27.10.2024
On October 25, 2024, a very worthy and impressive celebration took place at the Working World Museum in Steyr. In addition to brilliant sports performances (modern dance, acrobatics, karate), there was a very interesting look back at the eventful history of the ASKÖ umbrella organization.
The forerunner of the ASKÖ was the Workers’ Association for Sports and Physical Culture, founded in 1824. The previous presidents were Engelbert Zölch (1924-1934), Franz Winterer (1945-1966), Kurt Heller (1966-1988), Franz Löschnak (1988-2005), Peter Wittmann (2005-2014), and since 2014 Hermann Krist.
ASKÖ President Hermann Krist (NR aD) warmly welcomed all guests of honor, including Franz Löschnak (former State Secretary, Minister of the Interior and Health), Sport Austria President Hans Niessl (former LH Burgenland), ASVÖ President Christian Purrer, Sportunion -President Peter Mc Donald, the President of the Friends of Nature Andreas Schieder and all other 100 sports officials from all over Austria in attendance, whom he warmly thanked for their commitment to sport and his thanks went to all of the 168,150 dedicated helpers of the ASKÖ family (as of December . 2023) who were not present, without whom it would not be possible to manage sports day in and day out.
Also at the party in Steyr were ASKÖ Salzkammergut district chairman Mag. Max Ebenführer (Gmunden and Vöcklabruck district) from Scharnstein, Bad Goisern ASKÖ chairman Hans Hinterer and Michael Helminger, head of the judo section in Bad Goisern.
In the ASKÖ (Association for Sport and Physical Culture in Austria) there are 4,425 member clubs with 210 sports and exercise offerings (as of December 2023). In the 2022/23 school year, the ASKÖ looked after 1,618 institutions as part of “Children’s Healthy Exercise” (KIBEGE). .
Of course, it doesn’t work without full-time staff: 343 employees divided between the federal organization and the state associations. Everything is done on a voluntary basis on site, as is the case at ASKÖ Bad Goisern, a club with over 900 members and many sections such as gymnastics (men’s and women’s gymnastics, parent-child gymnastics, children’s gymnastics, functional gymnastics, fitness activities), alpine skiing, shooting, judo, Table tennis, chess, youth chess and modern dance.
The statements in the form of a discussion with the ASKÖ ex-presidents Franz Löschnak and Peter Wittmann, the current ASKÖ president Hermann Krist and the ASVÖ president Christian Purrer and the Sportunion president Peter Mc Donald were also interesting.
You could feel the extremely good cooperation between the umbrella organizations ASKÖ, ASVÖ and Union in the discussions, as they also pursue a common goal.
Everyone emphasized the extremely important importance of sport for health, and in particular they pointed to the prophylactic component of sport on health. Sport supports the physical, mental and social development of young people, strengthens concentration, motivation and stamina. The ASKÖ offers a wide range of sporting activities from toddlers to seniors. The focus should be on general sport, work with young people and, last but not least, competitive sport should take up a lot of space, where significant successes can be demonstrated again and again. The social component was discussed more often. Through sport, values and attitudes are conveyed and social skills such as solidarity, tolerance, respect, consideration, conflict resolution, sense of responsibility, team spirit and fair play are developed and strengthened.
The basic tenet of all umbrella organizations (ASKÖ, Sportunion, ASVÖ) is that politicians are keen to create infrastructure for sport (gyms, equipment, support for training, etc.) by releasing financial resources. This applies to the federal government, the states, but also to the municipalities.
It should be noted that the ASKÖ and the Friends of Nature have no longer been frontline organizations of the SP since 2012.
