The aim of the project is to analyse the ambivalent reference points of the Viennese population's collective memory of the National Socialist history of violence and loss on the basis of as yet untapped sources. The starting point is the psychiatric clinic of the Vienna General Hospital, where in 1945 persecutees and supporters of the Nazi regime, concentration camp survivors, NSDAP members, refugees and many others came together in large wards. Their medical records represent an important archive of collective memory that enables the reconstruction of identity formation processes in the context of traumatic war experiences.
The insights gained will be translated into stage formats with writers and communicated interactively via a new type of web platform.
Project Call: History(s) of Vienna: Project Call for contemporary forms of remembrance. An initiative of the City of Vienna for the Republic Anniversary Year 2025 (1945/55/95). In memory of Heidemarie Uhl
Project management: Johannes Feichtinger
Project co-ordinators: Katja Geiger-Seirafi, Ina Markova
Funding: City of Vienna MA7
Project duration: 15.5.2025 - 14.5.2026
Web application: fluxguide
Cooperation partners: Lucile Dreidemy (University of Vienna), Herwig Czech (Medical University of Vienna), Julia Jost (theatre director and author), Elisabeth Brainin (psychiatrist and psychoanalyst), Samy Teicher (psychoanalyst), Eva Schörkhuber (Author)
