10.4.: On April 10 from 4 to 5 p.m., representatives of 19 leading Styrian literary institutions (see list below) gathered for a vigil in front of the headquarters of the Stocker publishing house on Hofgasse in Graz.
Their demand: “Right-wing extremism out of the Kulturkuratorium”.
Background to the demand:
The FPÖ appointed Franz Koiner to the Styrian Cultural Board of Trustees, which was largely reappointed following the change of government. Koiner is head of marketing at the Stocker and Ares publishing houses.
The Regional Court for Civil Matters and the Styrian Higher Regional Court ruled on the Stocker publishing house in 2006:
Criticizing authors and publications by the Stocker publishing house as “racist”, “anti-Semitic” and “right-wing extremist” is a “permissible judgment”.
The Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstands (DÖW) classifies Ares-Verlag as follows:
“Ares publishing house is the political arm of Stocker Verlag, which has thus outsourced the far-right parts of its publishing program. Many of the works published by Ares, as well as the magazine ‘Abendland’ published by the publishing house, can be classified as extreme right-wing publications and are advertised accordingly in extreme right-wing circles.“
Examples of titles from the Ares publishing house: “Nationalismus als Tugend”, “Hitler in Hell. What he still had to say“, ”And yet they are different. On the races of humanity” …
“In Styria,” reads the flyer distributed at the vigil, “a marketing expert for extreme right-wing publications will now (co-)decide which cultural projects are worthy of funding and which are not.
We strongly protest against this appointment, which poses a threat to the freedom and independence of artistic and cultural life in Styria.”
At the end of the event, the authors Max Höfler and Andreas Unterweger gave their joint speech “Wir suchen die Literatur” (We are looking for literature), which was dedicated to the involvement of Stocker/Ares-Verlag with right-wing extremist content/authors.
Media representatives from ORF Steiermark (Steiermark heute), Kleine Zeitung and Kronen Zeitung, among others, were present.
Numerous passers-by supported the event with friendly shouts and spontaneous applause.
Participating Styrian literary institutions:
ausreißer
BLÄTTERN
GAV
Die Plattform
esc medien kunst labor
Forum Stadtpark
Kulturvermittlung Steiermark
Literaturverlag Droschl
Internationales Haus der Autorinnen
Literaturhaus Graz
manuskripte
mischen
Pavel-Haus
perspektive
Ritter Verlag
schreibkraft
steirischer herbst
Tint Journal
UniT