THE BABENBERGS

YouTube premiere "From Kreisky's living room"

Rudolf Scholten and Wolfgang Maderthaner

HISTORIOGRAPHY BETWEEN MYTHS AND LEGENDS:
THE BABENBERGS

In our series of events It's a good country. Republican history lesson(s) curator Wolfgang Maderthaner is usually the one who asks his guests questions. In a reversal of the usual, BKF President Rudolf Scholten has invited the historian, who was director of the Austrian State Archives for many years, as an interviewee for a loose series on the history of Austria.
In the first instalment, Rudolf Scholten and Wolfgang Maderthaner deal with the beginnings of Austria, with the era of the Babenbergs, who ruled first as margraves and then as dukes from 976 until the extinction of their dynasty in the 13th century. The Babenbergs as the ruling family of pre-state Austria are little documented in reliable historical sources. All the more numerous are myths and legends, many of which were added centuries later, the stones of the mosaic in which we are trying to form a picture of this period today.
Rudolf Scholten on this series of talks: „In a hopefully interesting and varied form, it should make possible what so many have already set out to do: “We should get a real overview of the history of Austria. Entertaining but not reduced to anecdotes. We hope that you enjoy listening to these conversations as much as we do."

Wolfgang Maderthaner, Historian, Association for the History of the Labour Movement

Rudolf Scholten, President of the Bruno Kreisky Forum