The crucial motive and primary criterion for the orientation and approach of this competition was the necessity to find an appropriate way for coming to terms with Austria’s National Socialist past and, in particular, with how symbols and artistic relics (wall pictures, reliefs, sculptures, etc.) have been dealt with in recent years. The prevailing attitude toward works of art in attempts at coping with the past and denazification has mostly led to removing or deleting primary symbols like the swastika, SS insignia, or names of the Nazi regime’s representatives and settling for leaving the remains and accepting their presence and their messages. This frame of mind also characterized the postwar history of the relief and inscription to be found on the Thury-Hof in Vienna’s 9th district. The text of the inscription can be clearly attributed to Adolf Hitler, that is, his speech in Königsberg on March 4, 1933, and it was his name that originally identified the author of the quotation. Whereas Adolf Hitler’s name was removed in an endeavor to denazify the work and the inscription, the formal language of the sculpture, the contents of the text, and the pictorial impact of the relief remained unquestioned. The abuse of the German language for propaganda purposes in the Nazi era led to its impoverishment by slandering and eradicating all other languages.

From the perspective of contemporary and cultural history and with the objective to ensure an up-to-date confrontation with the past, destroying the relief or changing parts of it was regarded as wrong and decidedly excluded as a solution. Considering the historical background, the competition rather called for a decent, yet clear artistic engagement. The suggested intervention should neither lend a negative image to the municipal housing block nor upgrade the historically burdened relief or its contents.

Maria Theresia Litschauer’s project [ transkription ] emerged as winner of the competition.