Andreas Maislinger

Beate Klarsfeld (left), Andreas Maislinger (middle).

Andreas Maislinger (born 26 February 1955 in St. Georgen near Salzburg, Austria) is an Austrian historian and founder of the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service and Braunau Contemporary History Days.

Studying and learning

Maislinger studied law and political science in Salzburg and political science and eastern-European history in Vienna, with study visits in, amongst others, Frankfurt am Main and Innsbruck. In 1980 he received his doctorate for a dissertation on the problems of Austrian defence policy. He subsequently held posts at the Institute for Political Science at the University of Innsbruck, the University of New Orleans as visiting assistant professor, the Humboldt University of Berlin for a research visit, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

In 1982 he co-founded the working group of independent peace initiatives of Austria and in 1986 he became a member of the founding committee of the Austrian-Israeli society Tirol. Until 1996, he published columns in the "Jüdische Rundschau" (Jewish Review).

Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service

Young Austrian in Auschwitz (1992)

Together with Andreas Hörtnagl, Maislinger founded the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service (AHMS).^[1] He successfully pleaded for the legal establishment of this kind of alternative to mandatory military service, aiming at promoting education and raising awareness about the Holocaust.

On September 1, 1992 the first young Austrian started his AHMS at the Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau. Since then more the 500 AHMS representatives worked in 23 countries worldwide.^[2] Prominent supporters of this program include Simon Wiesenthal, Teddy Kollek, Ari Rath and Gerhard Röthler.

1998 he founded the Austrian Service Abroad with Andreas Hörtnagl and in 2001 Michael Prochazka became the second vice-chairman.

In October and November 2009 Andreas Maislinger made a 3-week lecturing and promoting tour through Canada and the United States.^[3]

House of Responsibility (HRB)

As a reaction to the participation of the FPÖ (Austrian Freedom Party) in the Austrian federal government in 2000, Maislinger suggested that the city of Braunau am Inn^[4] should establish a "House of Responsibility"^[5] in the birth house of Adolf Hitler.

Further activities

Since 1992, Maislinger has served as the scientific director of the annual Braunau Contemporary History Days in Braunau am Inn.

He also participates actively in projects promoting gifted children.

Since 2003 he is in charge of the Georg Rendl Symposion. He had founded the symposium to familiarise people with the life and works of the painter and author Georg Rendl, whom Maislinger had already met as a child in his hometown St. Georgen/Salzburg.

In 2006 he initiated the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award,^[6] rewarding people who actively contribute to the remembrance of the Holocaust.

Andreas Maislinger (left) with Branko Lustig

Awards

In 2005 Maislinger received the Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria in Silver from the president of Austria, Heinz Fischer, and the Medal of Merit of the state of Tirol from Herwig van Staa and Luis Durnwalder.

On November 8, 2009 Andreas Maislinger was awarded with a Lifetime Achievement Award for "his 10 year fight to obtain official recognition of alternative, philanthropic service" at the Annual Dinner^[7] of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust together with Holocaust survivor and producer of Schindlers List Branko Lustig.^[8]

Publications

(Selection)

• Friedensbewegung in einem neutralen Land. Zur neuen Friedensbewegung in Österreich. (Peace movement in a neutral country. Related to the new peace movement in Austria.) In: Medienmacht im Nord-Süd-Konflikt. (The power of media in the north – south conflict.) Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1984 ISBN 3-518-11166-3
• "Neue" Österreichische Friedensbewegung. ("New“ Austrian Peace Movement.) In: Österreichisches Jahrbuch für Politik 1983. (Austrian Annual for Politics 1983.) Vienna, 1984
• Das katholisch-konservative Lager. (The catholic – conservative side.) In: Widerstand und Verfolgung in Tirol 1934-1945, Band 2. ÖBV, (Resistance and Persecution in Tirol 1934-1945, Band 2. Austrian book publisher), Vienna 1984 ISBN 3-215-05368-3
• "Den Nationalsozialisten in die Hände getrieben". Zur Geschichtspolitik der SPÖ von 1970 bis 2000. ("Drifted into the National Socialists Hands“. Related to the history politics of the Socialists in Austria from 1970 to 2000.) In: Europäische Rundschau, (European review), number 3/2001

Publishing

• Costa Rica. Politik, Gesellschaft und Kultur eines Staates mit ständiger aktiver und unbewaffneter Neutralität. (Costa Rica, Politics, Society and Culture of a State with Continuous Active and Unarmed Neutrality.) Inn-Verlag, Innsbruck 1986 ISBN 3-85123-091-4
• Der Putsch von Lamprechtshausen. Zeugen des Juli 1934 berichten. (The Putsch of Lamprechtshausen. Report of Witness to July, 1934), Self - published, Innsbruck 1992 ISBN 3-901201-00-9

See also

• Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award
• Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service
• Austrian Service Abroad
• Braunau Contemporary History Days
• House of Responsibility

References

1. ^ Austrian Holocuast Memorial Service (austrianinformation.org)
2. ^ The New Righteous: Austrian youth serve the memory of the Holocaust abroad (Paloma Friedman)
3. ^ Austrian political scientist Andreas Maislinger talks about Austria’s role (The Harvard Crimson)
4. ^ Austrian Town of Hitler's Birth Aims to Transform 'the Burden', Paul Watson, Los Angeles Times (January 13, 2001)
5. ^ History as responsibility - House of Responsibility
6. ^ Professor Pan Guang received Austrian Holocaust Memorial Award (cjss.org.cn)
7. ^ L.A. Holocaust Museum Announces Honorees for 2nd Annual Dinner (lamoth.org)
8. ^ LA Museum of the Holocaust honors AHMS Founder Andreas Maislinger (Embassy of Austria)

External links

• Embassy of Austria, Washington D.C.: Other Famous Austrians
• CV of Gedenkdienst Founder Andreas Maislinger (Kleinmann Family Foundation)
• http://www.auslandsdienst.at/intro/US.htm
• http://www.gedenkdienst.org
• http://www.gedenkdienst.info