New memorial to the homosexual victims of Nazi persecution to be installed in Vienna’s Ressel Park

On Monday, in a well-timed decision coinciding with EuroPride Vienna 2019, competent City Councilors Jürgen Czernohorszky and Veronica Kaup-Hasler announced on behalf of the City of Vienna the location for a new permanent memorial commemorating the homosexual victims of the Nazi regime. According to a City of Vienna spokesperson consultations had been held with a broad range of interest groups before a decision was reached. Now the next steps could be taken to realize the project.

The tender documents will be prepared with the expertise of QWIEN – Center of Queer History. This organization was responsible for collecting and recording the names of the Nazis’ homosexual and transgender victims (a project sponsored by the National Fund), which will serve as the basis for the memorial.

The constituent meeting of the competition jury is set to take place in November 2019. The jury will consist of artists, landscape planners and representatives from the various communities, the district administration and the relevant authorities. The winning design will be announced in April 2020 and the planning work to realize the project will commence immediately thereafter.  

The new memorial will be funded by the City of Vienna and the National Fund. In total 300,000 euros has been made available for the procurement process and the realization of the winning design.

For many years, a conspiracy of silence surrounded the homosexual victims of the Nazi regime. With the establishment of the National Fund in 1995, people who were persecuted by the Nazi regime on account of their sexual orientation were afforded recognition as victims for the first time. In addition to a gesture payment to acknowledge this status, in the almost 25 years since its foundation the National Fund has also subsidized a wide range of projects devoted to scholarly research and commemorating the victims.