The AATG's First Landeskundeseminar in Austria

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In the summer of 1990 I attended the AATG's first Landeskundeseminar in Austria, held from July 15-July 27 in Graz. Coordinators were Dr. Jurgen Koppensteiner, Professor of German language and literature at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, and Magister Wilfried Krenn, a German language instructor at a local Gymnasium. Eighteen American teachers and professors of German, representing twelve states, participated in this two-week program. The very reasonable fee of $500 covered housing, many meals, lectures, activities and excursions. The Joseph Krainer House, a modern facility in the lovely Green Belt of Graz, served as the venue for the seminar. Here we were housed in spacious private rooms with bath, close to the breakfast room and also to the large classroom where most of the lectures and activities took place. The Krainer House is in the northern section of the city, conveniently located to public transportation. Graz is an excellent location for the seminar, because it lies off the beaten tourist track. Capital of the Steiermark, this city of 250,000 inhabitants has a pleasant setting in the hilly southeastern part of Austria. The seminar was very intensive, yet it still allowed free time for individual activities such as shopping, visits to the colorful Bauernmarkt, attendance at an organ recital in the 15th century cathedral and at an opera on the openair stage of the Schlossberg, and a tour of the richly ornamented state rooms in Schloss Eggenberg. Mornings and afternoons were devoted to lectures on such subjects as modern Austrian literature (works by Ingeborg Bachmann, Erich Hackl, Thomas Bernhard, Renate Welsh and Peter Handke were discussed), the role of women in Austria today, the school system and politics. A discussion with young representatives of four of Austria's political parties as well as an exchange of ideas with teachers from various schools made the latter topics very meaningful. Methodology was also offered on several mornings and afternoons, and emphasis was placed on the use of Austrian texts and realia in the classroom. We received an extraordinary amount of free material-posters, brochures, maps and books. It was suggested that we write to the Austrian Cultural Institute for additional materials and to the Austrian National Tourist Office for posters. The addresses are as follows: