Speakers

Natascha Gruver (Vienna)

Raoul Kneucker (Vienna)

David Luft (Corvallis, Oregon)

Elisabeth Nemeth (Vienna)

Naomi Osorio-Kupferblum (Vienna)

Wolfdietrich Schmied-Kowarzik (Vienna)

Friedrich Stadler (Vienna)

Anja Weiberg (Vienna)

joining the panel discussion: Gertraud Diem-Wille (Vienna), Elisabeth Nemeth (Vienna), Steven Beller (Washington, D.C.), Hans Sluga (Berkeley)

Guest: Rudi Fischer, son of Kurt R. Fischer

Rudi Fischers statement: 

On behalf of Kurt Rudolf Fischer's children, we wish to express our deep gratitude for continuing the memory of our father.  Sadly, he was preceded in death by our older brother Kurt B. Fischer so I am including his son (Kurt R's grandson) on this note in his place.  In my father's honor I applied for Austrian Citizenship and am now an Austrian Citizen.  My sister and nephew are a few months behind me.  I know this would've made him very happy.  On Friday I shall receive my Austrian passport and hope to make a trip to Vienna sometime this year though travel has unfortunately become much more expensive and difficult.  I know when my father was in Austria, he complained how wonderful everything in America was.  If it's any consolation, he complained about how wonderful it was in Austria when he was in America also.

On 26th of February this year our father would've turned 100.  I wonder what he would think of the tumultuous years since his passing and how he would have dealt with the new world order.  As a proud hypochondriac I imagine him triple masked everywhere he went but not stopping his routines as he would certainly suffer without the frequent, daily human interaction that he loved.  I also imagine that he would be triple boosted and trying to convince some Doctor that it's been almost 2 months since his last shot so could he please get one now.  I have no idea how he would make the transition from manual typewriter to zoom meetings but I'm sure he would have had everyone laughing hysterically while his image was upside down, his sound muffled, and he spend half the class time trying to figure out how to get the camera right side up only to offer everyone (well at least anyone that didn't sneeze or cough during class) the opportunity to meet him at the cafe for coffee after class.