundamental task of universities by law "to contribute to overcoming social challenges in a changing humane and gender-equitable society".

This task can only be fulfilled if international networking, diversity of cultures and languages, appreciation of diversity, inclusion, gender sensitivity and critical faculties "remain central elements of our relationship to ourselves and the world. We reject rhetoric of exclusion and hatred in the strongest possible terms."

They also fear restrictions for ideological reasons and therefore call for "the infrastructures of art, design and science to be constantly developed, sustainably promoted and not to give a backward-looking ideological climate a future".