On August 6th, the 69th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, the ICAN-Austria team took part in a commemorative event right next to Vienna’s St-Stephan’s cathedral.
With the Academy of Science (the location of the upcoming CSF) just about 200 meters’ airline away, the team successfully drummed up support for the event in December, dressed up in their own new T-shirt creations (write us if you’d like to have one!). Representatives of different peace movements gave inspirational speeches and messages of important politicians, such as Nagasaki’s mayor Tomhisa Taue, President Heinz Fischer, Chancellor Werner Faymann, the Ministers Doris Bures, Rudolf Hundsdorfer, Reinhold Mitterlehner and Josef Ostermayer, MEPs Othmar Karas and Ulrike Lunacek, Member of Parliament Christine Muttonen, Vienna’s mayor Michael Häupl and city environmental councellor Ulli Sima, former Defence Minister Nobert Darabos, leader of the Green Party Eva Glawischnig and leader of Vienna’s Greens David Ellensohn, ex-Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer – as well as personalities such as Austrian cabaretist Josef Hader, chief rabbi Paul Chaim Eisenberg, cardinal Christoph Schönborn and Professor Walter Sauer just to name a few, were exhibited on the square next to the cathedral.
We warmly thank Ernst Toman from Friedensinitiative 22 for his great acoustic support of the commemoration.
The commemoration ended with a procession that led to Saint-Charles church, where we lit (our self-made) lanterns following to the Japanese tradition.
