Hotel Metropole was a hotel in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Austria that was constructed in 1871–73. It was destroyed during World War II after serving as the Vienna headquarters of the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

from 1938. The address was Morzinplatz, in the I. District Innere Stadt.

History

The hotel was built for the Vienna World Exhibition and was designed by Carl Schumann and Ludwig Tischler. The four-story building was richly decorated with Corinthian columns,

caryatid A caryatid ( or or ; grc, Καρυᾶτις, pl. ) is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. The Greek term ''karyatides'' literally means "ma ...

s and atlases. The inner court was glassed over and had a richly decorated

dining hall A cafeteria, sometimes called a canteen outside the U.S., is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or schoo ...

. After the ''

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...

'' of Austria to

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

in March 1938, the hotel was confiscated by the Gestapo who made it their headquarters. With a staff of 900 (80 per cent of whom were recruited from the Austrian police), it was the largest Gestapo office outside of Berlin. Many people, especially

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, were interrogated or tortured there. During the war the building was hit by a bomb and burned down and ultimately the ruins were demolished to eliminate any memory of the building. In 1951 a memorial stone was erected by concentration camp survivors, which was then replaced in 1985 with a bigger monument financed by the city of Vienna. The monument consists of

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

blocks from the quarry of the former concentration camp at

Mauthausen Mauthausen was a Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regu ...

and a bronze statue symbolising a survivor. The inscription comes from the president of the association of the survivors of the concentration camps Wilhelm Steiner and reads: (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

) "''Hier stand das Haus der Gestapo. Es war für die Bekenner Österreichs die Hölle. Es war für viele von ihnen der Vorhof des Todes. Es ist in Trümmer gesunken wie das Tausendjährige Reich. Österreich aber ist wiederauferstanden und mit ihm unsere Toten, die unsterblichen Opfer.''" (

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

) "Here stood the House of the Gestapo. To those who believed in Austria it was hell. To many it was the gates to death. It sank into ruins just like the 'Thousand Year Reich'. But Austria was resurrected and with her our dead, the immortal victims." On 19 June 1995, the National Historical Commission of the Philippines, led by Amb. Reynaldo O. Arcilla, along with Rudolf Hundstorser, First Chairman of the

Gemeinderat and Landtag of Vienna As Vienna, the capital of Austria is both a city and a state, the 100 members of the Municipal Council (''Gemeinderat'') of the city of Vienna also act as members of the Landtag (legislative assembly) of the state of Vienna. Members serve for five ...

, unveiled at the former location of Hotel Metropole a historical marker of Philippine National Hero, José Rizal's visit to Vienna from 20 to 24 May 1887. Rizal has befriended Austro-Hungarian linguistic scholar

Ferdinand Blumentritt Ferdinand Johann Franz Blumentritt (10 September 1853, Prague – 20 September 1913, Litoměřice) was an Austrian teacher, secondary school principal in Leitmeritz, lecturer, and author of articles and books in the Philippines and its ethno ...

of Leitmeritz. On 13 June 2015, as part of the theatre festival

Wiener Festwochen __NOTOC__ The Wiener Festwochen (Vienna Festival) is a cultural festival in Vienna that takes place every year for five or six weeks in May and June. The Wiener Festwochen was established in 1951, when Vienna was still occupied by the four Alli ...

, a group of artists (Zsuzsi Flohr, Benjy Fox-Rosen, Eduard Freudmann, Eva Reinold, Luisa Ziaja) illegally erected a meta-memorial dedicated to the survivors who had illegally erected a monument on that spot in 1951. The inscription reads: (

) ''"Was sie unterließ, haben wir getan. Den Errichter_innen eines nie errichteten Obelisken am 11. April 1951 um 19 Uhr 20."'' (

) "What they neglected we did. To the erectors of a never erected obelisk on 11 April 1951, at 19:20"

References

External links

Hotel Metropol war ein Name, der für die Gestapo in Wien stand.
(German - deutsch)

{{coord, 48, 12, 47, N, 16, 22, 27, E, region:AT-9_type:landmark_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title 1951 in Austria The Holocaust in Austria

Metropole A metropole (from the Greek ''metropolis'' for "mother city") is the homeland, central territory or the state exercising power over a colonial empire. From the 19th century, the English term ''metropole'' was mainly used in the scope of ...

Gestapo Buildings and structures in Innere Stadt Metropole, Vienna Intelligence agency headquarters Defunct hotels Buildings and structures destroyed during World War II 1873 establishments in Austria Demolished hotels 19th-century architecture in Austria