Afterwards: in memoriam “Achim Benning – Homo Politicus” – on February 5th from 10:30 p.m. on ORF 2
Vienna (OTS) – Clarissa Stadler presents “kulturMontag” on February 5, 2024 at 10:30 p.m. on ORF 2. The program is dedicated, among other things, to the monumental work of the baroque architect Fischer von Erlach on the occasion of a new show in the Vienna Museum, and looks to the 90th anniversary of the February battles of 1934 the bloody events on the eve of the Second World War and deals with the current Dollfuß discussion. Also on topic: the new film by Nikolaus Geyrhalter, which documents the pandemic standstill in Austria from 2020 and asks what the post-corona society is still struggling with today. Following the magazine, ORF 2 will broadcast the 45-minute portrait “Achim Benning – Homo Politicus” (11:15 p.m.) in memory of the recently deceased former Burgtheater director and director. The 70-minute long version can be seen on ORF III on Saturday, February 3rd at 10:45 p.m.
The architect of the Habsburgs – Fischer von Erlach in the Vienna Museum
His motto was to knock instead of spill. It is not for nothing that people today talk about the “imperial style”, which Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach shaped with his opulent and monumental buildings between Vienna and Salzburg. No wonder, since his clients were of noble blood. Whether the Winter Palace of Prince Eugene, the imperial library that Leopold I initiated and Charles VI. completed, or the bombastic Karlskirche in Vienna – Fischer von Erlach provided the rulers with pure baroque splendor. In the power struggle with the Bourbons in the Wars of Spanish Succession, the House of Habsburg deliberately exploited its impressive buildings as a means of propaganda. A new self-confidence should also be reflected in the architecture of the emperors, as the Viennese court saw itself as the “New Rome”. Fischer von Erlach’s spectacular design for Schönbrunn Palace is show architecture full of ancient symbolism, a utopian manifesto of unlimited imperial power. It was intended to be the Habsburg answer to Versailles, which had developed into the ideal type of royal residence under the Sun King Louis XIV. Schönbrunn Palace was intended to manifest the Habsburg dynasty’s claim to universal power. Fischer von Erlach was able to provide all of this, as he was educated in Rome, was familiar with antiquity and versed in the architecture of the Roman High Baroque – his visions were therefore gigantic. The new Vienna Museum is now dedicating an extensive exhibition to the baroque star architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach.
The disposed republic – 90 years of the February fighting in 1934
90 years ago, the bloody February fighting in 1934 ended the First Republic, which was characterized by social and political radicalization from the start. In the politically unstable period after the end of the First World War, a large number of right-wing paramilitary units began to form. These so-called home guards were closely linked to the bourgeois-conservative parties. The Republican Protection League was founded in the social democratic camp in 1923. There were repeated violent clashes between the armed groups. Promoted by massive economic crises, inflation and unemployment, the National Socialists also gained popularity in Austria in the early 1930s. The violent events that followed the demonstrations and the fire at the Palace of Justice on July 15, 1927 marked a turning point in the political history of the First Republic. Those forces that rejected democracy and sought to establish a dictatorship became increasingly stronger. Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß had already switched off parliament in 1933. In 1934, Austria was on the way to dictatorship. For decades, the dictatorship established by Dollfuß divided Austria’s political camps. Engelbert Dollfuß is still polarizing, as the recent discussion about the closed “Dollfuß Museum” in his home town of Texing in Lower Austria shows. The Dollfuß heirs are now leaving the entire exhibition collection to the Lower Austria State Collection. This is now to be restored and evaluated by the House of History in St. Pölten. Hero Chancellor or Austrofascist Dictator? It seems as if the discussion about the role of Engelbert Dollfuß is still not over. “kulturMontag” reports on the February fighting and brings a report from Texingtal.
Unstable times – Nikolaus Geyrhalter’s new film “Standstill”
Toilet paper crisis, FFP2 masks, tons of corona tests, lockdowns, demos & Co. – these are messages like from a distant past, familiar and yet already so far away. Images that are burned into the collective memory of a society: of empty streets without cars or people, contrail-free skies, long queues on the test roads, meetings and lessons in digital space, closed shops, emergency shelters, overloaded hospitals, slogans like “Stay home , stay safe!” and pithy political statements like “Everyone will know someone who died of Corona at some point”, about balcony concerts and demonstrations, about the isolation of an overwhelmed society. Nikolaus Geyrhalter, the essayist among Austria’s documentarists, put the pandemic in Vienna under his cinematic microscope in his latest work “Stillstand,” co-financed by ORF as part of the film/television agreement. To this end, he illuminated the events in Vienna between March 2020 and December 2021 and accompanied people from a wide variety of areas, such as an intensive care doctor, a teacher and her students, a couple who were florists, a cinema operator, and an undertaker. The events that are sweeping through a society become clear from different perspectives. “kulturMontag” asks: What is post-Corona society struggling with today, four years later?
Documentary “Achim Benning – Homo Politicus” (11:15 p.m.)
The former Burgtheater director and director Achim Benning, who died on January 29th at the age of 89, was a formative figure in Austrian theater and a committed supporter of Czech dissidents. With the approximately 45-minute portrait “Achim Benning – Homo Politicus,” filmmaker Kurt Brazda pays tribute to his life and work. The film traces the stages of Benning’s career. The arc spans from his acting training in Vienna to his engagements at various German-speaking theaters to his time as Burgtheater director, during which he modernized and opened the house. He campaigned for the democratization of theater and the freedom of art and supported opposition artists in what was then Czechoslovakia, with whom he maintained close friendships – especially Václav Havel. Achim Benning studied philosophy in Munich and Vienna. He completed his acting training at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in 1959. In the same year he began working as an actor at the Burgtheater in Vienna. From 1971 he also worked as a director. In 1976, Minister of Education Fred Sinowatz gave him the management of the castle, which he held until 1986. From 1989 to 1992 he served as director of the Schauspielhaus Zurich. He then worked as a professor at the Max Reinhardt Seminar until 2005. The film shows excerpts from Benning’s productions, which were often provocative and experimental, as well as interviews with companions, colleagues and friends who report on his personality, his commitment and his humor – a homage to an extraordinary theater man who always referred to himself as “Homo Politicus ” understanding.