Memorial Against War & Fascism
Memorial Against War & Fascism
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The area
Address
Neighbourhood: Inner City
In Vienna's best-known district, pedestrian boulevards Kärntner Strasse and Graben connect you with landmarks such as the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera), Vienna’s iconic Stephansdom (St. Stephen’s Cathedral) and the vast compound of Hofburg, the Habsburgs’ former Imperial Palace. Peek down side streets such as Annagasse and Weihburggasse, and Graben’s Seilergasse and Habsburggasse, to get a feel for the centre. The Imperial Apartments and the refreshingly demystifying Sissi Museum are must-dos at Hofburg. Spacious squares such as Am Hof and Freyung often host beautiful seasonal and antiques markets.
How to get there
- Karlsplatz • 5 min walk
- Karlsplatz • 5 min walk
Best nearby
We rank these restaurants and attractions by balancing reviews from our members with how close they are to this location.
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4,787 within 3 miles
Attractions
1,043 within 6 miles
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4.0
97 reviews
Excellent
27
Very good
44
Average
19
Poor
5
Terrible
2
macedonboy
Glasgow, UK186,766 contributions
Oct 2019
The “Mahnmal gegen Krieg und Faschismus” translates as the Memorial to war and fascism. The monument is a sculptural ensemble depicting various scenes from the aforementioned named of this monument. The most prominent of the sculptures are sundered the granite sculpture representing mass murder, and the bronze sculpture of a kneeling jew forced to scrub the streets. The latter is particularly poignant as the bronze sculpture is forced down by barbed wire so that they cannot escape the persecution.
A fine monument to anti-war and anti-bigotry.
A fine monument to anti-war and anti-bigotry.
Written 28 October 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Lee S
Australia3,976 contributions
Oct 2022 • Couples
A very moving memorial to the people of the apartment block bombed in the 2 WW.
Hundreds of civilians killed & their bodies never recover, this memorial is near the state opera house unfortunately not well sign posted.
Hundreds of civilians killed & their bodies never recover, this memorial is near the state opera house unfortunately not well sign posted.
Written 30 October 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Jaroslav Nečas
Brno, Czech Republic1,623 contributions
Aug 2024 • Couples
Statue dedicated to the world peace. I wasn't aware until I was going through taken pictures. Horse carriage have a station nearby.
Written 18 October 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Life-is-an-Adventure
Karmiel, Israel447 contributions
Nov 2018 • Solo
Although on the major square in front of the Albertina where pedestrian tourists cross in their multitude this memorial can be missed. It is made up of multiple sculptures, with the major one symbolizing gates. Not realizing that this is Vienna's Monument Against War and Fascism, one can easily walk by.
I was most struck by, and will forever be haunted by, the small sculpture lying on the sidewalk behind the gates - showing a Jew on his knees forced to clean the street with a toothbrush - a scene shown in various newsreels from the time. Very powerful.
A hidden powerful aspect of this memorial is the location itself - hundreds of other types of innocent victims were buried alive here, sheltering in the basement of a building that took a direct hit from aerial bombing in March 1945.
Although glossed over when the memorial was erected, Austria was not just a victim but also a perpetrator of Nazism, a lesson from history finally being accepted in Austria - a lesson that any civilized country and people can fall into the the chasm of fascism.
There are two other memorials to the victims of this terrible time in central Vienna worth visiting, the "Gestapo Haus Wein" and the "Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial" (see my reviews).
I was most struck by, and will forever be haunted by, the small sculpture lying on the sidewalk behind the gates - showing a Jew on his knees forced to clean the street with a toothbrush - a scene shown in various newsreels from the time. Very powerful.
A hidden powerful aspect of this memorial is the location itself - hundreds of other types of innocent victims were buried alive here, sheltering in the basement of a building that took a direct hit from aerial bombing in March 1945.
Although glossed over when the memorial was erected, Austria was not just a victim but also a perpetrator of Nazism, a lesson from history finally being accepted in Austria - a lesson that any civilized country and people can fall into the the chasm of fascism.
There are two other memorials to the victims of this terrible time in central Vienna worth visiting, the "Gestapo Haus Wein" and the "Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial" (see my reviews).
Written 2 December 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
zdaati
Vienna, Austria4,641 contributions
Feb 2021 • Couples
Located on albertinaplatz is the simple but still moving monument to the sad times of the war and nazi rule, concentration camps and death. It has 4 parts, two columns called the gate of violence for all the victims of war and the bronze figure kneeling covered in barbed wire representing the jews. The third part is a memorial to the victims of the air raid on the apartment block that was here and the final part celebrates free austria after WWII.
Written 8 February 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
MrMadMagpie
Ipswich, UK2,169 contributions
Dec 2018 • Couples
This a powerful memorial standing on Albertinaplatz, behind Vienna's Opera House that commemorates the years when Austria came under Nazi rule (1938–1945). It remembers victims of all wars and violence. Standing directly in front of it, you're at the gates of a concentration camp. Then you step into a montage of wartime images: clubs and WWI gas masks, a dying woman birthing a future soldier, victims of cruel medical experimentation, and chained slave laborers sitting on a pedestal of granite cut from the quarry at Mauthausen concentration camp. A hunched-over figure on the ground behind is a Jew forced to scrub anti-Nazi graffiti off a street with a brush. Quite moving if you stop to study it.
Written 27 December 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Jebediah_Solomon
Hong Kong, China375 contributions
Apr 2018 • Couples
During world war 2 Vienna was bombed countless times , 3000 was my understanding. This destroyed large parts of the Albertina, Opera and surrounding area. This includes a block of flats where many were sheltering - right in front of the Albertina where the statue now stands.
Most of their bodies were not unearthed and the memorial is literally on top of them.
That has to be pause for reflection .
Most of their bodies were not unearthed and the memorial is literally on top of them.
That has to be pause for reflection .
Written 5 April 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
QuickWhitTravel
Washington DC, DC3,769 contributions
Oct 2015 • Couples
This is a very moving and interesting monument in Vienna. It commemorates a sad time in Vienna that should not be forgotten.
Written 20 February 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Dr. Tim
Marana, AZ5,089 contributions
Jul 2014 • Couples
The Monument Against War and Fascism can be easily scene in the Albertinaplatz which is behind Vienna's Opera House. Across the street is the Mozart Cafe which is a good place for a bite to eat. The Monument consists of four statues and is built atop the Philip-Hof apartment complex that was leveled by the allies killing hundreds of people in the basement air raid shelter.
The monument from the front starts with the Gate of Violence which represents victims of the war. The carvings depict clubs, gas masks, a woman giving birth, persecuted groups, and a group of chained laborers. These carvings sit atop stone cut from the Mauthausen concentration camp. Behind the Gate of Violence is a bronze depiction of a hunched-over Jew being forced to wash anti-Nazi graffiti off the sidewalks with a brush. The third statue is of Orpheus entering the underworld, a reminder to the world the danger of runaway government. The fourth sculpture is a carved stone memorial to those lost in the bombings and a declaration of Austria's Second Republic in 1945.
Stay for a bit and reflect on the horrors of war that are typically started by the few against the many. I hope wherever you are you experience freedom on a daily basis!
The monument from the front starts with the Gate of Violence which represents victims of the war. The carvings depict clubs, gas masks, a woman giving birth, persecuted groups, and a group of chained laborers. These carvings sit atop stone cut from the Mauthausen concentration camp. Behind the Gate of Violence is a bronze depiction of a hunched-over Jew being forced to wash anti-Nazi graffiti off the sidewalks with a brush. The third statue is of Orpheus entering the underworld, a reminder to the world the danger of runaway government. The fourth sculpture is a carved stone memorial to those lost in the bombings and a declaration of Austria's Second Republic in 1945.
Stay for a bit and reflect on the horrors of war that are typically started by the few against the many. I hope wherever you are you experience freedom on a daily basis!
Written 13 July 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Vadim
Murmansk, Russia34,986 contributions
Jul 2022
The monument at Albertinaplatz stands on the site of the infamous Philipp Hof house. A bomb shelter was equipped in the basement of this house, in which residents of the surrounding houses were hiding from the bombing of Anglo-American aircraft. 4 days before the Red Army stormed Vienna on March 12, 1945, on the anniversary of the 1938 Anschluss, Anglo-American aircraft raided the center of Vienna with no military significance other than intimidation of the population. 747 four-engine bombers bombed the city for an hour and a half. The Opera was destroyed, the Burgtheater burned down. Filippov was also destroyed. About 300 people were blocked in the bomb shelter. They tried to extinguish the burning building, the water heated up, and boiling water flooded the basement. The people who were escaping from the bombs there were cooked. Only a couple of dozen corpses were removed from there, more than two hundred crowns and to this day are buried under the square formed at the demolition site. It seemed obvious to erect a monument to the victims here, such as a monument to the victims of the bombing on August 23, 1942 in Volgograd (Stalingrad) or the unreconstructed Kaiser Wilhelm Church in Berlin? Until the 1980s, Austrian society professed the "victim doctrine", according to which Austria was the first victim of Nazism. However, the communist sculptor Alfred Khdrlichka, with his composition of the monument in 1988, recalls that many victims chose this fate themselves or others did it for them with their passive non-interference. In addition to two splintered boulders reminiscent of the tragedy of 1945, the sculptor placed a small grotesque figure of a Jew on all fours scrubbing the ground at the bottom. This is a reminder of the Anschluss of 1938, when tens of thousands of Viennese welcomed their compatriot Hitler and, as a sign of devotion, forced Viennese Jews to wash anti-Fascist slogans from the pavement. Many near-minded tourists sat on the back of a kneeling Jew and Hrdlicka wrapped a barbed wire around his back. Including reminding that the majority of Austrian Jews who remained in the country (two thirds managed to emigrate before 1941) ended their days in the Austrian Mauthausen or were deported to Auschwitz.
Written 25 September 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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