Return of the memorial “Suffering of the 6th Army” to Vienna

In 1996 Austria unveiled a memorial to the 6th Wehrmacht Army near the city it tried to conquer – Stalingrad (now Volgograd).
The Monument, in the form of a 20 meter coroded iron thorn, was initialy to be erected in the center of Volgograd. After protests by Russian war veterans and the citizens of Volgograd, it was arranged to be placed 20 km away from the city, where it now stands. This outragueous act of disrespect towards the remaining of the million fallen inspired Petr Vrána to return the favor and decided with Pode Bal to propose returning the monument to the place of its origin – the center of Vienna.
An urban-development project was created, including architectural plans and a visualization of the monument’s new placement: Schwarzenbergplatz, VIENNA: this was introduced in the Künstlerhaus as part of the collective exhibition Niemandsland. The initiative was also communicated through the website of a fictive development company, where visitors could vote for or against the return of the monument. Pode Bal conducted video interviews with the former initiators ot the Volgograd memorial, Helmut Zilt (former mayor of Vienna), Wilhelm Holzbauer (architect and author of the steel thorn) and Josef Shantl (the general secretary of Schwartz Kreuz). A panel discussion was organized in the Viannese Künsterlhaus, moderated by Jan Tábor, author of the exhibition Kunst und Diktaturen.