Draft:Tibor Zenker

Content in this edit is from the existing German Wikipedia article at Tibor Zenker; see its history for attribution. Formatting follows.

Tibor Zenker (* 7. March 1976 in Vienna) is an Austrian author, political scientist, as well as son of the author and director Helmut Zenker. At the 4th party conference of the Party of Labor of Austria, he was elected to be its chairman.

Theatrical work

In the years of 2008 and 2009 with the collaboration of Jan Zenker, the satirical folk play "Kottan ermittelt: Rabengasse 3a" was produced, modeled after the ORF-TV-Movie "Hartlgasse 16a" (1976, script: Helmut Zenker, direction: Peter Patzak). The premiere was performed on the 15. of April 2009 at the Vienna Rabenhof Theatre.[failed verification] With the direction of Thomas Gratzer performed among others: Reinhard Nowak (as Kottan), Rudi Roubinek, Doris Schretzmayer, Dany Sigel and Roman Gregory. The critique was mostly positive, in addition the play had great reception with the audience: Between April 2009 and March 2010 44 performances were given, with an audience of roughly 13.000 people. In November 2009 a recording of "Rabengasse 3a" was released as DVD, on the 1st of January 2010 it was first broadcasted on TV on the channel Puls 4. On the 20th of February 2012 it was first performed outside of Austria, namely at the Trinity College (Dublin). Subsequently an audio book of "Rabengasse 3a" was released based on the theatre piece. In addidition to the stage cast Christoph Grissemann was added as narrator.

Over the course of the year 2010 (again collaborating with Jan Zenker) the theatre piece "Kassbach" was designed. It was modeled after Helmut Zenker's novel "Kassbach oder Das allgemeine Interesse an Meerschweinchen" (1974). The piece thematizes the problems of neo-fascism and racism, not by chance for the occasion of the Viennese state election campaigns. The premiere was, again at Rabenhof Theatre, on the 8th of September 2010.[failed verification] The direction was taken over by Anatole Sternberg. On the stage performed among others: Hans Piesbergen (as Kassbach) and Gerald Votava. The critique was mixed, the audience didn't know how to react to the piece, which was rather atypical for the Rabenhof Theatre. Between September and December 2010 15 performances were given.

On the 17th of November 2016 Zenker's newest piece "Kottan ermittelt - Das Puppenmusical" celebrated its Rabenhof-production premiere. With the direction of Thomas Gratzer, Christian Dolezal played the lead role of major Kottan. All remaining roles were depicted by the puppeteers Nikolaus Habjan and Manuela Linshalm using Muppet-style puppets. The music was chosen among others from Austropop-classics, mainly of Kottan's Kapelle and Johann Krankl, the musical direction was done by Kyrre Kvam. The production was undergone as a co-production together with the Vereinigte Bühnen Bozen and the Sankt Pölten "Theater im Hof". Which is why the piece was also performed in South Tyrol's and Lower Austria's state capitals.

Theoretical and journalistic work

Zenker has been present with journalistical articles, political essays and scientific contributions in various print- and online media of the German language sphere, as well as a lecturer. As such he was already columnist of the KPÖ-near weekly newspaper "Volksstimme" between 1998-2001. Some of these texts have been translated into other languages (among others English, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, Persian) and are consistently written from a socialist and communist, ideologically marxist point of view. This also coincides with the political activities of Zenker: In his young years he was active in the SPÖ-near Socialist Youth Austria (SJÖ). Together with Andreas Babler he was one of the heads of the state-monopoly-capitalism-faction within the SJÖ. Starting in October 2013 he was deputy chairman of the newly founded Party of Labour Austria (PdA). On the 21st of December 2019 he was elected its chairman. Within the party he is considered the leading ideologue. Especially on the topic of imperialism and fascism, Zenker wrote multiple nonfiction books, as well as contributions to collective volumes. Over the course of his engagement with contemporary right-wing-extremism, Zenker was able to prove in April 2009, that the Nationale Volkspartei for the most part copied their party program literally from a training program of the nationalsocialist SS, which among other things lead to it's sentencing under the NS-prohibition-law.

Other

Starting in February 2012 the Wiener Bezirksblatt publishes a weekly Comic strip of "Kottan ermittelt" with ideas and text by Zenker and illustrations by Reinhard Trinkler. In the run-up of the exhibition "Alles klar, Herr Kommisar? Knatterton, Kottan, Emil und andere Detektive", which was held between April and November 2014 at the Karikaturmuseum Krems, a nonfiction book by Zenker was published detailing the literary, cinematic and graphic history of the Kottan-figure under the title "Inspektor gibt's kan".

Works

Theatre Works

• Sherlock Holmes und die ägyptische Mumie, Vienna 2021
• Sherlock Holmes und der Pirat aus der Karibik, Vienna 2021
• Sherlock Holmes und die Geheimmission ihrer Majestät, Vienna 2021

Nonfiction Books

• Stamokap heute – Vom gegenwärtigen Kapitalismus zur sozialistischen Zukunft. Der Drehbuchverlag, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-902471-10-7.
• Was ist Faschismus? Der Drehbuchverlag, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-902471-50-6.
• Der Imperialismus der EU. Der Drehbuchverlag, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-902471-51-4.
• Österreich 1938 – Hintergründe, Vorgeschichte und Folgen des „Anschlusses“. Der Drehbuchverlag, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-902471-81-9.
• Der Imperialismus der EU 2. Der Drehbuchverlag, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-902676-51-1.
• Faschismus / Antifaschismus. Der Drehbuchverlag, Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-902676-62-7.
• together with Otto Bruckner und David Lang: Über die revolutionäre Partei der Arbeiterklasse. Der Drehbuchverlag, Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-902676-71-9.
• März 1938 – Fakten, Hintergründe, Folgen. Verlag KZV/VdA, Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-9503543-0-0.
• Februar 1934 – 80 Jahre Februarkämpfe in Österreich. Verlag KZV/VdA, Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-9503543-1-7.
• with Jan Zenker: Inspektor gibt’s kan. Verlag Carl Ueberreuter, Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-8000-7584-3.
• Der Imperialismus der EU 3. Der Drehbuchverlag, Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-99042-871-9.

Book contributions

• Monopolkapital, Markt und Macht. In: Elke Renner, Erich Ribolits, Johannes Zuber (ed.): Wa(h)re Bildung – Zurichtung für den Profit. Studienverlag, Innsbruck 2004, ISBN 3-7065-1988-7.
• Die Globalisierung des Elends und das Elend der Globalisierungstheorie. In: Erich Ribolits, Michael Sertl, Johannes Zuber (ed.): Verlierer im Überfluss – Bildungssystem und Ungleichheit. Studienverlag, Innsbruck 2006, ISBN 3-7065-4313-3.
• Die kommunistische Bewegung in Österreich. In: Frank Flegel (ed.): Niederlagenanalyse. Offen-siv Verlag, Hannover 2007, ISBN 978-3-00-021905-4.
• Normalität und Widersprüchlichkeit des faschistischen Kleinbürgers. In: Karin Moser, Andreas Ungerböck (ed.): Peter Patzak – Filmemacher, Autor, Maler. Verlag Filmarchiv Austria, Wien 2009, ISBN 978-3-902531-74-2.
• Oktoberrevolution: What's left?. In: Verlagsgenossenschaft Vorwärts (ed.): 100 Jahre Oktoberrevolution 1917-2017. Vorwärts, Zürich 2018, ISBN 978-3-033-06736-3.
• Por la libertad de España y Austria! Los Austriacos durante la Guerra Civil Española 1936-1939. In: Varios Autores: Bajo una sola bandera – Las Brigadas Internacionales y el internacionalismo proletario. Ediciones Tinta Roja, Madrid 2020, ISBN 978-84-122751-0-0.

References

[[Category:Men]] [[Category:1976 births]] [[Category:Austrian people]] [[Category:Political scientists]] [[Category:Author]]