Activists call for ‘Hitler balcony’ destruction in Vienna

Activists are calling for a little-remembered balcony on the front of Vienna’s town hall to be destroyed because it is where Adolf Hitler gave a speech in 1938, Austrian media reports.

Hitler made the speech on April 9, 1938 from a specially constructed wooden balcony erected in the center of the building’s imposing neo-Gothic facade, but it was later replaced with a permanent stone one to commemorate the event.

The origins of the balcony had since largely faded from memory but an artists’ collective entitled “Memory Gaps” is now calling for it to be destroyed.

It argues the structure should be removed as part of the commemorations for the centenary of the first Austrian Republic, as well as the 80th anniversary of the “Anschluss,” or annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany.

— AFP