The 5th Annual Botstiber Lecture

The Fifth Annual Botstiber Lecture on Austrian-American Affairs was held on Friday, May 31 at the Austrian Embassy. Ambassador Winkler spoke on "Coming to Terms with Austria’s Past - the Role of the United States," covering the historical background and the development of Austrian efforts to deal with the legacy of National Socialist rule, leading up to the negotiations about compensation and restitution of stolen property, finally leading to the Washington Agreement in 2001, for which Ambassador Winkler was a chief negotiator.

Ambassador Winkler has been the Director of the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna since April 2009. He served as State Secretary in the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs,  headed the International Law Department in the Foreign Ministry and served as the Ambassador to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.

About the Dietrich W. Botstiber Foundation
Dietrich Botstiber left Austria for the United States in 1938. He was grateful to become an American and established his foundation to "promote an understanding of the historic relationship between the United States and Austria."

To that end, the Botstiber Institute for Austrian-American Studies (BIAAS) supports projects that implement Botstiber’s mission. BIAAS and the Austrian-American Educational Commission jointly sponsor two Fulbright-Botstiber visiting professorships, one in Austria and the other in the United States. BIAAS offers an annual fellowship in Austrian-American Studies, it provides grants for work, and sponsors programs, in the fields of history, politics, economics, law, literature, poetry, music and translations.