In August 2018 an entry was submitted for a competition for a monument to the victims of National Socialism in Wasserburg am Inn. Entitled Die Opfer leben (The Victims Are Alive), the proposed object consists of several metal stelae that are intended to give a positive meaning to a solemn subject.
18-18-004
names of
the victims
18-18-005
on Heisererplatz
in Wasserburg
(photomontage)
18-18-006
This monument communicating the message “the victims are alive” tells two stories in one: the story of the individual and the story of the community. The life cycle of the individual is represented by a circle of upright stelae that mark regular steps in life, followed by the phases of suffering, and continuing to destruction – the stelae sink into the ground. The circle of the community is represented by the same upright stelae, standing for those who were spared, who were not affected, while others from the same circle became victims. Non-victims and victims belong to the same community.
It is not the horror that is made reality, not the dread or the shock. Rather the fate of the victims is sublimated and aestheticised. A positive aura is to be generated, as the two stories can also be read in reverse, not as destructive annihilation but as constructive growth. The victims find their way back to us in that we take them into our memory. They belong to us and are part of our community. They will be present on Heisererplatz, a square in Wasserburg am Inn.
The monument Die Opfer leben consists of eleven stelae of varying lengths, arranged in an open circle. The columnar metal stelae are powder-coated in different shades of grey. The names of the victims are engraved in the darker, leaning stelae (the victims’ stelae). The dimensions of the monument are five metres in height and about two metres in diameter.