Stalin memorial plaque (Vienna)

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Memorial plaque for Josef Stalin
Additional plaque to the Stalin memorial plaque

The memorial plaque for Josef Stalin in Vienna's 12th district Meidling was unveiled on December 21, 1949 on the occasion of the 70th birthday of the Soviet politician and dictator Josef Stalin .

Location

The memorial plaque was attached to the outer facade of the house at Schönbrunner Schloßstraße 30, where the “Schönbrunn” guesthouse is today. Between January and February 1913, at Lenin's request, Stalin visited Vienna to examine how the various peoples in the multi-ethnic state of the Danube Monarchy were dealt with. The result of his research was the article "Marxism and the National Question". At that time Stalin lived in this house with the Russian emigrant couple Alexander Trojanowski and his wife Jelena Rosmirowitsch .

Plaque

The memorial plaque for Josef Stalin consists of a marble plaque with a bronze relief showing the portrait of Stalin and the text:

“In January 1913 JW Stalin lived in this house. Here he wrote the important work "Marxism and the National Question" "

The plaque was dedicated by the Communist Party and solemnly unveiled on the occasion of the 70th birthday of Joseph Stalin. After the speech of the communist councilor Josef Lauscher (1912–1975), Mayor Theodor Körner took the table into the care of the City of Vienna. In his address he emphasized that he believed in Stalin's will for peace and conveyed his congratulations. The obligation of Municipal Department 7 (Culture) to preserve and care for this memorial plaque is based on the taking into care.

An additional panel was installed in 2012.

Curiosity and political issue

This memory of the Soviet dictator was one of the few Stalin memorials west of the Iron Curtain and has been one of the last memorials for him in Europe since the de-Stalinization after Stalin's death and at the latest since the collapse of communism.

During the popular uprising in Hungary in 1956 , paint was thrown at it as a protest, but the Vienna city administration repaired it. Even Nikita Khrushchev's request to remove this plaque remained unfulfilled. The next Soviet politician to turn to the City of Vienna on this matter was then Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze in a letter to Leopold Gratz in 1991 .

Most recently, the FPÖ submitted an application to the Meidlinger district council, in which the municipal authorities are requested to develop measures for a contemporary use of the memorial plaque.

The commemorative plaque for Josef Stalin is received from the municipality of Vienna. Removal of this memorial is refused on the basis of the Austrian State Treaty , which obliges the republic to preserve and care for Soviet monuments (Article 19). According to the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs and the constitutional experts Theo Öhlinger and Bernd-Christian Funk , the memorial plaque does not fall under the State Treaty.

literature

  • Günther Berger: Meidling - Contributions to the cultural history of the 12th Viennese district. European Science Publishing House, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-631-35000-7 .
  • Felix Czeike : Historical Lexicon Vienna . Volume 5. Verlag Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-218-00547-7 , p. 311.
  • Michael John: Stalin in Schönbrunn. In: Marschik, Matthias; Spitaler, Georg (ed.): Das Wiener Russendenkmal , Turia + Kant publishing house, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-85132-428-5 .
  • Elisa Kriza: The Memorial as a Magnifying Glass: Interpreting the Stalin Plaque in Vienna. German Life and Letters, Volume 68, No. 3, 2015, ISSN  1468-0483 .
  • Elisa Kriza: The Stalin Plaque in Vienna: Hiding and Showing History . European Review of History: Revue européenne d'histoire, doi: 10.1080 / 13507486.2018.1505832 , 2018, ISSN  1469-8293 .
  • Austrian People's Voice of December 22, 1949, p. 3.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.zeit.de/2007/43/Stalin
  2. ↑ Historians create a "shortlist". In: Der Standard onlene, May 25, 2012.
  3. ^ Joseph Gepp: Three Russians in Vienna. In: Falter , No. 45/2007 of November 7, 2007.
  4. ^ Press release of the FPÖ Vienna from December 15, 2008.
  5. ↑ https://www.geschichtewiki.wien.gv.at/Stalin-Gedenktafel
  6. ↑ https://www.wienerzeitung.at/nachrichten/politik/wien/2065728-Keine-Stadt-fuer-Bilderstuermer.html
  7. ↑ https://www.parlament.gv.at/PAKT/VHG/XXIV/AB/AB_14496/imfname_317211.pdf

Coordinates: 48 ° 11 ′ 2.9 ″  N , 16 ° 19 ′ 22.6 ″  E