Azra Akšamija :
Geschichtete Erinnerungen (Layered Memories)

Memorial to the victims of Nazi medical crimes
This memorial, established in 2026, commemorates the victims of Nazi medical crimes at the Mauer-Öhling psychiatric institution, now Landesklinikum Mauer. It marks a site associated with crimes committed under National Socialism and gives the victims back their names.

History
Under National Socialism, people with disabilities and mental illnesses were stigmatised and discriminated against as “burdens on society”, and many were deemed “unworthy of life” and murdered. These killings were carried out under the euphemistic term “euthanasia” – under the guise of “mercy killing”. The psychiatric hospital Mauer-Öhling was part of this programme of systematic murder. Current research shows that 2,848 people who were patients at Mauer-Öhling during the Nazi period lost their lives. Of these, 1,260 were murdered at the Hartheim killing centre during the first phase of the extermination programme, known as “Aktion T4”. The 1,348 people who died at Mauer-Öhling were mostly buried in the institution’s cemetery. Patients were transferred in a series of transports to the psychiatric hospital in Gugging, with some later sent on to the Meseritz-Obrawalde psychiatric institution (now in Poland) or the City of Vienna’s Wagner-von-Jauregg psychiatric hospital (Am Steinhof). Many of them died under Nazi rule. In 1944, a transport carrying forced labourers and prisoners of war was ostensibly bound for Linz-Waldegg, but most likely also went to the Hartheim killing centre.

The memorial marks a site associated with crimes committed under National Socialism. This field became an extension of the psychiatric institution’s overcrowded cemetery in November 1944. By the end of the war, a total of 275 people had been buried here in individual and mass graves. This section of the cemetery was later forgotten – as were the fates of the victims of Nazi medical crimes. The burial sites are classified as war graves and victims’ graves under Austrian legislation governing their maintenance. Their history has been researched and documented by the State of Lower Austria and the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Together with Landesklinikum Mauer, these institutions are responsible for the long-term preservation and care of the site.

Concept: “Layered Memories”
The memorial was designed by artist and architectural historian Azra Akšamija and draws attention to the section of the cemetery dating from the Nazi period. The landscape itself becomes a medium of remembrance. The unmarked burial ground will remain undeveloped so as to preserve the dignity of the site. The open space also serves as a reminder of how the victims were treated under National Socialism and in the decades that followed. The memorial’s wall elements and pathways mark the area of the former cemetery, while the enclosure traces its original boundaries. The materials used for the walls also refer to the places where the victims died: brick represents Mauer-Öhling, limestone Gugging and Am Steinhof, slate Meseritz-Obrawalde, and split concrete block Hartheim. The interlocking layers of different materials in the memorial wall form a geological landscape of memory that can be experienced both visually and physically.

The names and dates of birth and death of the 2,848 victims are inscribed on small metal plaques, preserving their memory. In this way, a measure of their identity is restored to them, and they can be commemorated with dignity. The plaques can move in the wind, producing sounds as they come into contact with the wall and with one another. This creates an intangible yet palpable sense of the victims’ presence. Their names also represent all the patients of Mauer-Öhling who experienced stigmatisation and exclusion under National Socialism and later suffered or died as a result of the crimes committed against them.

Initiative: Landesklinikum Mauer
Project sponsor: State of Lower Austria
Project management: Department of Arts and Culture/Art in Public Space Lower Austria
Artistic concept: Azra Akšamija
Architecture and construction management: Derntl Derntl GmbH and WAY Architecture ZT GmbH
Academic advisors: Michael Resch, Tanja Wünsche
With financial and conceptual support from: Federal Ministry of the Interior (Department III/S/3, Historical Affairs) and the Future Fund of the Republic of Austria