Brauhof hall - Krems macht Geschichte

Introduction

KremsMachtGeschichte invites you to learn about and engage with the history of National Socialism in Krems. As you move through the city you connect various historical sites with each other. A simple stroll creates a personal narrative that brings the places, themes and histories into the present and enables you to keep the past alive in your critical memory.

What does it mean to “make history”? In 1938 Krems became the capital of the Gau, or Nazi administrative district, of “Lower Danube”. This was a time when Krems was making history, but history of a kind many would like to forget today. Today, when we remember, when we name perpetrators and tell the stories of victims, when we make resistance visible and point out continuities, we’re participating in the writing of history in our society. History isn’t just written in schoolbooks and by historians and at universities; it’s continually being produced by our everyday actions. History happens in the here and now.

24 historical sites, marked by green pennants, form the stations of the KremsMachtGeschichte tours. Every site stands for a different event that has something to tell us about destruction, persecution and crime, as well as about responsibility, solidarity and resistance. Some roads lead to memorials that glorify the past and that today need some historical correction. Prominent positions in the cityscape are taken up by the court and the prison, places where Nazi violence was once inflicted but that today contribute to the functioning of democracy. Many sites of past events are unrecognisable as such today; only through your imagination can they come back to life.

The information about each place can be called up with any smartphone by using the QR codes on the pennants. Texts and images can also be found in the catalogue which is displayed at various places in the city. By taking a walk through the city, you’re already making some history. En route from site to site, the historical picture gradually becomes more intricate. Common themes emerge, each of which groups the sites in a new way and connects them with our contemporary world. The themes include “on Jewish life”, “on resistance”, “on persecution and punishment” and “on remembering”. The short texts under these titles give some initial ideas that you can question and add your own stories to on the empty pages of the catalogue.

After the “Anschluss” of 1938, Krems became the new “Gau capital” of Lower Danube. However, the regional administration was never fully relocated from Vienna to Krems because there was a lack of suitable offices. The only new civil building erected during the period of the Nazi regime was the Brauhof hall.

The reason it was possible to build on this site was itself a consequence of the brutal National Socialist policy of expulsion. A few Jewish families lived in the houses next to the Steiner Gate, outside the city walls. By September 1938 they had been forced to leave the city. There was now nothing to stop these buildings being summarily demolished. In November 1940 the Brauhof hall was ceremonially opened. Now the NSDAP could bring together the residents of the city for large-scale rallies. In addition to party events there were also concerts, lectures and theatrical performances. Later the aid agency Winterhilfswerk collected woollen mittens, underwear and skis here for soldiers on the Eastern Front. In the final conscription drive of the National Socialist war effort, the Volkssturm was sworn in here in 1945.

After the end of the war, cultural life began with concerts organised by the Soviet military, operas and boxing matches. It was a venue for celebrations by high-school graduates as well as the Vienna-based Association of Stalingrad Fighters. The Brauhof hall remained the only large meeting space in the city. It was in regular use until well into the 1990s and is a place of positive memories for generations of Krems people.

In 1993 the Brauhof hall was demolished. The site was needed for a large shopping centre.