Ｄｕ Ｗｅｎｔａｎｇ Ａｗａｒｄｅｄ Ａｕｓｔｒｉａｎ Ｒｏｓｔｈｏｒｎ Ｍｅｄａｌ

On October 19， 2004， at a grand ceremony held in the Hall of the Austrian National Council， Dr. Anna E Haselbach， president of the Austrian Federal Council， conferred Rosthorn Medal upon Professor Du Wentang of the Institute of World History under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Second President of the Austrian National Council Barbara Prammer， Chinese ambassador to Austria Lu Yonghua， as well as personages of the Austrian diplomatic and cultural circles attended the ceremony.

Arther Rosthorn， Austro-Hungarian minister to the Qing Court in 1900， was then the only foreign diplomat who openly opposed the Eight-Power Allied Forces suppressing the Chinese people. After returning home， Arther Rosthorn dedicated himself to the cause of promoting understanding and friendship between Austria and China.With Rosthorn as the symbol， Austria set up this medal to award those who “have made special contribution to Austria-China relations”. Before Prof. Du， former Austrian President Rudolf Kirchschlaeger， as well as Huang Hua， Wang Bingnan， Zhang Wenjin and Chen Haosu had been awarded the medal.

Du Wentang， 69 years old， postgraduate student majoring in German literature graduated from the Department of Western Languages and Literature of Peking University in 1963. He has been mainly engaged in researches on German Nazi ideology， and has translated by himself or together with others and edited History of Austria， On the Chinese and the Austrians， The Diary of Jacob Rosenfeld in China and Book Series of Austrian History and Culture. In 2003 he won the China Book Prize. At the ceremony Dr. Anna E. Haselbach recalled the friendly cooperation between the Austrian Association for Promotion of Friendship and Cultural Relations with China and Du Wentang in the past 25 years， and spoke highly of Du’s outstanding contribution to enhancing mutual understanding between Austrian and Chinese people.