| Gerald Ganglbauer | |
|---|---|
Gerald Ganglbauer (2011) |
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| Born | February 24, 1958 Graz, Austria |
| Nationality | Austrian and Australian |
| Occupation | Publisher |
| Known for | Parkinson's Ambassador |
Gerald Ganglbauer (born 24 February 1958 in Graz, Austria) is an Austrian Australian publisher diagnosed with Parkinson's disease at the age of 48 years. Since then he has been an ambassador for Parkinson's support groups.
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Born Horst Gerald Ganglbauer, he studied Communication at University of Graz (1986), and more recently Web Development at the SIT (2006).[1] In 1984 he started the independent press Gangan with his then wife Petra Ganglbauer. After their divorce he lived for several years in Vienna. Since 1989 he has lived in Sydney and Perth, Australia under dual citizenship, and is listed as one of Styria's Top Expatriates.[2]
1982/83 he was a founder and editor-in-chief of the magazine perspektive,[3] 1987/88 editor in chief of the literary journal gangan viertel, ZeitSCHRIFT über Literatur,[4] and in 1990/91 he launched Gangaroo in Sydney. In 1992 he co-edited with Andreas Puff-Trojan Textwechsel,[5] and in 1996 launched the international online magazine Gangway. In 2001 he introduced Gangart Awards, an intercultural competition for the arts on the net, which were awarded till 2005 by an international jury, and only ended due to his illness.[6] Gangan published books in print for ten years, and then online.[7]
In the last decade he was involved in resident action groups and was elected chairman of the Ultimo Precinct Committee[8] in Sydney. He is founder of the forum for Austrians Abroad (2004) and since 2007 has been on the board of directors of the World Federation of Austrians Abroad (AÖWB).[9] He was also convenor of Free Beach Action NSW,[10] a lobby group for naturism in New South Wales.
In 2006 he was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson's disease, which forced him into retirement in 2007, before the age of 50.[11] With this dramatic change in his life, he became active in Parkinson's support groups in Austria (Parkinson Selbsthilfe Steiermark) and New South Wales (Parkinson's NSW Inc.) and, despite his illness was re-elected AÖWB director in 2010.[12] Together with Viennese neurologist Dr Wilibald Gerschlager he started the Austrian Parkinson's forum Parkinsonberatung and ran it from June 2007 to January 2011, and, after that, a Facebook page and a Twitter microblog for the umbrella organisation Parkinson Selbsthilfe Österreich. He also runs both organisations from Sydney[13] as well as in Graz[14] offline and online Parkinson's support groups. On Skype he introduced Parkins(on)line IM groups in August 2010.[15] He is also a contributing author to Dr Gerschlager's book on Parkinson's disease.[16]