Red Faces Over Vienna Culture Bid

The Austrian committee that reports to UNESCO, the United Nations cultural agency, has decided to withdraw its application after critics expressed outrage that it would include the Wiener Korporations-Ball, an annual event associated with the country’s far right.

There might still be time to get tickets for the WKR ball next Friday but it threatens to be a noisy affair. Anti-fascist groups plan to disrupt the event, a magnet for right-wing student dueling fraternities nostalgic for Austria’s wartime union with Adolf Hitler. The protestors say the event draws in far-rightists from all over Europe.

The WKR ball is among scores that recall the heyday of the Hapsburg Empire when the aristocracy would waltz the night away to the music of Johan Strauss and Franz Lehar. The season became more democratic in the declining years of the Empire, with commoners allowed to stage their annual revelries at Vienna’s Hofburg Palace. The WKR event, first held in 1952, will be the last to be staged at the Hofburg.