Vienna will not build a stage “that can be used for xenophobic agitation and stoking Islamophobic and anti-Turkish resentments“, announced Veronica Kaup-Hasler at the beginning of November Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) city councilor responsible for culture. She referred to scientific findings.
Monument to Jan III Sobieski. Decision “duly justified”
A Polish-Austrian group of experts helped her make the decision. One of its members, prof. history Bogusław Dybaś from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, who was the director of the PAN Scientific Station in Vienna in 2007-19, told the Austrian press agency APA that “due to the nature of the monument and its low artistic value” he considers the decision of the Vienna City Council “to be properly justified.”
In an interview with Deutsche Welle, the Polish historian says refusal commemoration of the Polish king in Vienna “refers to this particular monument in this particular place.”
I think so and I hope that this does not end the discussion about another form of commemorating Jan III Sobieski
– says prof. Dybaś.
“Shame on Vienna and the Viennese”
Zenon Kosiniak-Kamysz, who has been heading the Polish embassy in Vienna as chargé d'affaires, has a similar hope. – I don't think this decision is final, forever, he tells DW. The diplomat has already talked about this with Veronika Kaup-Hasler, and is also counting on a conversation with the mayor of Vienna, Michael Ludwig.
The lack of a monument is a shame for Vienna and the Viennese people
– emphasizes Ambassador Kosiniak-Kamysz.
Prof. Dybaś regrets that it took the Vienna authorities so long to reach a final decision. Monument on Kahlenberg it was to be unveiled on the 335th anniversary of the relief, i.e. six years ago. The plinth was prepared in 2013, and five years later the date of the battle appeared on it: September 12, 1683. However, the city did not consent to placing the monument cast in Gliwice on it. So instead of going to Austria, the monument went on a journey around Poland. He started from Krakow.
The sculptor probably wanted to say too much
The author of the monument is prof. Czesław Dźwigaj, known primarily for several dozen figures of John Paul IIbut also, for example, the monument to the victims of the Ukrainian genocide in Volhynia located at the Rakowicki Cemetery in Krakow. “This Sobieski with a mace in his hand during the attack. Behind him are the hussars – symbolic wings, and under the hooves: the defeated Ottoman army,” said five years ago in a conversation with a journalist radio RMF FM described the sculpture by Piotr Zapart from the Krakow Fowler Brotherhood, the initiator of the project and chairman of the monument construction committee.
The Austrian daily “Der Standard” recently recalled that “a group of Austrian-Polish experts” expressed their reservations about the concept of a typical 19th-century “monument to heroes” and recommended “distancing themselves from any form of heroic monument.” – Sculptor he probably wanted to say too much – says Emil Bartłomiejczak, a Polish artist who has been living in Düsseldorf for 40 years, in an interview with DW, looking at photos of the sculpture from years ago, placed on a trailer on which it was supposed to reach Kahlenberg. The artist does not see it as a 19th-century monument. – Comparisons should be looked for in the much more distant past – he adds.
Allies from the far right
Quite unexpectedly, she became a passionate supporter of the symbolism expressed by Professor Dźwigaj's monument Austrian far rightwhich previously did not have much sympathy for Poland and Poles. – It would be a scandal if this delaying tactic was undertaken for the sake of voters from the Turkish community – said in September 2018 the then head of the parliamentary club of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), Johann Gudenus, when the Vienna authorities postponed the unveiling of the monument announced for this year. This politician previously became famous for his visit to Ramzan Kadyrov in Chechnyawhere he saw “no signs of war or discrimination”, and participation in the so-called “election observation mission” during referendum in Crimeaafter annexation of the peninsula by Russia in 2014.
A year later, however, he withdrew from politics together with his party boss and incumbent vice-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strach, after the media published recordings from Ibiza in which, among other things, they promised a certain Aljona Makarova, the alleged cousin of the Russian oil oligarch Igor Makarov, to take over the most widely read Austrian newspapers “Neue Kronen Zeitung” in exchange for financial support for the FPÖ. – But the most extreme are not libertarians, but identitarians who organize demonstrations on Kahlenberg, during which clashes with their leftist opponents – says prof. in an interview with DW. Dybaś. The Identitarian Movement Austria (Identitäre Bewegung Österreich) was established in 2012 as an offshoot of the international Les Identitaires movement initiated ten years earlier in France. – This monument would probably only inflame the atmosphere of these disputes – says the Polish historian.
A happy ending?
Ambassador Kosiniak-Kamysz emphasizes that Jan III Sobieski he has made great contributions not only to Poland, but also to Austria and Europe. In an interview with DW, he points out that so far he has only had the above-mentioned telephone conversation regarding his commemoration. – We did not receive any written position from the Vienna city hall. That's why I approach it without much emotion. And I hope that over the next few years, when I head the Polish embassy, I will have many opportunities to talk about this topic. And until the happy ending. That is, to a worthy one to celebrate King Jan III Sobieski in Vienna – he said.
The article comes from the website Deutsche Welle.