Memorial to the Victims Who Fought for a Free Austria, 1934–1945

The Memorial to the Victims for a Free Austria 1934-1945 stands at Vienna's Central Cemetery near the Gate 2 axis and was dedicated on 1 November 1948 by mayor Theodor Koerner. It is the first large memorial of the Second Republic to the victims of Austrofascism and National Socialism, and at the same time a collaborative work by figures who had themselves suffered persecution: the sculptor Fritz Cremer had returned to Vienna from exile, the architect Margarete Schuette-Lihotzky had only recently been freed from German concentration camp captivity in 1948, and her husband Wilhelm Schuette stood for the Vienna Werkbund. The ensemble consists of a broad stone slab, a coffered wall with inscription, and several recumbent bronze figures. It is the site of the Republic's annual wreath-laying ceremonies, together with the City of Vienna and the resistance associations, and one of the most significant political places of remembrance at the Central Cemetery.