The starting point for Marko Lulić’s temporary artistic intervention was the memorial stone on Mexikoplatz which, in its ambivalence, recalls Mexico’s solitary protest against the “Anschluss” or political annexation of Austria in March 1938 on the one hand and, in using the concept of an “annexation by force,” supports the myth of Austria as “the first victim” determining the country’s entire postwar history on the other.
The artist’s Mahnmal gegen den Mythos des ersten Opfers (Memorial against the Myth of the First Victim) presented itself as both a comment on and an addition to the existing memorial, which had been inaugurated by the Mayor of Vienna Helmut Zilk and the Ambassador of Mexico to Austria Roberto de Rosenzweig-Díaz. The inscription on the memorial reads as follows: “In March 1938, Mexico was the only country that filed an official protest against the forceful annexation of Austria by the National-Socialist German Reich with the League of Nations. The City of Vienna has named this square Mexiko-Platz in memory of this act.”

The construction and maintenance of the lie of Austria as the Nazis’ “first victim” were countered by the number “99.73,” which indicated the percentage of yes votes in the referendum on the “Anschluss” of Austria to the Third Reich on April 10, 1938. 3.2 meters high, the steel billboard showing the number “99.73” and the steel panel displaying an explanatory text were realized by Marko Lulić on the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of Austria’s “Anschluss.” Though somewhat more than five percent of those entitled to vote were stripped of their right for reasons of racist or political persecution and the referendum was distorted by intimidation and propaganda, its result leaves no doubt about the Austrians’ scant resistance against the new regime. Even if the “Anschluss” began with German armed troops marching into Austria, it was no “forceful” act as the inscription on the memorial maintains.
The German troops were welcomed with cheers and approval by the National Socialist government already in office and a large part of Austria’s population.
Despite the lack of protest of nearly all of Austria’s official representatives the myth of Austria as “the first victim,” which only a few survivors could later claim for themselves, became the constitutive formula for the identity of the Second Republic. Thus, perpetrators as well as tacit supporters could present themselves as victims after the war. The myth of Austria as the Nazis’ early prey also permitted the delay of restitution measures and the repatriation of the people expelled – the “role of the victim” had been taken on collectively.
It comes as no surprise that the myth that Austria is no immigration country correlates with the myth of Austria as “the first victim” of Nazi aggression, which is slowly crumbling. The Mexikoplatz as a central place of communication for a large variety of ethnic groups is the most convincing proof to the contrary.