The House of Austrian History About the Museum

The House of Austrian History is the republic’s first museum of contemporary history. With a contemporary communication style and an incisive narrative, the new museum in the Hofburg invites a critical exploration of Austrian history. Beginning with the founding of the democratic republic in 1918, the museum addresses social changes and political faultlines along with the questions that, then as now, move and Europe. Conceived as a discussion forum for the whole of Austria, with its varied education programming and an innovative web platform, the museum opens up diverse perspectives on the past and present of Austria – with a view to the future.

Location as Obligation. The Alma Rosé Plateau

A central mission of the House of Austrian History is commemoration of the Holocaust and discussion of the Nazi regime of terror. Not least of which is an obligation to the location – the Neue Burg on Heldenplatz. It was here that Adolf Hitler, accompanied by the applause of a cheering crowd, announced the “Anschluss” (“annexation”) of Austria to Nazi Germany on March 15, 1938. More than 66,000 Jewish

Austrians fell victim to the Shoah, Alma Rosé (1906–1944) was one of them. As director of the women’s orchestra in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, she saved the lives of Jewish female musicians. With the opening of the House of Austrian History, the exhibition space on the first floor of the Neue Burg bears the name Alma Rosé Plateau.

Into the Unknown – Austria since 1918 since November 10th 2018

On 12 November 1918, the democratic Republic was proclaimed in Austria. The inferno of the First World War was over, the Habsburg Monarchy was in ruins and the future of the new state lay wide open. The museum’s inaugural exhibition, Into the Unknown – Austria since 1918 , is dedicated to Austria’s most recent century. The starting point is the experiences of the people and the hopes, as well as the fears, associated with the founding of the Republic. Seven thematic focal points highlight the developments and the transformations of democracy and society. The exhibition also shows what the absence of democracy and the rule of law can mean. Unusual objects, exciting documents, artistic statements and interactive media stations offer visitors the chance to experience history.

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1. Long Live the Republic! (Room 1)

The first room of Into the Unknown – Austria since 1918 begins with the proclamation of the Republic of “German-Austria” on 12 November 1918. This changed situation presented political actors with new possibilities and challenges, but the future was uncertain for the population too. The sense of relief at the end of the war was mixed with feelings of insecurity. This part of the exhibition conveys that ambivalent situation. The creation of the new state was understood as a process; its laws were provisional and many things remained in flux well into 1919 and beyond. The borders of the new state were only finalised when Burgenland was ceded to Austria in 1921.

The focal point of this room is a video installation: the two existing films of the proclamation of the Republic on 12 November are arranged opposite each other: one camera pointing from Parliament towards the Ringstrasse, the other from the Ringstrasse to Parliament. This puts visitors at the heart of historic events. 1

For the first time ever in Austria, Sigmund Freud’s 1918 diary (on loan from the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.) is displayed, with entries from November 1918. The recollections of his contemporaries can also be heard in accounts offering various perspectives on 1918 and post-war society. The years after 1918 with their economic and social challenges, the first elections that were universal, equal, direct and secret, political approaches to the Habsburg legacy and work on the new constitution are central themes when dealing with the founding years of the Republic. Its prehistory and the evolution of the constitution, basic rights and parliamentarianism are narrated using objects – many never before exhibited – such as the “imperial box tapestry” from the House of Deputies in the Parliament building. Key figures from the First Republic such as , Jodok Fink, Franz Dinghofer and Hans Kelsen are presented as agents of history in the making; one prominent example being the manuscript of the second edition of Hans Kelsen’s Vom Wesen und Wert der Demokratie (“The Essence and Value of Democracy”, 1929) – his robust contribution to the theory of parliamentary democracy.

Proceeding from the foundation of the Republic, the following six sections of the exhibition present key themes in the development of Austrian democracy and society over a hundred years.

2. Miracle Economy? (Room 2)

If new currencies should be called the “stüber” or “neanderthaler”, families are “speculating” and food cans are being turned into makeshift toys, the visitor can only be in the Miracle Economy? section.

1 The display was conceived in collaboration with Nikolaus Geyrhalter Filmproduktion and the Österreichisches Filmmuseum. 2

Miracle Economy? addresses the compelling interplay of politics and economics and shows how these factors have influenced the everyday lives of Austrians over the past hundred years. Artefacts such as the emergency currency printed in several towns or the first designs for the schilling notes introduced in 1925 provide insights into the economic after-effects of the First World War. A board game called “Speculation” (similar to Monopoly), an automated alms dispenser and a Phoenix moneybox epitomise the consequences of an international financial crisis that played a major role in radicalising the politics of these years. Documents from Steyr and Voest – shown here for the first time – cast new light on the wartime economy and forced labour under the Nazis.

The years after 1945 in Austria were marked by poverty and the direct consequences of the Nazi reign of terror and the Second World War. Food was rationed, while Care parcels from the USA demonstrated international willingness to provide aid to the destitute country. Industry and infrastructure were gradually rebuilt with the help of the Marshall Plan. In this respect, Austria was able to build on an industrial sector established in no small part based on exploitation by the Nazis and forced labour. The economic upturn and increasing prosperity of the 1960s are shown in everyday technological innovations: televisions, telephones and kitchen appliances became commonplace in the household; many people were able to go on holiday for the first time. The contributions of the “ Gastarbeiter ”, migrant labourers without whom the “economic miracle” would scarcely have been possible.

Bulgarian bells, a gift marking the transfer of the Presidency of the European Union to Austria in the second half of 2018, evoke a fundamental turning point in recent Austrian history: its accession to the European Union and the European monetary union.

3. Dictatorship, Nazi Terror and Memory (Room 2)

A metal barrier as a symbol of the destruction of democracy – so begins the section on Dictatorship, Nazi Terror and Memory. It examines the years of the Dollfuss-Schuschnigg dictatorship (1933–1938) and the Nazi regime (1938–1945) before turning to the significance of attempts to address dictatorship, the Nazi terror and the Holocaust in the Second Republic.

From 1933 on, the democratic structures of the First Republic were gradually dismantled and ultimately demolished entirely. Elected deputies were literally barred from entering the Parliament building in March 1933. Artefacts such as Hugo Meisl’s “Wunderteam” Cup with a bullet hole from the Karl Marx Hof and devotional offerings to the murdered Chancellor Dollfuss following the attempted Nazi putsch of July 1934 speak to the political violence of these years. One key artefact relating to the Anschluss is a RAVAG microphone, a link to Chancellor

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Schuschnigg’s resignation speech of 11 March 1938. Photographs and homemade flags provide an insight into the enthusiasm felt by many Austrians as well as the now openly violent instances of antisemitism. Austria bears shared responsibility for Nazi crimes and the Holocaust – this is evident from the artefacts of both the perpetrators and the victims of Nazi terror. Construction plans for the crematoria at Auschwitz-Birkenau bear the names of Austrian architects. A message smuggled out of the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp from a young communist woman and the final letters sent by members of a Jewish family before their deportation and murder provide some insight into the fates of individuals. Artefacts from the Mauthausen Concentration Camp testify to the people of many nationalities tortured and murdered at this site of terror.

In the middle of the “Memory” area stands the so-called Waldheim Horse, a loan from the Republican Club. After its reestablishment in April 1945, the Republic sought to present itself as the “first victim of Nazism”. It would be decades before Austria started to confront its Nazi past. On display is a draft version of the State Treaty with the “complicity clause” crossed out. The scene carved from champagne corks depicting the signing of the State Treaty attests to the significance of 1955 for private individuals aswell. The Borodajkewycz affair and even the songbook of the Germania fraternity show that antisemitic attitudes have still not been consigned to the past. The “Dictatorship of Many Names” installation addresses the controversial question of what to call the dictatorship of 1933–1938.

4. That’s Austria!? (Room 3)

That’s Austria!? discusses processes of nation-building with reference to collective symbols and (pop) cultural elements. Of interest here is how and in what contexts people have sought to create “Austrian consciousness” – and with it difference – and how this “Austrian consciousness” has been reinterpreted or modified. Besides national forms of representation such as the singing of (official and less official) anthems and the use of flags and heraldry, images and artefacts representing Austrian sport and the “use” of the landscape provide insights into what has been understood as “Austrian” or the definition of “Austrian” at different times. Hermann Maier’s ski helmet from Nagano 1998 and his Olympic Super G gold medal, won just days after his dramatic fall, are now iconic objects in the history of skiing – a sport in which Austria holds international standing. Media images of sporting heroes past and present encapsulate the potential for sport to play an important part in collective identities.

This area of the exhibition invites visitors – with the help of perspectives from abroad – to examine (their own) images and notions of Austria and the Austrians. The digital installation “Austrian Picture Landscapes” allows visitors to add their own pictures to the exhibition and bring their own perspectives to it via a web platform. 4

5. Changing Borders? (Room 3)

Changing Borders? is dedicated to the creating and changing borders and their significance; it tells the histories of openings, crossings and isolation. Six selected border regions – each at two different points in time – present the varying functions and experiences of borders. Artefacts such as the teddy bear belonging to a Hungarian child who fled Hungary in 1957 shortly after the 1956 uprising and a Hungarian training model of the Iron Curtain, which for decades defined the experience of those who lived on the eastern border of Austria, epitomise the function of frontiers as dividing lines. The wire cutters that used to cut through the Iron Curtain in 1989 are emblematic of the opening of the Eastern Bloc in the 1990s. Contemporary debates about refugees are examined at the Styrian border crossing at Spielfeld. Each border town is represented with a fence-like display symbolising border infrastructure while also permitting transparency. Artistic interpretations such as the light boxes “EU Citizens” and “Others” by Bosnian artist Šejla Kamerić bring us back to the present.

6. Equal Rights? (Room 3)

Equal Rights?! is an multimedia installation that focuses on the fight by individuals and groups or social movements for equal rights, changes to discriminatory legal frameworks and a society without exclusion and discrimination. These include the feminist struggle for equality for women and for the legal recognition, acceptance and social visibility of minorities, their right to participation and non- discriminatory treatment. For the first time, Austrian advocates for disability rights are represented in an exhibition of contemporary history, which allocates space to their previously underrepresented history.

The history of these struggles and their various modes of protest are translated into film and presented on three screens (production: Sandra Kosel). The multimedia station ResPublicans by filmmaker Karin Berger shows interviews with people currently engaged in activism and solidarity. Selected original artefacts such as the rainbow flag from the number 44 tram in Vienna from 2002 and the “protective cape” of words, pictures and photographs belonging to Auschwitz survivor Ceija Stojka refer to specific struggles for recognition, visibility or the need for remembrance. Together, these narratives show that the future of democracy is always shaped in the present.

7. Make Images! (Rooms 2 and 3)

This wall installation leads the visitor along a chronological installation of events and developments since 1918. The advertisements in the upper row (many original size) show how political culture and marketing are often related. The 57 stations in the lower row feature familiar and less familiar images from the history of the last 100 years, provoking discussion and inviting participation visitors to participate.

The installation makes clear that our perceptions of the past and present rely heavily on images. But pictures are never neutral reproductions of reality; they are always made from a specific perspective and 5 position. With the proliferation of photographs, films and audio recordings in the past 100 years, no previous period in history has been so thoroughly documented. Individuals record their own histories in images just as professionals have gained new tools for their work in media and politics. The items selected in this part of the exhibition showcase the diversity, as well as the many contradictions, of history.

There are several stations where visitors are able to record their own perspectives on history, alternating with areas displaying previously unexhibited originals to provide new perspectives on contemporary Austrian history in an international context. These include the unique documentary work of Auschwitz survivor Jan Kupiec, who recorded the horrors of the Ebensee death camp just a few weeks after he was forced to destroy its last remaining structures. The sign used for the Oberwart bomb that killed four Roma people in 1995 shows the unscrupulousness of the bomb attacks in the context of the resolute responses by those targeted.

Key turning points in the history of Austrian society are also shown, as when artists in the 1960s shook Austria out of its silence and supposed idyll. Together with objects and statements from fans across Europe, the dress of Conchita Wurst provides a playful and novel impression of current debates about diversity. Another highlight that left its mark on the history of pop music in Austria is the original Wurlitzer from the ORF television series of the same name; it has been reactivated for the exhibition and can be heard playing music both from its own era and that of today. These familiar events are contrasted with those that have often been forgotten until now: the exhibition also features the traces left behind by a group of Ugandan freedom fighters who planned their country’s transition to democracy from a village in Lower Austria in 1985. Large-scale projections of international newsreels show for the first time in an Austrian exhibition how key events in Austria were reported in other European countries.

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Educational Programming

The House of Austrian History offers a fresh perspective on Austria’s recent past and we use the most up-to-date methods to make the history of Austria accessible. With its extensive educational programme, the House of Austrian History wants to play a part in helping its visitors and the general public in understanding both the present and the future. Visitors will be able to choose from a broad range of guided tours: tailor-made tours for groups of at least ten visitors and regular general and specialised tours at fixed times.

For more information, please check our website on www.hdgoe.at

The House of Austrian History is particularly interested in offering educational services to school classes (and their teachers). In this context, our main question is: what does the past mean for the present and the future? The museum provides information and thought-provoking perspectives on the Austrian past. It offers opportunities to consider Austria’s history in a fresh and critical manner. We offer a diverse range of workshops for pupils of all age groups.

A broad range of teaching resources are available via our website, and can be downloaded at no cost. The materials deal with the thematic focal points of our inaugural exhibition, Into the Unknown—Austria Since 1918 , and can also be used independently of a visit to the museum.

The teaching resources will be available online once the museum opens, from 10 November 2018 onwards, at: www.hdgoe.at/schulen .

We also offer information sessions for teachers and run regular events and continued professional development measures in cooperation with teacher training institutions.

For details on guided tours, dates and prices, see: www.hdgoe.at . Information about current and forthcoming events is available right here .

Press Images and Picture Credits at www.hdgoe.at/presse

Mag. Michaela Zach, MA Tel: +43 (0)1 53410-815, Email: [email protected] Mag. Irene Pitnauer-Wolfram

Tel: +43 (0)1 53410-818, Email: [email protected] www.hdgoe.at 7