Hartheim Castle
The Schloss Hartheim in Alkoven in Upper Austria is best known as the location of the killing of disabled people by the Nazis known between May 1940 and December 1944th
An association has been working on history since 1995. In 1997, work began on restoring the listed historic castle and creating an exhibition on the topic of “The Value of Life”. The groundbreaking ceremony took place in 1999. In 2002 the remains of the victims found during excavations by the Upper Austrian Provincial Archives were buried in a tomb erected by the Pregartner artist Herbert Friedl . On May 7, 2003, the learning and memorial site Schloss Hartheim was opened together with the exhibition “The Value of Life”.
Since then, the castle has served as a meeting place and as a place of learning and memorial under the supervision and guidance of the Hartheim Castle Association .
The building is one of the most important Renaissance castles in Austria .
History of the castle before 1940
Hartheim lies in the middle of the so-called Eferdinger Basin , which extends from Ottensheim to Aschach an der Donau along the Danube. As early as 1130 a family with the name "Hartheim" was mentioned in documents . These are servants of the Bishop of Passau . In 1287 three brothers Konrad, Peter and Heinrich von Hartheim are mentioned as owners of the castle through an exchange deal with Wilhering Abbey. As early as 1323, however, another family was recorded as the owner . Until the middle of the 14th century, the complex consisted mainly of just one tower, possibly with an attached house, surrounded by a small wall with a rampart and a moat.
After several changes of ownership, the complex came into the possession of the Aspan family, who probably also built the castle in its current form. At the beginning of the 90s of the 16th century, she started a completely new building according to the ideal ideas of the Renaissance in the form of a regular four-wing complex with four polygonal corner towers and a higher central tower.
In 1799 Georg Adam Prince Starhemberg acquired the castle. No later than 1862, it was in a rather poor condition, as is clear from a report from this period: doors, windows and furnaces are completely missing ... and several ceilings must ... be renewed .
In 1898 , Camillo Heinrich Fürst Starhemberg donated the castle building, the outbuildings and some land to the Upper Austrian Provincial Charity Association (OÖ. LWV). With further donations he was able to set up the "idiot institution" corresponding to his objectives. As a result, extensive renovations and adjustments were carried out between 1900 and 1910 in order to be able to use the building as a care facility for mentally handicapped people. In 1926 a staircase was demolished and replaced by a bed lift.
Time as a killing facility
In early 1939, citing the "Law of 17 May 1938, the reconciliation and integration of societies, organizations and associations (Coll. No. 136/1938)" was dissolved charity club country's and forced into the provincial team Oberdonau integrated. The maintenance operation was continued for the time being. It was not until March 1940 that the “nurses” and the staff were relocated in order to convert the facility into a euthanasia facility. The external appearance of the castle was largely unaffected. A gas chamber , a mortuary and an incinerator were built on the first floor of the eastern part .
It is estimated that around 30,000 people were murdered in Hartheim from May 1940 to December 1944. The murdered included the (mentally) ill, the physically and mentally handicapped, as well as prisoners from concentration camps . In June 1945 an American investigative officer found the so-called " Hartheimer Statistics ". It was a brochure with monthly statistical information on the gassings of the disabled and sick in the six T4 killing centers in what was then Reich territory . The alleged savings in food , rental costs, personnel costs, etc. were calculated from this.
memorial
In 1948 the castle was returned to the state charity. In 1950, during the post-war period in Austria , a first memorial was erected by the Association of French Survivors from Mauthausen Concentration Camp on the north side outside the castle. In the castle, rented apartments were set up for victims of the flood in 1954. A first small memorial within the building was first created in 1969 by the Upper Austrian state charity. This memorial was barely accessible and largely unsupervised, and the history was not dealt with.
A new concept was decided in 1997 by the state of Upper Austria and the Upper Austrian state charity. Replacement apartments were created for the tenants in a new building. The renovation of the now vacant palace enabled the memorial to be designed in a contemporary manner. It was now possible for the first time to include all rooms in which the killing process was carried out as “authentic places” in the memorial. The opening took place in 2003 as part of Upper Austria. State exhibition "Value of Life".
The structural traces of the killing facility were exposed and secured. Immediately after the killing rooms, the artist Herbert Friedl designed a room of silence for commemoration, meditation and prayer .
Outside the building, the site of the former “bus garage” and that part of the garden in which human remains from the crematorium were buried form part of the memorial.
In the former functional rooms, comprehensive historical information on Nazi euthanasia and the role of Hartheim Castle in the Nazi euthanasia system is available.
As a rule, the Hartheim Conference takes place at the castle every two years .
Exhibition "Value of Life"
The focus of the exhibition project "The Value of Life" is the attitude and the way society treats disabled people. The period under consideration extends from the Age of Enlightenment through industrialization and Nazi times to the present . The spectrum ranges from the division of people into economically “useful” and “useless” at the beginning of industrial society to the current demand for social equality for disabled people .
The murder of disabled people as an example of the “ destruction of life unworthy of life ” under National Socialism is the negative extreme and a focal point of reflection in this development .
Web links
- "Hartheim Castle" memorial
- www.geschichtswerkstatt.de/ecksberg.html Verein Geschichtswerkstatt Mühldorf e. V. with information on residents of the Ecksberg facility for the disabled who were murdered in the Hartheim killing center
- Entry via Hartheim Castle to Burgen-Austria
Individual evidence
- ↑ Karin Harre: Diploma thesis “Beautiful Death?” University of Vienna, May 2012, accessed on March 5, 2019 .
- ↑ Historical place: History 1945–2003. Hartheim Castle Association, accessed on March 5, 2019 .
- ↑ "News about the foundation learning and memorial site Hartheim Castle." State of Upper Austria, invitation to the press conference, September 8, 2008, accessed on March 5, 2019 .
Coordinates: 48 ° 16 ′ 52.2 " N , 14 ° 6 ′ 49.5" E