-Epigram

von am 31. März 2018 um 15:58
Veröffentlicht in: Epigrams

Comparisons

Being in Third-Reich-Austria at an early age,
and then returning to my birthplace 24 years later,
afforded me a unique historical view.

My piece bearing the title
Violence Under the Guise of Art
contains aspects of the Aftermath and Aftereffects
of the Third Reich that have not yet
been brought to the fore.

The present is a key to the past
and vice versa.

The Aftermath and the Aftereffects
exceed being a Shadow and an Echo.

Is Actionism* a follow-up
of days gone-by
that have actually
not quite gone by?

Was the Brown Baton passed on?
Did the Actionists grab it
and fill the gap?

Is Actionism the old spirit
in a new garb?

Violence has been integrated into the arts
and poses as a protest against violence
of a brown hue..

Actionist anti-humanist deeds and declarations
cry out for comparisons.

Comparing today’s diction to yesteryear’s
more than makes the case

Actionism is not a catharsis for barbarism.
It is a bona-fide ideology and mode of behavior.
.
The perpetrators of the Third Rich
showed the Actionists the way.

Advocates of Actionism espouse
extreme forms of violence
with no holds barred.

Actionist dedication t
o promulgating inhumanity
is unadulterated.

Actionists are providers
as well as doers.

Actionist violence borders on crime,
and at times
transcends that border.

Violence Under the Guise of Art
is a money-making operation.

Sado-masochism sells.
Sadism is a bestseller!

You have to hand it to the hucksters;
their forerunners had inhibitions
about declaring themselves.
They have none.

The idea of packaging violence as art is brilliant,
and labeling it as anti-fascism
is a stroke of genius.

It is not an easy matter
to defend the indefensible
(even for a genius).

The powers-that-be
present the tormenting of man and beast,
as well as the abuse of minors and children,
successfully (so far).as ant-fascistic art.

The proponents of Actionism
do not engage in a debate,
since they know that they do not have
a polemical leg to stand on.
Thus there is no alternative
to cancelling the critic out.

As it is, everything is hunky-dory.
The anti-fascists are fighting fascism,
the purveyors and perpetrators
of Violence under the Guise of Art
are enjoying international fame
and someone comes along
and tries to gum up the works.
No wonder they do their best
to cancel the critic out.

I give them an A+
for effort.

No doubt about it.
Third Reich inhumanity was the precursor
to today’s Actionist cult in the arts.

The Third Reich fought
almost to the last man and the last bullet.
If barbarism had been declared as art,
the enthusiasm would have been even greater,

more is here

 

*Vienna-Actionism

-Anticlimax

von am 28. März 2018 um 13:34
Veröffentlicht in: Politics, Reviews, Text

Dem goldenen Jahrestag des Anschlusses & Dreissig Jahre danach

Brief an Dr. Manfred Weylan: „Die magistratsunabhängige Jury (der Kulturabteilung der Stadt Wien) hat sich einstimmig gegen dieses Buch ausgesprochen … Ich fühle mich an das Urteil dieser Jury gebunden.“
– Dr. Ursula Pasterk, Stadträtin für Kultur der Stadt Wien im sogenannten „Gedenkjahr“ 1988

Eine Einstimmige Jury

„Die magistratsunabhängige Jury (der Kulturabteilung der Stadt Wien) hat sich einstimmig gegen dieses Buch ausgesprochen … Ich fühle mich an das Urteil dieser Jury gebunden.
– Dr. Ursula Pasterk, Stadträtin für Kultur der Stadt Wien im sogenannten „Gedenkjahr“ 1988
(Die Jury: Otto Breicha, Elfriede Mayröcker, Julian Schutting, Reinhard Urbach)

Kommentar

„Ich möchte  nur eines sagen: in keiner  einzigen Jury der ich angehört habe, ist  gegen eine Arbeit abgestimmt worden, auch wenn Dr. Pasterk das behauptet: die Juroren waren einzig bestrebt, sich auf  die vorgesehene Anzahlan zu fördernden Büchern /Projekten zu einigen. Eine Jury, in der gegen vorliegende Arbeiten abgestimmt hätte werden sollen, hätte ich sofort verlassen auch aus Erinnerung  an Bücher-Verbrennungen.“
– Julian Schutting, 27. Juli 2013
 
Weitere Kommentare

Herbert Kuhner ist unwesentlich als Autor und wird bei uns nie lesen.
– Dr. Reinhard Urbach, Österreichische Gesellschaft für Literatur

Bevor Museumsdirektor Otto Breicha im Dezember 2003 verstarb, erklärte er, daß organisierte Kindesmissbrauch auch in Künstlerkreisen ausgeübt wird, und er fügte hinzu, daß es gefährlich sein könnte, Informationen darüber weiterzugeben.

Rückkehr

„Rückkehr an den Tatort … In seinen Memoiren zieht er Bilanz …  über seine Erlebnisse als Literat nach der Rückkehr ins „neue Österreich“. Und er beschreibt sie als Kette von unglaublichen Intrigen,
Niederträchtigkeiten, Boshaftigkeiten und Verleumdungen … „Der Ausschluß“ bringt Geschehnisse in der österreichischen Literaturszene ans Tageslicht, die nicht totgeschwiegen werden dürfen. Auch wenn sich eine magistratsunabhängige Jury der Kulturabteilung Wien einstimmig gegen dieses Buch ausgesprochen hat.“
– Karin Bauer, Der Standard

„Der Ausschluß von Herbert Kuhner ist in meinen Augen eine Liebes-geschichte, die Geschichte einer unglücklichen Liebe. Der Autor wurde in Wien geboren, ist als kleines Kind in der Nazi-Zeit aus Wien ge- flüchtet, in Amerika aufgewachsen und nach Wien zurückgekehrt mit der Illusion,  daß er nun mit offenen Armen in seiner wirklichen Heimat aufgenommen wird. Aber er wurde enttäuscht wie alle unglücklich Liebenden. Er erweckt die Erleb- nisse eines, der heimkehre wollte, mit krassen Farben zum Leben. Seine Auseinandersetzungen mit der Bürokratie wären geradezu komisch, wenn sie nicht auch traurig wären. Ich wünschte, er würde diese Kraft nun in die Zukunft richten und endlich akzeptieren, daß seine Liebe zu Österreich und dessen Hauptstadt Wien eben eine unglückliche ist.“
– Stella K. Hershan, austro-Amerikanische Autorin

„Hätte mich das Buch literarisch überzeugt, so hätte ich nicht weiter nach den Details des Inhalts gefragt. So aber komme ich natürlich zur Frage, ob es sich hier nicht um eine höchst persönliche Angelegenheit handelt, deren Darstellung allzusehr in erratischen Blöcken vorliegt.“
– Dr. Peter Huemer, ORF, 1988, betreffend ein Rundfunk-Interview im „Gedenkjahr“ von „Anschluß“ und „Reichskristallnacht“, dem goldenen Jahrestag des Anschlusses.

Ja, es ist die Verpackung – nicht die Inhalte, inklusiv das Verhör im Aussenamt, Drohung mit dem Amtsartzt und eine allgemeine politische Hetzjagd. Das alles werden wir ignorieren.!

Komplikationen

„Der Pensionswerber (Herberrt Kuhner) ist nicht genügend als „Schriftsteller“ qualifiziert und seine Publikatioinsliste würde nicht einma eine DinA4 Seite füllen.“
– Direktor Mag. Popp bei der Vorstandssitzung der LVG am 19. 6. 1995

„Die Liste von österreichischen Lyrikern, die Herbert Kuhner ins Englische übersetzt hat, liest sich wie der Who’s Who der modernen österreichischen Dichtung.“
– Harry Zohn, German Dept., Brandeis University, Modern Austrian Literature

Als es „Komplikationen“ in Bezug auf eine Schriftsteller-Altersversorgung gab (die Grüne Abgeordnete Terezija Stoisits: „Die Fronten sind verhärtet.“), sprachen Konstantin Kaiser und Stephan Eibel mit der Grünen-Politikerin Friedrun Huemer. Sie sagte ihnen, daß sie sich nicht weiter dafür einsetzen sollen.

Grund: „Er ist gegen Artmann.“
(H. C. Artmann ist in Austrian Poetry Today/Österreichische Lyrik heute und anderswo in meiner Übersetzung erschienen.)

Ich habe mich nie uber Artmann Stellung bezogen. Übrigens, man darf für oder gegen einen Künstler sein.

Betreffend Eibel: „Du bist nicht in seiner Anthologie.“ Austrian Poetry Today/Österreichische Lyrik heute, Schocken Books, 1985.

Ich habe Eibels Arbeiten damals nicht gekannt. Eine Auswahl von Eibels Prosa und Lyrik ist unter dem Titel Eine lebenswichtige Frage/A Question Essential to Life ist 2017 im PROverbis Verlag veröffentlicht worden.

Blockiert von einer „richtigen“ Präsidentin…

Eine Erzählung von mir, Princeton nostalgisch, ist im Das kann einem nur in Wien passieren, Alltagsgeschichten, Ruth Wodak, Czernin Verlag, 2001.
Klappentext: Diese „Alltagsgeschichten“ sammeln Eindrücke, Erlebnisse, Geschichten, die viele Menschen in Wien erlebt haben oder auch erleben könnten. Allerdings nicht irgendwer, sondern Juden und Jüdinnen aus drei Generationen.
Princeton nostalgisch aus Das kann einem nur in Wien passieren, Ruth Wodak, Hrsg., Czernin Verlag, Wien, 2002 und Zwischenwelt 3/2001, Übersetzung: Bruni Blum. Nostalgia for Princeton, published in The Sons of Camus International Journal, London, Autumn, Issue, No. 4, 2006. Literary Short Fiction Writer Award from The Sons of Camus Writers International Journal for Achievement, presented by editor Ann F. Davidson to Herbert Kuhner on 30 October 2007.

Nach der Veröffentlichung von Das kann einem nur in Wien passieren organisierte Gabriel Lansky, Rechtsberaterin der SPÖ und der Jüdischen Gemeinde und „Menschenrechts-Aktivist“ ein Treffen in der Wohnung der Herausgeberin, um zu erklären, daß ich nicht in dieses Buch gehöre. Lansky wurde dabei von Rubina Möhring, der Präsidentin der Reporter ohne Grenzen, unterstützt.

* * * *

 

Unanimity at Golden Anniversary of the Annexation of Austria & at the Eightieth Anniversary of that Event

It’s Unanimous!

“The jury, which is independent of the Municipal Cultural Department,  has unanimously cast its vote against this book (Der Ausschluss/Memoirs of a 39er)
I feel that I must adhere to that decision.”  (Jury members: Reinhard Urbach, Otto Breicha, Friederike Mayröcker, Julian Schutting )
– Dr. Ursula Pasterk, the Municipal Cultural Coordinator of the City of Vienna, Letter to Dr. Manfred Welan, scholar specializing in law

“I just want to say one thing: in no jury in which I participated, did the jurors vote against any work as Dr. Pasterk claimed:  the jurors only voted on selecting books/projects for subsiding. I would immediately have departed from a jury that was asked  to vote against literary works, in remembrance of book bonfires.”
– Julian Schutting, July 27, 2013

“Herbert Kuhner is insignificant as an author and he will never read on our premises.” (1)
– Dr. Reinhard Urbach, Austrian Literary Society

Shortly before his death in December of 2003, Museum Director Otto Breicha confirmed that pedophilia is practiced in artistic circles. He added that these groups had international connections. He advised a colleague who had information that divulging it could have dire consequences.

After Returning to the Scene of the Crime: Herbert Kuhner was forced to leave Austria in 1939. In his Memoirs Kuhner presents the balance sheet.  Kuhner’s book deals with his experiences after returning to the “new Austria.”In it he describes the incredible chain of intrigue, baseness and calumny that he has encountered. The aspects of Austria life that the author brings to the fore in his Memoirs, which have been unanimously rejected by the „independent“ jury of the Municipal Cultural Department of the City of Vienna, must not be hushed up.
– Karin Bauer, Der Standard, Vienna

“This is a chronicle of an Austrian emigré, who as a child had to flee from the Nazis to the United States and who as a young man returned to the scene of the crime and discovered that the moral substance of the Austrian character has basically remained  unchanged since 1945.Against the background of exemplary political, cultural-political and artistic emanations of an intolerant provincialism, which is a frightening way, of ever more bluntly anti-Semitic resentments, which we believed to have been overcome, the author creates a kaleidoscope of his personal life experiences in Austria, which were so bitter, depressing, humiliating and indeed frightening, that he finally comes to the dreadful conclusion: ‘When I returned to my birthplace to live, it was if I had never left’”
– David Axmann, Der Ausschluß/ Memoirs Afterword

“Memoirs of a 39er is the story of an unrequited love. The experiences of the author who was born in Vienna, had to flee the Nazis in early years, grew up in America and returned to Vienna with the illusion that he would be welcomed with open arms in his birthplace. But for those who love without being loved in return, a rude awakening in inevitable. Kuhner brings the experiences of his remigration to life in bright colors. His conflict with Austrian bureaucracy would be comical were it not tragic. I hope that he will find another location for his talents and finally accept the fact that his love for Austria and its capital Vienna can be nothing but unrequited.”
– Stella Hershan, Austro-American author, New York

“If I were convinced about the literary quality of the book (Der Ausschluss /Memoirs of a 39er),I would not have asked for details concerning its contents. I have come to the conclusion that it deals with a very personal situation, which is presented in erratic segments.”
– Dr. Peter Huemer, ORF (Austrian Radio) concerning an interview

Yes indeed,, the interrogation at the foreign ministryis a “ very personal situation.”

Sure, it’s the packaging that makes it invalid – not the contents,  which include an interrogation in the Foreign Ministry,the threat of incarceration  and a panoply of “official” harassment.

No Pension for the Upstart

When there were “complications” concerning a writer’s pension, Green Parliamentarian Terezija Stoisits’ reaction: “The front cannot be broken through!”

Here’s part of the front: Franz-Leo Popp, head of the Commission Pensions for Writers: “Herbert Kuhner does not qualify for a writers’ prison. The list of his publications would not even cover one page.”

“The list of Austrian poets that Herbert Kuhner has rendered reads like Who’s Who in Austrian Poetry.
– Harry Zohn, Modern Austrian Poetry Journal, Riverside, CA

Konstantin Kaiser and Stephan Eibel, writer colleagues, spoke to Green politician Friedrun Huemer, who told them to desist.

Reason to Kaiser: “He is against Artmann.” (H.C. Artmann is represented in Austrian Poetry Today and elsewhere in my translation. I would think that one would be able to discuss aspects of any author.

Reason to Eibel: “You are not in Austrian Poetry Today.” (I met Eibel after the publication of the aforementioned anthology.

Eine lebenswichtige Frage/A Question Essential to Life by Stephan Eibel, a bilingual edition of poetry and prose in my translation has been published by PROverbis Verlag in 2017.

A Genuine President Comes into Play

Thanks to Kuno Knöbl I am represented in Das kann einem nur in Wien passieren: Alltagsgeschichten/ Only in Vienna: Stories of Everyday Events, edited by Ruth Wodak/
Only in Vienna: Stories of Everyday Events by Austrian Jews. This is from the cover blurb: “These ‘stories of everyday occurrences’ comprise a collection of impressions, experiences and stories that many who live in Vienna have or could have encountered. However, not just anyone, but Jews of three generations.”

After publication, Dr. Gabriel Lansky, the Legal Counsel to the Socialist Party and the Jewish Community and “human Rights activist,” organized a meeting in the editor’s apartment for the purpose of asserting that I should not have been included in the book. Lansky was seconded by Rubina Möhring, Austrian President of Reporters Without Borders. (2)

Kuno Knöbl:“Gaby Lansky is financial advisor to Reporters Without Borders. “ (3)

(Messages to Reporters Without Borders in New York have gone responded. No answer is indeed an answer.)

Kuno Comments: “In my view there is a Biedermeier-like silence concerning this topic.
It is good that you have broken through it.” (4)

 

1. Source: Leo Mazakarini, 1973.
2. Source: Kuno Knöbl, former head of ORF (Austrian-TV) Entertainment.
3. Kuno Knöbl, letter to Herbert Kuhner, June 20, 2005.
4. Kuno Knöbl. March 3, 2004, Düsenberg; En Route Herbert Kuhner, Film by Fritz Kleibel, 2014.

 

 

-The Sons of Camus- Writers International Journal

von am 24. März 2018 um 0:30
Veröffentlicht in: Jazz, Poetry, Reviews

A Review by Morelle Smith

 Issue 13 – Autumn 2017 –
An SCW Books Publication –

Review by Morelle Smith
Jazz-Poems: author Herbert Kuhner
Publisher: Proverbis (Andreas Schinko), Vienna, Austria (2015\
ISBN: 978-3 -902838-20-9
80 pages
Paperback.
12 Euros

This bi-lingual German/English collection is a series of poems
about jazz and the musicians who played it. Herbert Kuhner says in the introduction that he means them as a tribute to those „bandleaders, sidemen and singers who have enriched my life,“ He then describes some of the obstacles they had to overcome as touring musicians – the stresses of being on the road, the long travelling, the cheap hotels, the smoke-tilled clubs and, for the black musicians, the prejudice. Kuhner says, „They left us a great legacy.“ and it often seems in life that great art comes about despite the very real challenges to its accomplishment; and yet I want to say that art, and the life-course however fraught and difficult, of the artists, are twined around each other in some inextricable design.

Just to select a few of these poems:
„Miles Saw Stars“ describes the racism and police brutality that Miles Davis experienced, (which feels eerily relevant today). „A Rainv Day. in Vienna“ made me laugh. I have toured with musicians and this just the kind of delightful story they tell about other musicians as they sit around after the gig. This one tells of Django Reinhardt who came to the USA to tour and thought the American company would give him a guitar to play – „but they couldn’t even pronounce his name/much less spell it.“

„He Couldn’t Let it be“ and Weill’s „September“ are fascinating stories and are historical and social documents. The former is the extraordinary story of Eddie Rosner, his escape from Nazi Germany, capture in Poland, imprisonment in Siberia where „He formed a gulag band“ and eventually returned to Berlin and music performance. In the latter, we learn that Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht escaped by boat from Germany to the USA „but not the same boat.“ When I first heard, as a child, a recording of Louis Armstrong playing Mack the Knife, I knew nothing of its historical and artistic provenance. This feeds the interest of someone as fascinated as I am by the life stories of artists in theinter-war years in Europe, the stories of flight and (sometimes) freedom, the desperate sense of exile, and equally dangerous fate of those who remained. In many ways this time celebrated the human spirit the ability to endure, and to create, and their stories give inspiration.

Harry Kuhner reads „Saying Goodbye“

And if you did not know beforehand the lyrics Anderson put to Kurt ‚Weill’s music in September Song, you will be introduced to them. And in this wonderful internet age, you can find the song and listen to it, as I did. (I would recommend Ella Fitzgerald’s version).
At this point, I began to recognize Kuhner’s achievement – how do you make a tribute in words to such heartfelt music? Parng down the words in the way he does brings us close to the individual notes, and creates a landscape of its own, sometimes lyrical, but more often rocky, vegetation-bare, letting the vast views out over plains or oceans, speak for themselves. Several of these poems end with positive and uplifting lines that ring and remain in the mind – and perhaps this is an echo too of jazz songs.

Weill’s September ends with a quote from Maxwell Anderson:
„and Kurt managed to make
thousands of beautiful things
during the short and troubled time
he had…“

The last lines of „The New Masses and Café Society are:
„The sponsor insisted that blacks be allowed to listen to blacks, and they got their way. For the first time blacks sat with whites in Carnegie Hall.“

And I particularly like the ending of „The Wild Man“:

„That sassy, sound breaking through
all the sissy music
is the gritty tenor
of the great Arnett Cobb.“

They do not all end that way.‘.Kuhner is a realist and recognizes That the Eternal Coachman‘ is always going to catch up with us, and sometimes much sooner than we anticipate.
At first, it t.as the simplicity of the language that struck me, its conversational, flowing style. I read on with increasing interest in the stories and lives of the people Kuhner writes about and with increasing admiration of the almost invisible technique he uses in these poems, to evoke such a seemingly simple ease and flow. He portrays the musicians and their lives in a series of brush strokes that make me think of Chinese paintings, a few skillful lines creating whole landscape. You do not have to know anything about jazz music to enjoy these landscapes and lives, And you might just discover, as I did, a new depth and poignancy to their music.

Reviewed by Morelle Smith

-What Else Is New?

von am 14. März 2018 um 16:47
Veröffentlicht in: Polemics, Politics

What Else Is New?

This is from a Stasi document from 1973: “Don’t shy away from using your weapon, even if the breach of the border involves women and children!”

Of course! Anyone who tried to cross the German-German border “illegally” deserved a bullet – women included. And if the womenfolk took their children along, they too deserved to be shot at too.

Do those old days remind you of older days?

Some of the GDR Old Guard had fought against the Nazis. Could it be that they emulated them in later days?

Please dispel your doubts!

The Nazis fought for world domination. These idealists were fighting for a better world. Sometimes murder is a means for achieving a humane future.

Spokesman for the Weapons Lobby

There have been massacres in shopping malls, movie theaters, nightclubs, open air get-togethers, college campuses, schools, churches, and even in an army fort.

surface-to-air-missile

People must be able to protect themselves. The only answer is arms.

Now, you are right to assert that a pistol is no match for a man in body armor who totes an assault weapon.

What’s the answer? As Spokesman for the” Weapons” Lobby, I say that there has to be a security guard armed with a bazooka in every outdoor and indoor public place.

P.S. Why limit it to a bazooka?
How about full security with a Surface-to-Air Missile?

 

Comparisons

What does the Right-Wing Weapons Lobby and the Left-Wing Wall setup have in common?
They don’t give a damn about human life..
They were dedicated to the cause.
The question that has to be asked
is whether those dedicated to a good cause
are as dedicated as those who are dedicated to an evil cause.

– Herbert Kuhner

-From Memoirs of a 39er (Der Auschluss)

von am 13. März 2018 um 13:07
Veröffentlicht in: Poetry, Politics

From Memoirs of a 39er (Der Auschluss)

In 1985 when Walter Reder, the last Nazi war criminal incarcerated in Italy, was released, Friedhelm Frischenschlager Freedomite Minister of Defense, flew to Graz to welcome the „old soldier“ with a handshake and „Grüss Gott!“ This was a bone in the throat of some Socialists, but others gulped it down without any trouble. The Conservatives raised a ruckus in parliament but smiled wanly when one of their mayors presented Reder with a hunting lodge to while away his twilight hours. (There is a brush dipped in brown paint and both major parties use it on each other when they consider it opportune, but they don’t do any rinsing out of their own.) Birds of a feather (and a color) flock together. The Catholic Church got into the act by giving Reder room and board until the more luxurious quarters were ready.

Incidentally, Reder gave up his Austrian citizenship in the Thirties, before Austria became Ostmark, when he embarked on an SS career in the Reich. He did not have to apply to regain it. He received on a silver platter along with a pension and other benefits. No emigré can boast of red carpet treatment with a cabinet member on hand to do the welcoming.

There was another bone to be swallowed in 1985 when Frischenschlager unveiled a plaque honoring General Alexander von Löhr for building up the Austrian Air Force before 1938. Lohr had indeed done a fine job with the Air Force, which first saw action after the Anschluss. Among his achievements was the bombing of Belgrade, which was carried out without a declaration of war with a death toll of 17,000. Lohr’s illustrious career came to an end in 1947 when he was executed for war crimes in Yugoslavia. A press campaign and public protest resulted in the removal of the plaque, but the resilient minister stayed on.

 

 

Emigré Turned Remigré
from Smoke and Fire/Rauch und Feuer

You ask why
you weren’t asked to return
to where you came from.
You ask why
a Head of State
and Princes of the Church
didn’t express their desire
to have you set foot
on Austrian soil.
You ask why
your citizenship
wasn’t returned to you
along with a pension
and other benefits.

You ask why
you weren’t welcomed back
to Austria
by the Minister of Defense.
The answer is
you aren’t an old soldier
named Walter Reder
who did his duty
for the Führer and the Reich.

Reder too
was an emigré turned remigré.
He left Austria in the thirties
in order to swear allegiance
to that other illustrious son
and to embark on an SS-career
in Nazi-Germany.
And like his model,
the most famous of all
emigrés turned remigré,
he returned home
when Austria became Ostmark.

Major Reder, who’s most noted
for the Massacre of Marzabotto,
distinguished himself
by not only following orders
but also by giving them
and personally participating
in doing what was ordered.

When it came to slaughtering
old men, women and children
and setting houses alight,
Reder was there
to lend a helping hand,
and just to show his men
that he was one of them,
he raped a nun.

Don’t you agree
that it’s befitting
for one who practiced
these martial arts
to be welcomed
by the Minister of Defense?

It was forty years after
the collapse of the Reich
in the winter of ’85
when Major Walter Reder
was freed from his chambers
in the Italian fortress of Gaeta,
where he was attended by an orderly,
and flown back to Austria.

The notables who had pleaded
for the release of the former
“last Austrian prisoner of war”
saw to it that the good soldier
go his due for the slaughter
of more than a thousand victims
in the manner already described.

What’s so distinguishing
about the Jewish likes of you?
There’s no achievement
in merely being
an emigré turned remigré.
Is it an honor
to have had to abscond
or stay to go up in smoke?

* * *

 

Aus „Der Ausschluss“ Memoiren eines Neununddreissigers

Im Jahre 1985 wurde Walter Reder, ein Nazikriegsverbrecher, aus italienischer Haft entlassen. Friedhelm Frischenschlager, der Freiheitliche Verteidigungsminister, flog nach Graz, um den alten Soldaten mit einem Handschlag willkommen zu heißen. Dies war eine Gräte im Hals der Sozialisten, aber viele schluckten sie ohne Schwierigkeiten. Die Konservativen schlugen im Parlament Krach, lächelten aber nur schwach, als einer ihrer Bürgermeister Reder ein Jagdhaus zur Verfügung stellte. (Die beiden Großparteien bepinseln einander braun, wenn sie glauben, es sei vorteilhaft, aber sich selber von der braunen Farbe zu reinigen, würde ihnen nicht im Traum einfallen.) Die Katholische Kirche spielte auch mit, indem sie Reder Unterkunft bot, bis das luxuriöse Quartier bereitstand.

Friedhelm Frischenschlager

Reder hatte übrigens seine österreichische Staatsbürgerschaft in den Dreißigerjahren aufgegeben, bevor Österreich zur Ostmark wurde, um in Deutschland eine SS-Karriere zu machen. Er mußte nicht um die Wiedererlangung der österreichischen Staatsbürgerschaft ansuchen; sie wurde ihm auf einem Silbertablett nebst einer Pension und anderen Vergünstigungen serviert. Kein Emigrant kann sich einer solchen Behandlung samt rotem Teppich und Ministerbegrüßung rühmen.

Es gab noch eine weitere Gräte zu schlucken, als im Jahre 1985 Frischenschlager eine Gedenktafel für Generaloberst Alexander von Löhr enthüllte, der vor 1938 die Österreichische Luftwaffe aufgebaut hatte. Löhr hatte tatsächlich gute Arbeit geleistet und trat mit der Luftwaffe nach dem Anschluß erstmals in Aktion. Zu Löhrs „Heldentaten“ gehörte die Bombardierung von Belgrad, bei der 17.000 Menschen getötet wurden. Löhrs Karriere endete im Jahre 1947, als er wegen seiner Kriegsverbrechen in Jugoslawien hingerichtet wurde. Nach einer Pressekampagne und öffentlichem Protest wurde die Gedenktafel entfernt, aber der Minister blieb im Amt.

 

Emigranten und Remigranten
aus Rauch und Feuer/Smoke and Fire

Du fragst,
warum man dich nicht bat,
in dein Heimatland zurückzukehren.
Du fragst,
warum sich kein Regierungschef
und keine Kirchenfürsten
nach dir sehnten.
Du fragst,
warum man dir nicht
deine Staatsbürgerschaft
zusammen mit einer Pension
zurückgab.
Du fragst,
warum du bei deiner Rückkehr nicht
vom Verteidigungsminister
mit Handschlag begrüßt wurdest.
Die Antwort ist einfach:
Du bist kein alter Kämpfer
wie Walter Reder,
der seine Pflicht erfüllte
für Führer und Reich!

Auch Reder
wurde einst vom Emigranten
zum Remigranten.
Er verließ sein Heimatland
in den Dreißigerjahren,
um einem anderen Sohn Österreichs
die Treue zu schwören
und sich in Nazi-Deutschland
eine SS-Karriere aufzubauen.
Und wie sein großes Vorbild –
der berühmteste aller Emigranten,
die zu Remigranten wurden –
kehrte auch er heim,
als Österreich zur Ostmark wurde.

Major Reder, der sich
besondere Verdienste
beim Massaker von Marzabotto
erwarb,
war nicht nur Befehlsempfänger,
sondern auch Befehlshaber
und hat selber
mit Hand angelegt.

Als man Frauen, Kinder und Greise
abschlachtete
und Häuser niederbrannte,
benahm sich Reder vorbildlich;
um zu zeigen,
daß er ein guter Kamerad war,
fiel er über eine Nonne her.

Im Winter 1985,
vierzig Jahre
nach dem Zusammenbruch
des Tausendjährigen Reichs,
verließ „der letzte
österreichische Kriegsgefangene”
seine Gemächer
in der italienischen Festung Gaeta –
wo ihm ein Adjutant zur Hand ging –
nachdem sich führende Österreicher
für seine Entlassung eingesetzt hatten.
Sie vertraten die Meinung,
daß seine Bestrafung
für das Hinschlachten tausender Menschen
zu hart ausgefallen wäre
und daß er nun eine Entschädigung
verdient hätte.

Ist es nicht selbstverständlich,
daß ein Mann, der sich einst
so tapfer schlug,
vom Verteidigungsminister
willkommen geheißen wurde?

Was gibt es da im Vergleich
so Bemerkenswertes
an einem zurückgekehrten Juden,
wie du einer bist?

– Herbert Kuhner