Since spring 2004, the BürgerInnenprojektgruppe Servitengasse 1938 (Servitengasse 1938 Civic Project Group) has been working to research the lot of the Jewish population living in Servitengasse in Vienna’s ninth district who suffered persecution and were expelled and murdered under the Nazi regime. The project also entailed a two-stage design competition for students and graduates, which was held in cooperation with the Vienna University of Applied Arts, for a memorial to be installed on Servitenplatz. Together with the Servitengasse 1938 initiative, a number of criteria were developed to be considered in the design process, including, for example, that the names of all people expelled or murdered should be listed or that there should be a possibility of leaving a small stone as is customary when visiting Jewish graves.

In the first stage of the competition, design proposals for a memorial were to be entered. All formats were allowed, with the entries submitted being anonymized. Out of twenty-three submissions from different fields of study, nine were shortlisted by the jury for further development. In the second stage, the designs were to be accommodated to the specific conditions of the site and worked out in full detail. Also, a calculation of costs was to be made for planning, production, and installation of the memorial, as well as an estimate of the current maintenance cost. The jury expected the most detailed possible rendering of the artistic implementation as a model or digital presentation. From these nine submissions of the second stage, three winning projects were eventually chosen. The first place was shared by Julia Schulz and Ulla Rauter, and the third place went to Guido Kunert.

The project finally realized was Julia Schulz’s Schlüssel gegen das Vergessen (Keys Against Oblivion). The memorial is a display case sunk into the ground so that its interior is below street level, like an excavation. It contains 462 keys with enameled tags bearing the names of Jewish people who lived and worked in Servitengasse before 1938, were expelled from the neighborhood, and forgotten. The keys also symbolize a process of recovery and of remembering their names. They were provided by presentday Servitengasse residents. Looking at the collection of keys opens a window into the past which is recalled to awareness.