The “Atheist Religious Society in Austria” (ARG) is a project founded by Wilfried Apfalter in 2007. At present, the Atheist Religious Society has not yet acquired legal personality as a state-registered religious denominational community. We submitted our application for legal personality as “Atheist Religious Society in Austria” under the Denominational Communities Act (Federal Act on the Legal Personality of Religious Denominational Communities, Federal Law Gazette I No. 19/1998, as amended) to the Office for Religious Affairs on 30 December 2019.

Regional Contacts

In the long term, it is our aim to build up a network, spatially as inclusive and comprehensive as possible, of regional contacts and contact points throughout Austria. At present, we can refer to the following regional contacts in some federal states of Austria:

• Vienna (wien@atheistisch.at):
  • Wilfried Apfalter, Wien (Mariahilf)
  • Karl Wergler*, Vienna and/or Lower Austria
  • Thomas Michael Wanka, Wien (Josefstadt)
  • Niki Herl, Wien (Simmering)
  • Roswitha Feigl, Wien (Donaustadt)
  • Martin, Wien (Landstraße)
  • Lukas Mayer, Wien (Donaustadt)
  • Michael Toppel, Wien (Alsergrund)
• Lower Austria (niederoesterreich@atheistisch.at):
  • Wilfried Apfalter, Maria Enzersdorf (district of Mödling)
  • Karl Wergler*, Vienna and/or Lower Austria
  • Armin Aghakhani, Krems an der Donau (district of Krems)
• Upper Austria:
  • Mustafa Zhakfar, Linz – in Persian
  • Ataullah Akbari, Vöcklabruck (district of Vöcklabruck) – in Persian
• Salzburg (salzburg@atheistisch.at):
  • Hans-Peter Radauer, Salzburg and Western Austria
  • Wolfgang Portugaller, district of Salzburg-Umgebung
• Tyrol (tirol@atheistisch.at):
  • Wolfgang Ebner, Innsbruck
• Styria (steiermark@atheistisch.at):
  • Nikolaus Bösch-Weiss, St. Stefan im Rosental (district of Südoststeiermark)
  • Martin Marot-Perz, Seiersberg-Pirka (district of Graz-Umgebung)
• Burgenland (burgenland@atheistisch.at):
  • Michael Toppel, district of Neusiedl am See

Building a nationwide network in Austria naturally requires time, and above all, active and dedicated members. If you would like to become active on behalf of the Atheist Religious Society in your region, we would, of course, support this and gladly provide you with information and suggestions. Please feel free to contact the Presidium (praesidium@atheistisch.at) for further details.

Presidium

The Presidium is, according to the Statutes, the highest and currently the sole decision making body of the Atheist Religious Society in Austria. It is currently (since 27 May 2017) made up of the following persons:

• Wilfried Apfalter
• Nikolaus Bösch-Weiss
• Martin Marot-Perz
• Karl Wergler* (currently serving as an associate member of the Presidium in accordance with section § 7 subsection 8 and section § 8 subsection 9 of our statutes)

In accordance with section § 4 subsection 2 of our statutes, every member of the ARG has the right to submit suggestions to the Presidium. If you have ideas or proposals that you would like to implement within the Atheist Religious Society in Austria, please feel free to contact the Presidium, for example, via email at praesidium@atheistisch.at.

It is our goal to expand the Presidium as our membership continues to grow. If you are interested in getting involved with the Atheist Religious Society, actively shaping it, and perhaps even working within the Presidium in the future, we would be delighted to hear from you. We especially extend this invitation to our female members; the current all-male composition of the Presidium is a situation we did not intend and would very much like to change.

Support association

To financially support the activities of the “Atheist Religious Society in Austria” (ARG), we have established a support association named “Pro ARG – Support Association for the (Planned) Atheist Religious Society in Austria (ARG)” (ZVR [Austrian Central Register of Associations] number: 357478224). It can be reached at pro-arg@atheistisch.at.

Donations starting from 1 Euro are welcome and can be directed to the donation account of our support association (IBAN: AT93 6000 0104 1028 2335; BIC: BAWAATWW). Thank you very much for your donation(s)!

*Name changed by the editorial team.

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