In 1893, the “Free Association of Socialist Students” was founded in Vienna with chairman Max Adler. The first precursor organisation to the Association of Socialist Students in Austria (VSStÖ), this discussion group, which brought together students such as Käthe Leichter, Alfred Adler, Karl Renner and many others, was the first group of students to share the goals of the young labour movement.
Even then, the fight for open and free access to higher education, a democratic university and criticism of bourgeois academia were key topics. The socialist students also took an active part in political events. For instance, they played a key role in the fight for the introduction of universal suffrage. They also joined initiatives against the First World War, which resulted in the association being temporarily banned by the authorities during the war.
In 1917, Anna Frey became the first woman to chair the “Free Association of Socialist Students”. After a group had previously only existed in Vienna, socialist student organisations were also founded in Innsbruck and Graz in 1918/19.
In response to the VSStÖ’s resistance to German nationalist and anti-Semitic activities at Austrian universities, the association was opposed by decision-makers in universities and members were systematically discriminated against. To this day, the relationship between Austrian universities and their German nationalist history has been played down and remains largely unexamined.
The association was banned during the time of Austrofascism. Members of the VSStÖ fell in the Austrian Civil War in February 1934 and in the international brigades in the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939 in the fight against fascism. During the years of the National Socialist dictatorship, many VSStÖ members were driven into exile or took part in the resistance against fascism and war. Many of them paid with their lives. Their struggle will never be forgotten, even if there are no words to describe the significance of their commitment.
After Austria’s liberation, the VSStÖ resumed its activities in university politics, which were dominated by conservative forces, but also tried to exert greater influence on university policy and social developments.
The VSStÖ fought against the return of Nazis to universities and the spread of Nazi ideology in courses. In the mid-sixties, for example, the then VSStÖ member and later finance minister Ferdinand Lacina took notes of the anti-Semitic remarks made by the Viennese economics professor Taras Borodajkewycz in a lecture. There followed political turbulence and fierce protests, which were mainly initiated by the then VSStÖ member and later president of Austria Heinz Fischer. During a demonstration in 1965 the concentration camp survivor and resistance fighter Ernst Kirchweger was beaten to death by a male fraternity member. Kirchweger, who did not take part in the demonstration himself, became the first victim of political violence in the Second Republic. As a result, Taras Borodajkewycz had to resign.
The VSStÖ was the first student association to call for democratically elected student representation and was actively involved in the formation of the Austrian Students’ Union after 1945.
Even back then, we were already campaigning within the ÖH for an improvement in student life, for better and socially fair student grants, for forward-looking course contents and methods and for more democratic decision-making rights for students in universities.
Of all the groups in the ÖH today, we are not only the organisation with the longest tradition and history, but also the only founding association of the ÖH that still exists today.
After the ÖH elections in 1995, the dominance of conservative, ÖVP (Austrian People’s Party)-affiliated groups at the top of the ÖH was broken for the first time. For the first time, the VSStÖ was able to appoint the ÖH chairperson, and the VSStÖ candidate Agnes Berlakovich was also the first woman to be elected chairperson of the Austrian Students’ Union. The VSStÖ took an active part in the protests against the Grand Coalition’s austerity package in 1996, which brought major social cuts for students. The ÖH elections in 2001 strengthened the VSStÖ and, with a left-wing landslide victory, brought a red-green coalition to the national ÖH. Since then, the ÖH has almost exclusively formed left-wing coalitions.
In 2021, the VSStÖ achieved a historic electoral success and became the parliamentary group with the most votes in the ÖH elections. We look back proudly on the last few years in which we have actively helped to shape university policy at the ÖH Federal Representation. We have been able to implement numerous services and major projects for students that clearly bear the socio-political signature of the VSStÖ.
In the 2023 ÖH elections, the VSStÖ achieved its best ever election result with leading candidate Nina Mathies and was able to continue its work as the largest parliamentary group in the executive of the ÖH Federal Representation over the last two years. Nina Mathies is part of the ÖH chair team, our officers for social policy, foreign students, PH affairs, FH affairs, economic affairs and public relations work day in, day out to make your everyday student life easier.