Exhibitions

Monument 1945/2025: Artistic Proposals for the Second Republic

Haus der Geschichte Österreich (hdgö), Heldenplatz 1, 1010 Vienna, 2025

The spring of 2025 sees the 80th anniversary of the proclamation of the Second Republic and the liberation of Austria from Nazi rule. If the Republic of Austria were to give itself a monument to mark these two historic moments and their significance for the present day, what form might it take? 
 
The House of Austrian History has cooperated with the University of Arts Linz in inviting the artists Ramesch Daha / Fabian Antosch / Philipp Oberthaler, Gabriele Edlbauer and Franz Wassermann to use the museum foyer to present three models of fictional monuments for the terrace of the Neue Hofburg, where Adolf Hitler announced the “Anschluss” (“annexation”) of Austria to Nazi Germany on 15 March 1938.  
 
Since 2018 the House of Austrian History has been engaging in diverse ways with the history and present of the terrace. The presentation of the artistic models for a monument on this architectural feature is a way of building on this. It serves as a stimulus for discussions about the historical symbolism used by the state 80 years after the liberation from Nazi rule and about future approaches to this gap in the politics of memory in the middle of the Heldenplatz. 

photos: Franz Wassermann