After a little bit of a lag in my blogging schedule, I’ve been working to catch up on the sites I’ve seen in the past week.
I was able to carve out a few days during my trip to meet up with family in Vienna, before we all diverged to other destinations. Though this was the main reason for my visit, I was able to take in one case study of how this city has commemorated its history through building preservation and reuse.
During World War II, artillery towers were built in German-occupied territories to combat allied air raids. Known as Flakturm, many of these towers were constructed in public parks and open green spaces, seemingly given the visibility and land availability. Like many buildings constructed during the Nazi era, they were built using forced labor, and remain symbolically controversial for this reason, in addition to their association with Nazi warfare. The towers were also designed to double as air raid shelters for civilians, and were constructed with concrete walls 2-3 meters thick. Given this fortification, structures like these are very expensive to demolish, and several remain standing primarily for this reason.
Six Flakturm still stand in Vienna, two of which are located in the Augarten, a large and otherwise formal, manicured park northeast of the city center. The Flakturm loom strangely over the park, an uncanny backdrop to flower beds, children’s birthday parties, cyclists, and garden cafes.
A plaque posted at each of the two towers declares the commemorative purpose of the remaining structures, intended to serve as a reminder of the lasting effects of National Socialism.
Structures like these are a tricky subject, given that they are often publicly owned, and could be prohibitively expensive to retrofit. I did learn of one rare example of a reused Flakturm, also located in Vienna though I didn’t have a chance to visit, which is the Haus Des Meeres. This structure has been reused as an aquarium, an apparently somewhat controversial decision given the sensitive historical context of the site.
I would hope that use as an aquarium - which provides recreational and educational services to the community - could coexist with appropriate commemoration of the site’s context. However, I do understand the potential cognitive dissonance posed by juxtaposing these uses: does using a building for leisure negate its potential as a place of reflection? Though the Flakturm in the Augarten are not an example of building reuse, I think their preservation presents a positive example of how this pairing of uses can be appropriate. Perhaps the example of a public park is able to navigate this dissonance because its uses are so broad and user-defined. On the other hand, perhaps that breadth of use and interpretation works to its detriment. Do places of remembrance need to be guided and defined, or can their experience be determined by each user?
I think these questions represent a larger issue of how to treat land and buildings previously used for military purposes. The Golden Gate National Recreation Area, for example, is made up of former parcels of US Military land, and still features several remaining military structures. Near Rodeo Beach, hikers can wander through large battery structures on the scenic cliffside, informed by a few informational panels and a reconstructed gun that once had a range of 25 miles, intended to protect from potential naval attacks.
The continued presence of these structures arguably continues to teach us of our nation’s history, even during recreational activities, when we don’t necessarily expect to engage with this material. This strategy is a natural one, given its low cost compared to reusing or even removing the buildings, as if we might as well keep them around if they present any sort of cultural value at all. I think it begs additional questions, though: to what degree are visitors engaging with this historical context? Would the commemorative value of these structures be better expressed in a more focused, controlled setting?
