As historical scholars concerned with Austria's past and future we have followed with admiration the emergence of a dedicated public opposition to Jörg Haider and the coalition from many sectors of Austrian society.
A political party whose record is deeply stained by xenophobia has found a footing in the highest offices of state. It casts its shadow on the future of Austrian democracy, and with it of Austria's extraordinary contribution to the arts and sciences in the modern world. We deplore the willingness of the People's Party leadership to embrace as partner such a party as Haider's. It compromises the principles of humane cosmopolitanism and social equity on which a modern Austrian Republic has been built.
We recognize Austria's post-war democratic achievement – social, political and cultural. That accomplishment – we say it with regret is too little understood, too little appreciated, in America and elsewhere. The more strongly, therefore, do we wish to express our solidarity with our Austrian fellow-scientists, intellectuals, and artists as they join their countrymen in the effort to preserve their just society against the peril that now jeopardizes its future.
Leon Botstein, President, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Helmut Gruber, Professor of History Emeritus, New York Polytechnic, New York, NY
William G. McGrath, Professor of History Emeritus, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
Richard Mitten, Fellow Woodrow Wilson International Center, Princeton, NJ and Professor of History, Central European University, Budapest
Anson Rabinbach, Professor of History, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Richard L. Rudolph, Professor of History, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Carl E. Schorske, Professor of History Emeritus, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Stephen Toulmin, Henry R. Luce Professor, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Michael P. Steinberg, Professor of History, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Klemens Von Klemperer, Professor of History Emeritus, Smith College, Northampton, MA
USA, 9. März 2K
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