The Festschrift for Raoul Kneucker, Head of Section i. R. in the Federal Ministry for Science and Art in Vienna and honorary professor for political science honors him as the embodiment of a modern uomo universale in the sense of the cosmopolitan and educated Renaissance man. His complex curriculum vitae reflects this unique cross-border and interdisciplinary dimension between science, religion, administration and art. His biography in the area of
tension between Judaism and Christianity is at the same time an expression of the breaks and continuities in contemporary Austrian history with the Shoah, expulsion and reconstruction after the National Socialist catastrophe. Despite - or perhaps because of - these upheavals, Raoul’s dialogic and connecting mentality and practice Kneucker as top civil servant, scientist and actor in the ecumenical area of
culture an impressive feature of a unique personality. Well-known authors from the fields of politics (Heinz Fischer, Erhard Busek, Rudolf Scholten, Caspar Eine) as well as from the field of science and theology (Anton Pelinka, Allen Janik, Herta Nagl-Docekal, Ludwig Nagl, Gertraud Diem-Wille, Manfred Welan, Ruth Wodak, Ulrich Koertner, Christine Mann, Jurgen Mittelstrass) bring thematic contributions as well as personal memories of the jubilee.