Vienna decides to keep Adolf Hitler’s favorite mayor

• Mayor Karl Lueger’s populist politics were said to have inspired Adolf Hitler.
• Vienna government said that a two-year program would be launched to re-contextualize a towering statue of former Mayor Karl Lueger.
• The decision to retain the statue of Lueger followed discussions with various city stakeholders about how to deal with the mayor’s controversial legacy.

The government of Austrian capital city of Vienna has denied requests to remove a towering sculpture of Vienna’s former Mayor Karl Lueger, whose populist views were said to have inspired future Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.

Instead of removing the monument, Vienna‘s incumbent mayor, Michael Ludwig, said that he is favoring the process of ‘artistic contextualization.’

Vienna government announced that a two-year program would be launched to re-contextualize a statue of former Mayor Karl Lueger. How the statue will look after the ‘contextualization’ remains to be seen, as a consultation and tender is yet to be launched.  

The decision to keep the statue of Lueger, who controlled the Austrian capital from 1897 to 1910, followed discussions with various city stakeholders about how to deal with the mayor’s controversial legacy.

Current Vienna Mayor Michael Ludwig expects the project won’t be concluded until 2023, noting that a tender will be launched for the statue’s future appearance. He said the winning project will be awarded a prize by a “top-class” jury. No budget has been assigned for the project, and it is unclear whether the tender will be open or solely for invited competitors. 

Labeled the ‘king of Vienna’, Lueger rallied people against Jews, describing them as the “people who murdered God” and “expropriators of the native population.” 

Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, who spent three years in the Austrian capital while Lueger was in charge, described the mayor as “the most terrific German mayor of all time” in his autobiographical manifesto ‘Mein Kampf’. 

Austria has long struggled to deal with Lueger’s legacy. Despite renaming one of its most prominent streets – formerly called Karl Lueger Ring – in 2012, a church, a square, a bridge, three plaques, and the 13ft statue still remain in his honor.