IN MEMORIAM GERHARD ROTH

IN MEMORIAM GERHARD ROTH

„Memory is a mirage in the desert of oblivion.“

Greeting:
Rudolf Scholten, Federal Minister (retired), President of the Bruno Kreisky Forum

Memories of Gerhard Roth:
Heinz Fischer, Former Federal President.

Conversation: Politics - Power - Literature. Gerhard Roth and Bruno Kreisky
Wolfgang Petritsch, Diplomat
Peter Stephan Jungk, Writer

Reading:
Cornelius Obonya, actor and director

Music:
Hans Theessink, Roots & Blues

Moderation
Gertraud Auer Borea d’Olmo, Secretary General of the Bruno Kreisky Forum

Gerhard Roth, born on 24 June 1942 in Graz and died in February 2022, was one of the most important Austrian writers. He published numerous novels, short stories, essays and plays, including the seven-volume cycle »Die Archive des Schweigens« (The Archives of Silence), completed in 1991, and the subsequent cycle »Orkus« (Orcus). Each of the novel cycles centres on the narrated and documented reappraisal of the past from a general perspective and Austrian contemporary history from a particular perspective.

Gerhard Roth described himself as „obsessed with writing in the best sense of the word“. Roth had a respectful relationship with the Austrian statesman and politician Bruno Kreisky. He visited Kreisky in his holiday home on Mallorca, accompanied him on a state visit to Belgrade, at the 1 May march in Vienna and on an election campaign trip through Lower Austria. Roth was also a guest at Kreisky's Viennese residence at Armbrustergasse 15 on several occasions.

Gerhard Roth has received numerous awards, including the Bruno Kreisky Prize for a political book in 2003 and the Great Austrian State Prize His latest novel »Die Imker« was published by Fischer Verlag in May 2022.

He would have celebrated his 80th birthday on 24 June 2022.