Pannekoeks Cat

A Matter of Councils

Papiertheater Kollektiv Zunder

In 1918, the council movement also sparked in Vienna: self-government, freedom from domination, the end of representative politics! On the occasion of the centenary of Austrian council movement, the paper-theatre piece ‘Pannekoek's Cat’ traces those paths in Vienna and its vicinities.

In 1918, when the old system no longer worked and nothing new had yet been set up, workers in many Central Europe places dared to take their lives into their own hands. In Austria, the January Strike provided the necessary fuel – and soon factories, barracks and sometimes entire neighbourhoods were organised in councils. The bourgeois state should be made aware of its dispensability.

The Council Communists Leo Rothziegel, Bertha Pölz, Hilde Hofmann, and Franz Wippel are the protagonists of the paper-theatre piece ‘Pannekoek’s Cat’ – the play’s title referring to the eponymous theoretician of council communism and the symbolic animal of the strike – the black cat. The performance tells of the short and productive phase of the Viennese council movement, of the diversity of its political composition, of the opening up of political freedom, and the flaring-up of the idea of a society free of domination.

Announcment: On Sunday, Sept. 23, 12am, at the district museum Leopoldstadt, all interested are invited to a public discussion with the team of Papiertheater Kollektiv Zunder, immediately after the performance of „Pannekoek's Cat“.

The performance takes place in the district museum on Mazzesinsel (1020 Vienna). It can be reached by a leisurely city stroll along historic places of the council movement such as Stefaniehof, the headquarters of the General Jewish Workers Association Poale Zion, in whose back room Leo Rothziegel printed leaflets for the January Strike. Afterwards, while enjoying turnip stew, participants are invited to discuss what an updated Viennese council movement would have to look like – the turnip being the symbolic food to build a historic bridge between the impoverished and the gentrified second district.

To participate in the walk, it is necessary to download the following file onto your smartphone: https://soundcloud.com/sole-noir_textfeld/stadtspazierung-leopoldstadt However, mp3 players can be borrowed on site. Attention! Please remember to bring headphones.

Please register indicating the desired date/time by 15 September 2018 vial e-mail to reservations@wienwoche.org
Photo credits: (C) Michael Bodenstein / Nicole Szolga