Outer Burgtor (Vienna)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Outer castle gate, side of the ring road
Heldenplatz page, 2014

The Äußere Burgtor in Vienna , formerly also called Äusseres Burgthor , is located between Heldenplatz and Vienna's Ringstrasse ( Burgring ) and is also called Heldentor .

history

Outer castle gate around 1898

The old castle gate was built in 1660 as part of Vienna's fortifications and was hotly contested during the Second Turkish Siege of Vienna in 1683 . During the Fifth Coalition War , in 1809, it - like other parts of the city fortifications - was blown up by the soldiers of Napoleon , which made it clear that the city fortifications had lost their military value for good.

The outer castle gate was built according to the plans of Peter Nobile on the foundations of the gate originally started by Luigi Cagnola in 1818 after Emperor Franz I disapproved of its planned height. The construction work was carried out by soldiers from the Imperial Austrian Army . Hard Wöllersdorfer and Kaisersteinbrucher stone were used for the gate system with five round arched gates in ashlar technology , and St. Margarethener stone for parts that are less exposed to stress . The foundation stone laying ceremony was held on September 22, 1821 in the presence of Emperor Franz I. instead. It was officially opened on October 16, 1824 - the eleventh anniversary of the Battle of Leipzig . According to a proclamation , free passage through the new gate was possible from October 18, 1824.

The inscription "FRANCISCUS I. IMPERATOR AUSTRIAE MDCCCXXIV" (Franz I, Emperor of Austria 1824) and underneath the inscription:

LAURUM. MILITIBUS. LAURO. DIGNIS. MDCCCCXVI. (Praise the soldiers who are worthy of praise).

On the front facing Heldenplatz stands "IUSTITIA REGNORUM FUNDAMENTUM" (Justice is the foundation of rule), the motto of Emperor Franz I of Austria .

At the end of the 19th century Otto Wagner planned to demolish the gate and rebuild it in Grinzing . In its place he wanted to erect a monumental monument to Emperor Franz Joseph . Ludwig Baumann, on the other hand, a construction manager of the Hofburg , was responsible for the razing of the building in order to open the Heldenplatz (until 1878 “Äußerer Burgplatz”) to the Ringstrasse .

At the time of Nazi rule in Austria , there were considerations to upgrade the Heldenplatz architecturally. For this purpose, the main axis of the square was to be rotated by 90 degrees so that the balcony of the Hofburg , from which Adolf Hitler had announced the annexation of Austria , would have become the main focal point for large marches. For this purpose they wanted to relocate the equestrian monuments of Archduke Carl and Prince Eugene of Savoy .

"Hero Gate"

The erection of this structure by soldiers and the opening on the eleventh anniversary of the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig should point to the heroic struggle of the Austrian army against Napoleon's troops . In the course of its further history, more and more memorials were established here.

Laurel wreath and coat of arms
Laurel branches of the supreme warlords

"Laurel for our heroes 1914–1916"

At Pentecost 1915, the wife of an Imperial Councilor, Flora Berl, initiated the campaign “Laurel for our heroes 1914–1916”. Archduke Carl Stephan, the protector of the relief campaign of the War Welfare Office - formerly "Cold Protection" - also took on the subsidiary campaign "Laurel for our Heroes 1914–1918" and also had the idea of ​​the outer castle gate as the central location of this campaign.

In this fundraising campaign , laurel wreaths (“victory wreaths”, not grave wreaths) were to be made “ from an alloy that is not suitable for deadly projectiles ” . The design for the wreaths came from Heinrich Kautsch . Each donor could either have their own name engraved on one of the bay leaves or dedicate this leaf to a soldier at the front . The donor was able to enter himself into a book of honor and received a commemorative document - a fundraising campaign which is similar to the principle of the " Wehrmann in Eisen ". This fundraising campaign was opened on June 1, 1915 at Kärntner Strasse 35 in Vienna , where the Hamburg-America line served as a propaganda room . The proceeds of this fundraiser went to the kk Austrian Military Widows and Orphans Fund and the war-welfare office formerly "Cold Weather".

Most prominent donors were:

The four gilded laurel branches in the middle of the ring road front between the laurel wreaths and coats of arms of the states and cities of Austria ("the states represented in the Reichsrat ") commemorate their donation . In addition, the slogan “LAURUM MILITIBUS LAURO DIGNIS MDCCCCXVI (Laurel the soldiers worthy of the laurel 1916)” was attached.

Festive stairs to the roofless hall of honor
crypt

Heroes monument, crypt

From the end of February 1934, following an architecture competition by Rudolf Wondracek , a pupil of Otto Wagner, the outer castle gate was converted into a hero monument dedicated to the fallen of the First World War , although the external shape of the building was not allowed to be changed. On the two narrow sides, staircases lead to the roofless hall of honor, which the architect justified with: “The heroes of the world war fell in the open air, they should be honored in the open air.” Inside, a crypt was built north of the roadway for the fallen of the first World War Erected. Inside are one of Wilhelm Frass red marble created cenotaph of a dead soldier and a simple altar . Until November 2012, ten books of honor with the names of the Austrians who died in the war were displayed in showcases, the pages of which were turned daily. The books were removed after the renovation and handed over to the Austrian State Archives on November 30, 2012 .

The "Wehrmann in Eisen", which had been used during the First World War, was put into service again to finance the erection of the monument to the heroes. The ten books of honor were financed from these donations. Although the cenotaph was not yet finished, the hero monument was opened on September 9-10, 1934 as part of a patriotic celebration. On March 15, 1938, Adolf Hitler laid a wreath here and Hermann Göring visited the place of honor on March 27. Holy mass is celebrated in this crypt every Sunday .

SA memorial

During the time of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy , the middle gateway was usually closed because it was reserved for the emperor. The SA later got its own memorial here, which was removed after the end of the war in 1945.

Sanctuary

Sanctuary

In 1965, the federal government decided to set up a sanctuary south of the passage for the victims of the Austrian struggle for freedom. It contains a black marble block, the top of which bears the federal coat of arms and on its front the inscription "IN MEMORY OF THE VICTIMS IN THE FIGHT FOR AUSTRIA'S FREEDOM". Documents relating to the rebuilding of the Republic of Austria are kept in a showcase in the vestibule. On May 27, 1965, the consecration room was handed over to its destination.

Surroundings

Just a few meters from the Outer Burgtor there are two other memorials from the recent past.

Pope Cross

To the south of the Heldentor is the steel papal cross, which commemorates the visit of Pope John Paul II on September 10, 1983 and was designed by the architect Gustav Peichl .

Monument to the Executive

To the north of the Heldentor there is a memorial, which is intended to commemorate police officers and gendarmes who were killed on duty . The monument, consisting of two rectangular steel bodies, was blessed on June 3rd, 2002 in the presence of Federal President Thomas Klestil .

  • Pope Cross

  • Monument to the Executive

Post-war period and reorganization of the crypt in Heldentor

After Harald Walser, member of the National Council of the Greens, announced in 2012 that Josef Vallaster's name was also listed in the books of the dead in the crypt of the Heldentor , Defense Minister Norbert Darabos arranged for Vallaster to be deleted from the books of the dead. This is also followed by an investigation by experts who are supposed to determine whether there are other war criminals among the fallen soldiers listed in the death books. It was also investigated whether, as Wilhelm Frass claimed in 1938, he secretly deposited an homage to National Socialism in the lying soldier in 1935 , which was confirmed in July 2012. At the same time, a pacifist message from Frass' until then largely unknown assistant Alfons Riedel was discovered. The two documents were handed over to the Vienna Army History Museum on July 9, 2013 , where they are exhibited as a facsimile in the Republic and Dictatorship room above a showcase with a model of the castle gate and the brass case in which the letters were hidden.

Inner castle gate

Until August 2016, the inner castle gate from 1630–1660 was archaeologically excavated, documented and filled in again in the course of construction work for the alternative quarter for the parliament. It consisted of a passage and a slightly wider passage for carts that could only pass alternately in a one-way system. These two tunnels through the approximately 10 m thick city wall were kept narrow in order to be easier to defend.

literature

  • Military Widows 'and Orphans' Fund: Laurels for our heroes 1914–1916. Memorandum for the unveiling of the wreaths on the outer castle gate in Vienna . Gistel, Vienna 1916, OBV .
  • Richard Lein: "Laurel for our heroes". Light and shadow of a war welfare operation . In: Robert Kriechbaumer, Wolfgang Mueller, Erwin A. Schmidl (eds.): Politics and the military in the 19th and 20th centuries. Austrian and European aspects . Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2017, 151–184.
  • Margaret Gottfried: The Vienna Imperial Forum. Utopias between the Hofburg and the Museumsquartier. Imperial dreams and republican realities from ancient times to today . Böhlau, Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-205-99196-6 .
  • Peter Stachel: Myth Heldenplatz . Pichler, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-85431-286-5 .
  • Maria Kaufmann: The Burgtor in Vienna. Planning and construction . Thesis. University of Vienna, Vienna 2010, OBV . - Full text online .
  • Magnus Koch / Peter Pirker: Clearing out post-Nazi history politics. The Vienna hero monument and its transformation 70 years after the end of the Second World War . In: Yearbook for Politics and History, Vol. 7, 2016–2019, pp. 141–169.

Web links

Commons : Outer Burgtor  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Maria Kaufmann: The Burgtor in Vienna: Planning and construction of diploma thesis 2010.
  2. ↑ Alphons Lhotsky : The building history of the museums and the new castle . Das Kaiserforum, p. 148, note 348, Verlag Ferdinand Berger, Vienna 1941.
  3. ^ Margret Gottfried: The Vienna Imperial Forum. Utopias between the Hofburg and the MuseumsQuartier. Imperial dreams and republican realities from antiquity to today , Vienna 2001, p. 104 f., Online on Google Books , accessed on October 27, 2014
  4. ↑ An Austrian hero monument. In:  Wiener Bilder , No. 8/1934 (XXXIXth year), February 25, 1934, p. 6, top left. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wrb.
  5. ↑ Austria's heroes. In:  Wiener Bilder , No. 37/1934 (XXXIX. Volume), September 16, 1934, p. 8 ff. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wrb.
  6. ↑ Crypt: Darabos struck out SS war criminals. ORF (wien.orf.at), June 17, 2012, accessed on June 17, 2012 .
  7. ↑ Nazi slogans hidden in the Vienna Burgtor. ORF (www.orf.at), July 19, 2012, accessed on July 19, 2012 .
  8. ↑ National Socialist jubilee from Heldendenkmal handed over to the museum on derstandard.at, accessed on July 10, 2013
  9. ↑ For conservation reasons, the original documents cannot be exhibited, but are kept in the depot of the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, see: Finds handed over to Heeresgeschichtliches Museum on science.apa.at, accessed on July 9, 2013
  10. ^ "Heldendenkmal": Finds handed over to the museum at wien.orf.at, accessed on July 9, 2013
  11. ↑ Inneres Burgtor on Heldenplatz exposed orf.at, August 25, 2016, accessed August 25, 2016.

Coordinates: 48 ° 12 '20.2 "  N , 16 ° 21' 45.9"  E