This manifesto grew out of a conversation about a music box. Someone walks through Feldkirch at medium volume and wonders whether that is a good idea. From that question came three articles and one insight: Austria does not have a volume problem. It has a permission problem.
I. The Diagnosis
France has written into its constitution that resistance to oppression is a fundamental right. Austria has written into its culture that one should not stand out.
Science confirms this. Hofstede measures it. Milgram proves it in the laboratory: 80 percent obedience. Strike statistics show it in numbers. The social partnership institutionalises it. The media landscape cements it. And the punk scene in Vorarlberg — the shortest rebellion in Austrian cultural history — shows what happens when the impulse is there but the spaces are not.
→ Part 1: Rebellion as Civic Duty → Part 2: Who Controls the Controllers? → Part 3: The Defunct Punk Scene of Vorarlberg
II. Against
Against the culture of “what will the neighbours think.”
Against the confusion of silence with peace.
Against a system that internalises conflicts until no one knows they exist anymore.
Against 200 million euros in advertising money that buys journalism instead of financing it.
Against an ORF board of trustees half-filled by political parties.
Against the last EU country without a Freedom of Information Act.
Against interior ministers who say the law must follow politics.
Against a society that produces its first punk band and then has not a single space in which it can survive.
Against the idea that one must ask permission before taking up space.
III. For
For public space that belongs to everyone. Not only to those who are quiet. Not only to those who have a permit. Public space is not a privilege — it is a right. Whoever walks through the city with music is taking what is rightfully theirs.
For spaces that enable counterculture. Vorarlberg does not need more event venues. It needs places one can help shape. Switzerland has the Reitschule, the Grabenhalle, occupied buildings. Vorarlberg has nothing comparable. Never has. That must change.
For a media landscape that belongs to no one. Not to the Dichand heirs, not to the Fellners, not to whichever party currently holds the Interior Ministry. Independent journalism is not a luxury — it is democratic infrastructure.
For citizens who get involved. The citizens’ chamber idea — a lottery-based body with genuine petition rights in the state parliament — is not an experiment. Ireland has shown the way. Citizens who do not ask whether they are allowed, but simply do it.
For a culture of remembrance that is honest. Vorarlberg’s Nazi past is not processed as long as it is only discussed in memorials. The punks of 1977 confronted it directly — in their own neighbours, teachers, relatives. That honesty is still missing.
For the right to be loud. Not loud in terms of decibels. Loud in terms of visible. Loud in terms of: I am here, I take up space, and I do not ask for permission.
IV. The Gesture
In 1977, four young people stood on a stage in Feldkirch. They could play two chords, sometimes three. They had one amplifier. They had not asked whether they were allowed. The concert probably lasted less than an hour. The band lasted less than three years. But the impulse was real.
In 2026, someone walks through Feldkirch with a music box. Medium volume. He wonders whether that is a good idea. Then he does it anyway.
Between these two moments lie almost fifty years. The gesture is the same: take up space. Not as provocation. Not as performance. As presence. As a reminder that public space is public.
V. The Call
This manifesto is not a programme. It is an invitation.
To all who have gone quiet in Vorarlberg without noticing.
To all who adapted because there were no spaces where they did not have to.
To all who know that consensus is sometimes just another word for silence.
To all who have heard the sentence “one doesn’t do that” one too many times.
The question is not whether Austria can be a bolder country. The question is whether we want it to be. And if so: who starts?
Perhaps it starts with a music box. Medium volume. Feldkirch. Today.
This manifesto and the underlying articles are public. Ideas and methods are public domain. Secrets remain secrets.
By René Jochum and Claude (Anthropic). License: CC-BY-4.0.