Anton Rohrmoser - ein Architekt der Gemeinwesenarbeit in Österreich

In the 1980s, the Waldviertel region in Lower Austria became the model region for regional development in Austria - thanks to the Endogenous Regional Development programme (Eigenständige Regionalentwicklung - ERE in German). Anton Rohrmoser, whose work is traced in this portrait, had a significant influence on this programme due to his concept of "mobilizing community development" in rural areas. In this concept Anton Rohrmoser adapted Paulo Freire’s method of "consciousness raising" and key elements of his "Education as the Practice of Freedom". From 1978 to 1983 he initiated ground-breaking pilot projects for regional development in the Waldviertel region. In 1983 he co-founded the Austrian Association for Endogenous Regional Development (Österreichische Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Eigenständige Regionalentwicklung - ÖAR in German) and became the first chairman, which he remained until 1987. Starting in 1988, Anton Rohrmoser continued his rural community development in the area of mobilizing education and cultural projects as well as adult education as director of the working partnership arge region kultur (ark). From the start, close contact existed with the Federal Institute for Adult Education (Bundesinstitut für Erwachsenenbildung - bifeb in German) in Strobl. bifeb has organized a series of community development seminars since 1979; Anton Rohrmoser was a member of the management team until 2001. Since community education as a focus of the current national strategy for lifelong learning in Austria (LLL:2020) contains many parallels to community development, this portrait of Anton Rohrmoser concludes by looking at the future potential of community development - its central ideas and its vision of participative democracy as a model for a new, future-oriented politics.