Box skeleton

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Book skeleton on the Salzburg Residenzplatz

Buchskelett is the name of the memorial to the book burning of the National Socialists on April 30, 1938 in Salzburg . The work by Fatemeh Naderi and Florian Ziller, unveiled in 2018, is located on Salzburg's Residenzplatz in the left-hand old town . The sometimes controversial memorial was only erected 31 years after the first request for such a memorial to be installed.

Occasion and history

Seven weeks after Austria's annexation to Hitler's Germany, the largest staged book burning took place on April 30, 1938 at Salzburg's Residenzplatz during the Austrian National Socialist era. The action, in which around 1200 books were burned, was initiated by the National Socialist teachers' association under the direction of Karl Springenschmid . Also involved in the execution, which took place in the middle of the square next to the Residenzbrunnen, were representatives of the SS and SA, and especially the Hitler Youth . The best-known names of the authors concerned include Heinrich Heine , Arthur Schnitzler and Stefan Zweig . It was not, as long assumed, the only book burning in Austria, but only this received international attention.

In the mid-1980s, the time began when - symbolized by the Waldheim affair - the victim myth of an innocent Austria falling into National Socialism and overrun by Nazi Germany collapsed and a discussion about Austria's participation in the Nazi regime began. From this time on, memorials to the Nazi era were erected at various locations in the city (Roma and Sinti memorial on Ignaz-Rieder-Kai 1985, euthanasia memorial plaque in the Christian-Doppler-Klinik 1989, euthanasia memorial in the spa garden in 1991 , Anti-fascism memorial on Südtirolerplatz in 2002), but the erection of a memorial on Residenzplatz was slow.

Inscription on the plaque on St. Michael's Church

For the first time in 1987 the Salzburg Authors 'Group , a writers ' association based in the Salzburg House of Literature , demanded that the book burning in Salzburg be commemorated with the poet and essayist Erich Fried , among others . There was also a request for a memorial in 1998 from the Munich action artist Wolfram Kastner . As an expression of a lengthy discussion, in 2006 the Salzburg Citizens List again demanded the erection of a memorial to this crime in the city council. There were further discussions on this topic in 2007 with a commemorative event on Residenzplatz, jointly organized by the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde , the Catholic Action and the Salzburg Literature House and in which the writer Robert Schindel also took part. In 2011, the city installed a memorial plaque on the St. Michael's Church on Residenzplatz to commemorate the burning of books.

Model of a memorial next to Max Rieder's fountain

The demands for a memorial continued, however. A number of designs were also submitted for such a time, for example by the Salzburg architect Max Rieder . Refusals of structurally large memorials were justified , among other things, with the requirements of the Salzburg Old Town Conservation Act. In 2013, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Book Burning Day, an action committee “The Free Word” organized a memorial campaign with the participation of well-known artists and personalities such as Holocaust survivor Marko Feingold , contemporary historian Oliver Rathkolb , playwright Felix Mitterer and journalist Barbara Coudenhove-Kalergi .

Ultimately, in 2015 the Salzburg City Council decided to erect a memorial as part of the planned redesign of the floor of the Residenzplatz. Originally an elaborate light installation was planned, then an international competition was announced in 2016, which also contained the structural specifications for the memorial: The object is embedded in the ground and the sculpture must be 2.40 x 2.40 x 2.70 There is space in the large cube that can be seen from above. The design should deal artistically with the act of book burning and also have a reference to Residenzplatz. The construction costs and the artist fee were limited to 200,000 euros. The book skeleton emerged as the winning project from more than a hundred submissions. It was created jointly by the Iranian designer Fatemeh Naderi and the Hallein-based technical and artistic designer Florian Ziller, both graduates of the Linz Art University .

In September 2017, the Salzburg municipal council decided to implement the plan. The unveiling took place on April 30, 2018, the 80th anniversary of the book burning. The ceremony was preceded by a ceremony in which the writer Michael Köhlmeier gave the speech. On the occasion of the anniversary, the Salzburg Museum and the Salzburg University Library also initiated longer exhibitions on this topic.

Design and appearance

From a distance, the memorial appears only as a square concrete border set into the pavement, which protrudes about half a meter from the ground. The top consists of a stone frame and a glass cover of the cavity below, in which the actual sculpture is located. This consists of a frame made of dark metal, which traces the outline of a book and thus symbolizes a book skeleton, which symbolizes the burned books. The historical date “April 30, 1938” is given as an explanatory text as well as the keywords “Book Burning” and “Against Forgetting” in German and English (“Book Burning” and “Never Forget”) in separate lines. The bright room, in which the box skeleton seems to literally float, is continuously illuminated and impresses with its simplicity and emptiness due to the sparse object and the few words.

  • Appearance of the memorial on the square

  • Text of the memorial

criticism

The memorial is located on the edge of the Residenzplatz in front of the Salzburger Heimatwerk and thus in front of the New Residence building, which also houses the Salzburg Museum. There were repeated discussions about the location, since the memorial is not in the place of the book burning and thus the events and the commemoration are symbolically marginalized. As an argument against the Residenzbrunnen as a location, the city brought in the fact that the square also served as a public event location such as for Rupertikirtag and Christkindlmarkt and that the location was therefore not very respectful.

The size of the memorial was also criticized. Its height, which is negligible compared to its surroundings, and its indistinct recognition as a memorial would attach too little importance to the matter.

Web links

Commons : Book burning memorial on Residenzplatz, Salzburg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

proof

  1. ^ The Salzburg historian Sabine Veits-Falk speaks of further book burnings, probably on a smaller scale, in other cities in Austria. See the press release of the City of Salzburg's magistrate: Memorial to commemorate the book burning in 1938. April 27, 2018, accessed on September 9, 2018 . The contemporary historian Oliver Rathkolb expresses himself similarly ; see. on this commemoration of the book burning in 1938. In: ORF Salzburg. April 30, 2013, accessed September 10, 2018 . There was also a book burning on December 21, 1938 in the Salzburg community of Thalgau ; see. Thalgau book burning. In: Salzburg Wiki. Retrieved September 10, 2018 .
  2. ↑ See also the radio report on the campaign by the Salzburg authors' group that was broadcast at the time, available on the Salzburger Literaturhaus website , and the information on this page, accessed on September 10, 2018.
  3. ↑ See the report on the event at Literaturhaus Salzburg: Salzburg 1938/2013: Signs against forgetting and for civil courage. November 5, 2013, accessed September 10, 2018 .
  4. ↑ New Residenzplatz: Winning project presented. In: ORF Salzburg. March 1, 2016, accessed September 11, 2018 .
  5. ↑ a b Book burning memorial: criticism of location. In: ORF Salzburg. February 17, 2017, accessed September 11, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Florian Ziller & Fatemeh Naderi. Retrieved September 11, 2018 .
  7. ↑ 80 years of book burning - commemoration and remembering. Retrieved September 11, 2018 .
  8. ^ Stefanie Ruep: Book burning: Salzburg memorial in the wrong place. In: The Standard. March 5, 2017, accessed September 10, 2018 .