Author: Vojtěch Berger, HlidaciPes.org
The Austrian town of Braunau is notorious as the birthplace of Adolf Hitler, mainly due to years of debate about what should happen to Hitler’s house. In early July, 80 years after the end of the war, the city council approved the renaming of two streets with references to Nazism. The analysis on which the councilors based their decision could trigger a domino effect throughout Austria.
However, representatives of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), opposed the renaming of the streets. About 200 households in Braunau will have to get used to a new address and this bothered the FPÖ politicians, who criticised the renaming of the streets in advance. According to them, the change means unnecessary complications and costs for residents of retirement age due to changes in documents and other administrative procedures.
Two names will disappear from street signs: Josef Reiter, a composer and member of the NSDAP Nazi party since 1929 and later its candidate in regional elections, and Franz Resl, a humorist and officer of the Hitler’s SA units. The street named after Resl was also renamed two years ago by the Upper Austrian capital of Linz.
The fact that criticism of efforts to purge public spaces of names referring to Nazism comes from the Freedom Party in Austria has another dimension beyond concern for the welfare of citizens.
Nazi “songbook” and other stories
The Freedom Party was founded in the 1950s as a party of former Nazi regime supporters, and even after 70 years, it still attracts (and includes) supporters of the far right. There are dozens of documented incidents of the party’s leaders playing with Nazi rhetoric or symbolism.
One example is the case of a Nazi “songbook” with songs trivializing or glorifying killling of millions of Jews during the Holocaust. The songbook included phrases such as “Step on the gas, let’s make seven million,” and the case uncovering temporarily cost the Freedom Party politician Udo Landbauer all his positions. However, he soon returned to politics and is now the deputy governor of Lower Austria.
Last year, shortly before the Austrian parliamentary elections, several FPÖ politicians attended a funeral where, according to published video recordings, one of the songs associated with the Nazi SS units was sung.
The head of the Austrian parliament, Walter Rosenkranz (also FPÖ), had to fire his chief of staff and long-time colleague René Schimanek this year after Schimanek’s emails with right-wing extremists came to light. These included complaints about “historical lies” in a documentary about Adolf Hitler and signing off with the “usual greeting,” albeit written in the ambiguous form referring again to Nazism: “GruSS.”
There are many more similar cases, but the Freedom Party has always dismissed them as isolated failures of individuals. After the FPÖ won the parliamentary elections for the first time in history last year – although it failed to form a government afterwards – the party feels more secure and less compelled to defend its own flirtation with the far right.
A domino effect?
But let’s return to the town of Braunau. The July meeting was far from the first time the local council had discussed the historical burden of Nazism. Earlier this year, councilors revoked the honorary citizenship of two figures associated with the Nazi era.
Similar debates, including specific changes to street names, are also taking place in other Austrian cities, such as Salzburg and Graz. In both cases, the Freedom Party also opposed the renaming.
The vote in Braunau was preceded by the publication of a legal opinion that could have a broader impact across Austria. Its author, Markus Vašek, a professor at the University of Linz, concluded that street names referring to Nazism violate not only the Austrian law on the promotion of Nazism, but also the 1955 State Treaty and thus the Austrian constitution.
Although municipalities and cities have the freedom to determine local names, according to the constitutional laws in force, conflicting names referring to Nazism should be automatically removed, the expert opinion states.
The Mauthausen Committee in Austria, which has long been involved in commemorating the victims of Nazi terror and fighting extremism, welcomed the professor’s statement as a “big bang.”
According to the committee, based on this legal analysis, other Austrian municipalities should now review the names of public spaces and remove those with Nazi connotations. The councilors in Braunau already had the opinion at their disposal before the July vote.
