For banker and former refugee coordinator Christian Konrad, “Austria, but above all Vienna, is inconceivable without culture.” For Georg Kapsch, the president of the Federation of Industrialists, culture is “turning away from small-mindedness, nationalism and populism – and making thinking more cosmopolitan” .
In order to build a better world in a present that “knows the price of everything and the value of nothing”, as Oscar Wilde said, “said the policeman Hans Golob, and” to prevent mental standstill ” the ÖNB director general Johanna Rachinger, “art must survive”. Do the artists need our solidarity.
Danielle Spera from the Jewish Museum Vienna reminded of the great loss of Jewish culture in Austria by the Nazi regime and “that the role of the patrons in Austria is still vacant”.
Former kicker Herbert Prohaska talked about his first visit to the opera – Puccini’s “La Boheme” in a dream cast with Mirella Freni, Luciano Pavarotti and Carlos Kleiber at the desk – and stated: “We are not necessarily a sporting nation, but we are 100 percent a cultural nation. “And it deserved every support. Birgit Reitbauer finally emphasized that “We and Culture” is “no further begging event”.
Instead, the Steirereck boss pleaded for a new vision for art and culture to be launched: “And to positively change the country that we love.”
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