2024-01-19 17:18:59
The Dollfuß heirs and the mayor of Texingtal thwarted plans for a “constructive dissolution” of the controversial museum.
New surprising turn in the story of the controversial museum about the dictator Engelbert Dollfuß: The project of a “constructive dissolution” of the museum planned by historians will not take place. The Dollfuß heirs have withdrawn their loans and asked the mayor of Texingtal – the municipality runs the museum in the house where Dollfuß was born – to hand them over to the Lower Austrian State Museum. The mayor did that – and at the same time gave most of the other exhibits to the state. This means that the project designed by the “MERKwürd” association can no longer be carried out, according to a statement from the association.
The discussion about the museum began two years ago when the former mayor of the Texingtal community, Gerhard Karner, became interior minister. Historians had heavily criticized the museum: In reality, it was not a museum, but a place of pilgrimage for the followers of Dollfuß, who abolished democracy in Austria in 1933 and had workers’ homes shot at a year later.
At that time, Karner announced a new concept for the museum, and the municipality commissioned the MERKwür association from Krems to do it. However, it soon became clear to the team made up of prominent historians: a redesign of the museum was not possible. Instead, they advocated a “constructive solution”: the museum objects should be scientifically processed over a period of five years and passed on to other museums. The lease for the museum building, which is in poor condition, will also end in five years. The association writes that this planned public reappraisal of history can no longer take place. Whether and in what form the project’s curatorial team can further contribute to the historical analysis of the topic is still being discussed.
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