Karl Lueger monument in Vienna should be modified
Viennas university for applied art has awarded an international competition for the reshaping of the Karl Lueger monument. Karl Lueger was the mayor of Vienna from 1897 to 1910. The Freedom party is not excited about such plan and labels the competition as “iconoclasm”.
“The monument should not be removed”, explains one of the responsible persons of the university. “It should be modified into a memorial against antisemitism and racism”, he adds. Ideas and projects can be submited until the 1st March 2010. A jury of authors and artists should decide which project is going to be the shining winner.
All submissions should be presented in an exhibition and also find access into a publication.
“The problem with the current Karl Lueger monument is its heroic characteristic”, claims one of the organizers to Austrias Broadcasting Corporation. The activist explains that “Lueger only became the mayor of Vienna because he used populist anti Semitic agitation.”
Members of Viennas Freedom party are terrified. “Hands off the monument”, was their first statement. The monument should stay the way it is. Karl Lueger has done incredible achievements for Vienna. Also politic dissidents have to accept that, declares Freedom party representative Veronika Matiasek in a press release.
- link: Karl Lueger monument