Commemorative Year 2025: Museum of Military History Vienna Launches Remembrance Series

Another commemorative year. In 2025, Austria will not only commemorate 80 years since the end of the Second World War, but above all the liberation from Nazi rule and the restoration of a democratic Austria. "We should take the opportunity to think about how a democracy was built. This is more relevant than ever because democracy is now under threat," says Georg Hoffmann, director of the Museum of Military History (HGM), in an APA interview.

The actual commemorative days are already in the coming weeks, and on Wednesday (April 9), the HGM will launch a series of scientific events for this occasion. A three-day international conference will deal with the so-called "end-of-war crimes." "The explosion of violence in the last days of the war occurred because the Nazi ideology of total war, the only alternative being 'victory or annihilation,' was carried into society. It is also referred to as a Holocaust on the doorstep, as it shifted from the concentration camps into society through death marches at the end of the war," explains Hoffmann. "We must imagine a kind of doomsday atmosphere." This led to a strong increase in suicides, but also to the gates of hell being opened even wider.

Commemorative Series at the Museum of Military History Vienna

"The opportunity to kill with impunity was used by many," says the historian, who has researched this topic himself. "A large part of the war crimes in the Austrian area that came to court after the war were committed towards the end of the Second World War." Martin Prinz drew on the files of a People's Court trial from 1947, which dealt with the establishment of summary courts and the imposition of death sentences immediately before the advance of the Red Army in the Semmering area, in his new novel "The Last Days."

The author, whose book tops the ORF bestseller list in April, is convinced that Austria "would certainly have become a different country" if the judiciary had consistently dealt with Nazi crimes in the aftermath. Hoffmann can see some merit in this: "After the end of the war, we have a short phase that is clearly anti-fascist. In the post-war judiciary, very harsh, quick, and far-reaching judgments are initially made. After 1948, this declines. Then the victim theses take hold."

"They destroyed to liberate."

Even the proclamation of Austria's independence signed on April 27, 1945, by representatives of the SPÖ, ÖVP, and KPÖ emphasized the "forced annexation" but left the complicity of Austrians in the terror regime and the Holocaust unmentioned. Hoffmann: "The second victim thesis comes with the returnees: While the first victim thesis 'Austria as the first victim of National Socialism' was addressed, the second victim thesis 'Austrians as victims of the war' is at the center. The question of perpetration was no longer asked. The state Red-White-Red Book of 1946 expressed this ambivalence of perceptions in a sentence regarding the Western Allies: 'The enemies of the front, the friends of the heart, destroyed to liberate.'"

While war relics like aerial bombs "will remain a topic for a long time," there are hardly any people left who can report from that time themselves. "As fewer and fewer eyewitnesses are alive, we as a society must take care of the memory. We are on the threshold of remembrance. A generation is growing up for whom the time of National Socialism is purely historical." This is also visible in the HGM. "We notice in the museum's educational work that the awareness of what we can learn from our history is diminishing."

Hall Redesign at the Museum of Military History Vienna Not Completed Until 2026

Ironically, this period is currently omitted from the museum exhibition. The comprehensive redesign of the "Republic and Dictatorship" hall, initiated two years ago, could not be completed in time for the republic's anniversary as planned. "We have massive legacy issues to address, including in the technical equipment. But we have built strong networks. Scientific networking is the foundation."

When Georg Hoffmann took office in 2023, he undertook not only a structural but also a content-related redesign of the museum, which is under the Ministry of Defense. "Since the early 2000s, there has been a new military history that strongly incorporates cultural and social historical elements. While the old military history focused mainly on organization, now the focus is on people, but also on war as a state of society." This should also be reflected in the exhibition. "The new hall is set to open in early 2026 and will not only be an exhibition space but also a space for mediation and discourse. There should always be a connection to the present. From the threat to democracy to the war in Ukraine, there are many current points of reference."

Places of Remembrance and Gaps

Like many other museum directors, Hoffmann wants to position his institution more strongly as a platform for encounter and exchange. "We are experiencing turbulent years. We have lost the calm to analyze things soberly and discuss constructively with each other." The fact that the HGM is not centrally located is not a problem. "I see no disadvantage in our location. We can develop the space here and have exciting new museum partners in the Arsenal. There is great development potential!"

The Heldenplatz is repeatedly cited as a central place of remembrance in debates. It is "particularly important" to him as well, emphasizes Georg Hoffmann, but he refers less to the Altan (the "Hitler balcony," note) of the Neue Burg, and more to the Outer Castle Gate: "The Heroes' Monument was created in the 1930s during the time of Engelbert Dollfuß. It requires contextualization and work on a gap in the republic."

A completely different gap is located in the immediate vicinity of the Museum of Military History, in the Swiss Garden. Since 1966, a towering chrome-nickel steel construction by sculptor Heinrich Deutsch and architect Berthold Gabriel has stood there, intended to commemorate the establishment of the Second Republic on April 27, 1945. Hoffmann has no illusions: "Hardly anyone knows the state founding monument."

(The conversation was conducted by Wolfgang Huber-Lang/APA)

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.