The "Memorial" of the University of Innsbruck
On 3 July 1926, the memorial to the members of the University of Innsbruck who died in the First World War, bordered by four lime trees and designed by Tyrolean architect Lois Welzenbacher, was unveiled in front of the new main building on the Innrain, which was occupied in autumn 1923. The triangular stone plinth, above which an eagle made of copper spreads its wings, bears the fraternity motto "Honour - Freedom - Fatherland". Originally, the names of university members who died in the Great War were also inscribed on the memorial. The names of those who died in the Second World War were added in 1952.
The "memorial" before the intervention. (Credit: Universität Innsbruck)
The inauguration in 1926 was a German nationalist rally of Innsbruck professors and students. Prorector Theodor Rittler ended his speech as follows: "It shows us the eagle that adorns the coats of arms of Germany, Austria and Tyrol. We knew of no better symbol to honour our dead. For they went into battle for Germany's greatness, Austria's honour and the unity of Tyrol. In the sight of the eagle, let us take comfort in the power and strength of our nation and say with faith: Germany, Thy kingdom come!" Welzenbacher's contract already contained the clause that he was free to choose his employees, "but he undertakes to choose only Germans".
On 17 May 1984, the Academic Senate decided to erect a memorial plaque at the memorial for Christoph Probst, a medical student who was executed in Munich on 22 February 1943 as a member of the "White Rose" resistance group. On the same day, he was "permanently excluded from studying at all German universities" by the University of Innsbruck (then the "German Alpine University"). A second memorial plaque was added by resolution on 11 January 1990: in memory of the liberation theologians Ignacio Ellacuría SJ and Segundo Montes SJ, graduates of the Faculty of Catholic Theology at the University of Innsbruck. Both were murdered on 16 November 1989 for their commitment to peace and justice in San Salvador.
As a further memorial, the university forecourt was renamed Christoph-Probst-Platz on 16 March 1993. On 21 February 2019, his de-registration was symbolically reversed at a joint memorial service held by the Medical University of Innsbruck and the Leopold Franzens University of Innsbruck.
The originally clearly German nationalist orientation repeatedly led to protests against the monument - most recently in October 2010, it was coloured pink by unknown persons. On the occasion of its 350th anniversary in 2019, the University of Innsbruck invited the Vorarlberg artist Wolfgang Flatz to create an artistic intervention on the monument following a competition - as a sign of an open and self-critical approach to its own history. It was presented to the public on 11 October 2019.
The pink-colored "memorial" 2010. (Credit: Universität Innsbruck)