The contextualisation of the monument encompasses not only the artistic intervention of tilting it, but also a linguistic dimension. To provide historical context on Karl Lueger, we were once again able to enlist the historian Oliver Rathkolb, who had previously written the text for the information panel erected next to the monument in 2016. In addition to this historical re-evaluation, a plaque also features a text on Klemens Wihlidal’s artistic intervention (in both German and English).

The text is as follows:

Karl Lueger
Contemporary historical perspectives

Karl Lueger (1844–1910) was a lawyer and politician. Initially a follower of Liberalism, he founded the Christian Social Party in 1893. His political rhetoric was increasingly marked by an aggressive and dehumanizing antisemitism as well as political rhetoric directed against other nationalities living within the Habsburg monarchy, especially Hungarians. He also opposed the use of the Czech language in Vienna, even as he wooed assimilated Czech voters. The defining objective of his political activities was to consolidate the dominance of anti-Socialist, middle-class privileges in various segments of the male electorate, and he argued that there was no ideological difference between Christian Socials and German Nationalists.

Lueger, who was mayor of Vienna from 1897 until his death, is a controversial figure today. In a period of conflict between the empire’s national communities, he added fuel to the antisemitic and radical populist tendencies of his time. That is why Emperor Franz Joseph I did not confirm his election as mayor until the fifth attempt. The fact that he maintained contacts with some influential individuals of Jewish descent did nothing to alter the broader negative impact of his exploitation of antisemitic strategies. During his thirteen-year tenure, he continued the expansion of Vienna’s municipal infrastructure initiated by his Liberal predecessors, modernized the administration, and promoted the city’s development as migration from all parts of the monarchy swelled its population to two million. Combating the severe housing shortage and exorbitant rents was not a political priority for him, given the massive political support that he enjoyed from property owners.

Lueger was a “mythical figure” even during his lifetime, a reputation he himself cultivated. Adolf Hitler hailed him as the “most formidable German mayor of all time” despite the vast political differences between them. The sculptor Josef Müllner won the competition in 1913 to design the Lueger monument, which was not installed until 1926, when the city was ruled by a Social Democratic one-party government. Müllner, who shared many of the former mayor’s goals, was a member of the antisemitic and Pan-German dueling fraternity Athenaia and joined the Nazi Party in 1940. (Univ.-Prof. i. R. DDr. Oliver Rathkolb)

Klemens Wihlidal
Schieflage (Karl Lueger 3,5°) [Askew (Karl Lueger 3.5°)]
2026

The monument to the mayor of Vienna Karl Lueger was erected in 1926. In 2026, it was tilted by 3.5 degrees in accordance with a proposal by Klemens Wihlidal. With this simple creative intervention, the artist transforms the monument into a memorial: the pedestal and statue are frozen in a state of perpetual falling. The unease it prompts is meant to inspire an ongoing critical public discussion of Karl Lueger and his antisemitic rhetoric and politics.

The project grew out of a broad-based debate in Vienna over how to handle the memory of Karl Lueger, a fraught figure in the city’s history. In 2022, the city government decided to hold a competition, soliciting creative ideas for how to place the monument in its historical context. The project aimed to encourage public discussion of Lueger’s legacy and signal the city’s stand against antisemitism today. A jury was convened, which reviewed the thirteen proposals submitted by the invited artists and selected Klemens Wihlidal’s design. “Tilting the original monument undercuts its grandeur,” the jury noted in its decision, “and shifts perspectives on the past and present.”