Presidential Documents

51363

Federal Register

Vol. 62, No. 189

Tuesday, September 30, 1997

Title 3—

The President

Proclamation 7027 of September 25, 1997

Austrian-American Day, 1997

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

For more than 200 years, the life of our Nation has been enriched and

renewed by the many people who have come here from around the world,

seeking a new life for themselves and their families. Austrian Americans

have made their own unique and lasting contributions to America’s strength

and character, and they continue to play a vital role in the peace and

prosperity we enjoy today.

As with so many other immigrants, the earliest Austrians came to America

in search of religious freedom. Arriving in 1734, they settled in the colony

of Georgia, growing and prospering with the passing of the years. One

of these early Austrian settlers, Johann Adam Treutlen, was to become

the first elected governor of the new State of Georgia.

In the two centuries that followed, millions of other Austrians made the

same journey to our shores. From the political refugees of the 1848 revolutions in Austria to Jews fleeing the anti-Semitism of Hitler’s Third Reich,

Austrians brought with them to America a love of freedom, a strong work

ethic, and a deep reverence for education. In every field of endeavor, Austrian

Americans have made notable contributions to our culture and society.

We have all been enriched by the lives and achievements of such individuals

as Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter; Joel Elias Spingarn, who helped

to found the NAACP; psychiatrist and educator Alexandra Adler; lyricist

Frederick Loewe, who helped to transform American musical theater; and

architects John Smithmeyer and Richard Neutra.

Americans of Austrian descent have also helped to nurture the strong ties

of friendship between the United States and Austria, a friendship that has

survived the upheaval of two World Wars and the subsequent division

of Europe between the forces of East and West. On September 26, 1945,

a conference was convened in Vienna among the nine Austrian Federal

States that helped to unify the nation and paved the way for recognition

by the United States and the Allied Forces of the first postwar Provisional

Austrian Government. Setting the date for the first free national elections,

this important meeting laid the foundation for the strong, prosperous, and

independent Austria we know today.

In recognition of the significance of this date to the relationship between

our Nation and the Federal Republic of Austria, and in gratitude for the

many gifts that Austrian Americans bring to the life of our country, it

is appropriate that we pause to celebrate Austrian-American Day.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, by virtue of the authority

vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby

proclaim Friday, September 26, 1997, as Austrian-American Day. I encourage

all Americans to recognize and celebrate the important contributions that

millions of Americans of Austrian descent have made—and continue to

make—to our Nation’s strength and prosperity.
51364 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 189 / Tuesday, September 30, 1997 / Presidential Documents

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fifth

day of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninetyseven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two

[FR Doc. 97–26120

Filed 9–29–97; 10:59 am]

Billing code 3195–01–P

hundred and twenty-second.

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