Walter Iber, a native of Riegersburg, is no stranger to southeast Styria, especially in football circles, and is now also making a name for himself among students. The historian is the first lecturer at the Karl Franzens University in Graz to hold a so-called bridge professorship.
STYRIA/RIEGERSBURG/FEHRING. In the Styrian sports world, university professor Walter Iber is, in the truest sense of the word, anything but a blank slate. Under the direction of the historian and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute, a 280-page standard work on sport was published in spring 2022. The book depicts Graz sport in all its facets in detail and with lots of pictures. The edition was preceded by the 52-part series “City in Motion” in the week and on MeinBezirk.at.
“The book is a reminder of those who laid the foundation for the sports city of Graz over the last hundred years or even beyond,” was the summary of Iber, himself a former amateur soccer player and youth coach in Riegersburg, at the time. Since when do people actually play handball indoors? Who was the first Graz Olympic champion? And where did Arnold Schwarzenegger start his training? Thanks to the meticulous research by Walter Iber and the RegionalMedien team, all of these questions did not remain unanswered. Of course, there was also an intensive discussion with the large and small football clubs in Graz, with legendary sports facilities and long-forgotten events that once took place in Graz.
Almost two years later, Walter Iber – who was born in Riegersburg and now lives in Stang near Hatzendorf in the municipality of Fehring – appears again in the editorial team. But now he doesn’t talk about his sports research; rather, he is rightly proud of “his” bridging professorship at the University of Graz. The sporty guy is the first to manage the balancing act at Karl Franzens University between the Faculty of Humanities (GEWI) and the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences (SOWI). What can be put so casually is actually a great honor and distinction – and at the same time his very own achievement.
GEWI student teaches at SOWI
And how does the bridging professorship for economic and social history actually work? A bridge to content and organizational cooperation is being built between the two faculties GEWI and SOWI, where economic and social history were taught separately for many years.
And it’s not just now that Professor Walter Iber comes into play. Rather, the historian, who is qualified to teach economic, social and corporate history, had long since linked the two levels together. How? He studied and completed his habilitation at the GEWI before starting his work as an assistant and lecturer at the SOWI. Iber’s courses span the period from the Industrial Revolution to the 21st century. Even before the official cooperation between the two faculties as a bridge professorship, students from the fields of history, business administration, economics and sociology met for mutual, cross-faculty exchange.
Research for the homeland
Walter Iber knows industrial development and economic history like no other. In his private life, however, the father of two subjects himself to almost archaic structures – in times of automation and digitalization. As an organic farmer, he keeps rare breeds of livestock. Managing the farm, running and playing football on the university team provide the balance that the professor needs. And the former youth coach has remained a club leader. He is chairman of the board of the Austrian Society for Corporate History – a platform for corporate history research that also serves as a network for the self-employed.
Of course, despite all his vocations, the true Southeast Styrian doesn’t forget his roots. Then as now, he also brings his research work home. In 2010, for example, as an employee of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on the Consequences of War, he accompanied the exhibition “Nordberg. The Path to Space” in the Gerberhaus in Fehring in his work as a scientific curator. The Styrian physicist Willi Nordberg (1930 – 1976) had a career at the US space agency NASA in the 1960s and 1970s. As scientific director, the Fehringer native was significantly involved in the development of the first weather and earth observation satellites. Today there is a permanent exhibition dedicated to him in the Gerberhaus Fehring.
Mouthpiece and ambassador
“I always try to position my homeland well and involve companies in the region,” assures Iber, who is also the author of many books – always with scientific standards. And it has remained that way to this day. The Berghofer mill from Fehring was also represented in a series of panel discussions at the university, in which everything revolves around traditional Styrian businesses. “The panel discussions are a big focus. The students have the opportunity to talk to the entrepreneurs – it’s very practical and modern economic history,” explains Iber. Questions about why and how companies survived major economic crises would also be answered.
And so Walter Iber is not only a mouthpiece from times gone by to the here and now, but also an ambassador for our once forgotten and now so unparalleled emerging border region.
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2024-01-23 03:22:46
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