Hans Kupelwieser did not first face the problem of creating a memorial with his work for the Jewish cemetery in Krems, but already in 1988 in St. Pölten.
In a park where resistance fighters were shot during the Second World War, a walk-in sculpture commemorates the victims. Announced as a competition by Lower Austria Culture, the realization of the winning project by Hans Kupelwieser is committed to memory, not warning. In this specific case, the sculptor's approach remains a formal one, which does not involve any pathos in terms of content. When making the steel sculpture, Kupelwieser did not have it made according to a design, but did it himself.
A protected space that allows a view of the trees in the park and the sky upwards is enclosed in a high bowl made of steel, two meters high and four meters in diameter. The interior functions as a meditation room, where the visitor can concentrate entirely on the spatial experience by blocking out external influences. The names of the resistance fighters were placed in bronze letters at eye level, and above them light penetrates the hollow steel body through thirteen openings as a symbol of the victims. Kupelwieser leaves associations about the semantic level of the formal implementation to the viewer. If the light openings in the metal are reminiscent of shots with which a political system got rid of its opponents, this is one of many possible approaches to reception.
The memorial in Hammerpark in St. Pölten commemorates the Kirchl-Trauttmansdorff resistance group, which was murdered by the Nazis in 1945. Created by the artist Hans Kupelwieser in 1988, the walk-in steel sculpture is shaped like an offering bowl, four meters in diameter and two meters high. Thirteen openings, which serve as light sources, commemorate the 13 victims, whose names are engraved inside, accompanied by the inscription "They died here for Austria." In 2025, the memorial was renovated to ensure the legibility of the names. Hammerpark itself offers both recreation and a place of remembrance, making the memorial an important testament to resistance and sacrifice during the Nazi era.
Translated by Google •
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