80 Years of "Du holde Kunst": Anniversary Episode for Austria's Oldest Radio Show

It is Austria's oldest still-existing radio show: On October 14, 1945, the poetry format "Du holde Kunst" was broadcast for the first time. For the anniversary, on Sunday (October 12) from 8:15 a.m., poems from the 80-year history of the show are on the program. In the special episode, five actresses and five actors read poems "about listening, hearing, eavesdropping, and silence." Throughout the day, further poetry miniatures will follow.

Beauty after the War Suffering in Austria

The poetry series was created a few months after the end of World War II, with the returning from exile writer Ernst Schönwiese, who then headed the "Department for Literary Word" at the American occupation broadcaster "Rot-Weiß-Rot," and the Salzburg goldsmith Eligius Scheibel acting as midwives. They wanted to recall "the beautiful and harmonious" to the minds of people tested by war with poetry and appropriate music. In the first edition on October 14, 1945, actors Martha Marbo and Helmut Janatsch read poems by Goethe and Schiller to music by Mozart, Bach, Haydn, and Beethoven.

"Du holde Kunst" Has Become More Modern Over the Years

Nowadays, "Du holde Kunst" offers space for contemporary poetry and foreign-language poems in translations, alongside German-language classics. The anniversary broadcast is titled "To the Silent Echo of This Rustling," and the readers include actors such as Dörte Lyssewski, Joseph Lorenz, Andrea Eckert, Philipp Hauß, or Silvia Meisterle. The program includes poems by, among others, Sarah Kirsch, Rose Ausländer, and Ossip Mandelstam. The miniatures distributed throughout the day include readings of poems by Friederike Mayröcker, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, or Heinrich Heine. All poems are also available to listen to online.

(APA/Red)

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