About the project:

Historically burdened places and landscapes are an important but often neglected part of the Nazi regime’s violent history in the public perception. While central sites of crime such as the Mauthausen concentration camp are rightly part of public remembrance and educational work, there are still major gaps in research relating to properties that were used by the Nazi regime as official buildings and which today are also part of the real estate portfolio of ARE Austrian Real Estate, a subsidiary of the “Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft”

The Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on the Consequences of War will contribute to closing these gaps with the project “Kontaminiertes Erbe?” led by Barbara Stelzl-Marx. The first step is a pilot study that looks at a small sample of properties and examines their possible connection to the Nazi regime. Based on in-depth research on these buildings, a catalog of criteria will be developed for evaluating a larger number of properties. At the same time, the pilot study will test a procedure for identifying properties with Nazi-era connections within BIG’s extensive real estate portfolio. The first results are expected to be available in the commemorative year 2025.

The project is being carried out in cooperation with the University of Graz.