The Center at 25.
A Celebration.
Center Austria – 25 Years and Going Strong
As President of the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation I know firsthand about our close relationship with the Center Austria and the impressive role of its longtime Director in particular. It all began in May 1998, when our esteemed friend and eminent historian professor Günter Bischof organized a conference at UNO about the Marshall Plan in Austria.
The success of this conference, based on Günter’s formidable knowledge about the transformative role the United States has played in Austria’s postwar reconstruction, convinced the Austrian government to set up the Vienna-based Foundation. It’s main task is to foster academic exchange between the US and Austria. Already early on the Foundation was instrumental in setting up Center Austria by providing generous funding for what I would call Günter’s baby. The Center has grown over the past quarter of a century into an important Austrian, even European, academic outpost in this part of the United States.
Its record is impressive: UNO’s Marshall Plan Anniversary Chair in Austrian Studies, inaugurated in 1999, was since held by 15 outstanding Austrians, who used their stay for teaching assignments and research activities. In view of the Center’s formidable track record, in 2017 the Foundation decided to provide additional funding to secure the Center Austria’s prosperity and future viability.
May it successfully advance US-Austrian relations in times of mounting geopolitical challenges.
Ambassador Wolfgang Petritsch
President
Austrian Marshall Plan Fundation
