BRILLIANT YEARS, INTELLECTUAL FLAIR

The "Arbeiterzeitung" as the flagship of Austrian quality journalism

Conversation with

Peter Pelinka, journalist and author, last editor-in-chief of the Labour newspaper
Alexandra Stanic, journalist and photographer, Vice Austria
Christa Zöchling, journalist and publicist, Profile

Moderation
Robert Misik, Author and journalist

The history of Austrian social democracy is closely linked to its journalism - and it set intellectual standards that characterised the style of the Austrian left for a long time. Victor Adler succeeded in uniting the labour movement with a newspaper, the „Gleichheit“, and very soon he founded a daily newspaper, the „Arbeiterzeitung“, which was not only intended to act as a propaganda tool for the proletariat, but whose ambition was to become the country's leading quality newspaper.
The liberal urban middle classes in particular were to be forced to read the AZ - simply because it was the best newspaper. This claim was formative: during the monarchy, in the First Republic and even at the beginning of the Second Republic. The country's leading thinkers, writers and journalists worked for this newspaper, such as Hermann Bahr, Max Winter, Friedrich Austerlitz, Oscar Pollak, Barbara Coudenhove-Kalergi and many others.
AZ was discontinued in 1991. Its best days were long behind it, but it still characterised a new generation of authors with high expectations of themselves. These protagonists are still key figures in contemporary journalism today. But progressive journalism today is in an identity crisis, people don't really know what it can still be - and it is also on the defensive.

In co-operation with Renner Institute