The Austrian culture had a significant impact on the European continent and the fall of the Habsburg Empire led to multiple events that changed the destiny of the entire continent. On June 12, the National Library celebrated the 100th anniversary of the demise of the Habsburg Empire in an international conference entitled “2018 as the European Year of Cultural Heritage: multiculturalism and tradition of Austria”, IPN reports.
On the same occasion, there were mounted the exhibitions “Franz Kafka, 135 years of birth” and “Romanian book in the Austrian Empire”. During the day, the Austrian Cultural Forum Bucharest will present an exhibition of banners titled “Calm Before the Storm /Bewegte Ruhe vor dem Sturm”, which shows the state of things in the Habsburg Empire before World War I. Towards the end of the day, there will be shown Maria Schrader’s movie “Stefan Zweig, Farewell to Europe”, which is about novelist Stefan Zweig. Entrance is free of charge.
Orest Dabija, head of the Arts and Creative Industries Division of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research, said the Hapsburg Empire in a way encouraged the Romanians and ensured their access to better education and better realization of the national idea. The conference is important from scientific viewpoint as the researchers, linguists and historians can present their latest researches to the public and the people will be interested as they can familiarize themselves with the cultural heritage.
Austria’s Ambassador in Chisinau Christine Freilinger said Austria gained very good experience within the transfrontier cooperation between historians and this enabled it to better understand the own history and to reflect on it. Multicultural writer Franz Kafka also matched well this equation. The generations should look at the past with pleasure and with élan at the future.
National Library director Elena Pintilei noted the event is a good occasion for rendering homage to the European cultural heritage because it is an essential element of the European identity. The ideas, principles and values integrated into the national cultural and European heritage are a common source that enables to understand the identity and to establish a cohesion and creativity dialogue.
The event was organized by the National Library of Moldova in cooperation with the Embassy of Austria in Chisinau and the Austrian Cultural Forum Bucharest.
