The Outer Burgtor

Monument and memorial

When the French troops march into Vienna in 1809, Napoleon has sections of the fortifications blown up. The city gate also falls victim to the destruction. Emperor Francis I of Austria has it rebuilt when the French leave.

The Latin inscription on the Ringstraße side reads, “Franciscus I Imperator Austriae” (Francis I, Emperor of Austria). And next to it, in Roman numerals, the year in which the gate is completed, 1824. The Heldenplatz side bears Emperor Francis I’s Latin motto,”Iustitia Regnorum Fundamentum” (justice is the foundation of kingdoms).

The stylised laurel wreaths mounted on the Ringstraße side are a reminder of a charity campaign for the loved ones of fallen WW1 soldiers. The most prominent donors, the top commanders of Austria-Hungary and its allies, are immortalised by four laurel branches in the upper middle of the Outer Burgtor.

Inside the Burgtor are 3 memorials. First the heroes’ memorial for fallen WW1 soldiers, accessible via the steps on the narrow sides of the Burgtor. Adolf Hitler laid a wreath here in 1938. After WW2 a crypt is dedicated to the fallen Austrian soldiers of the German Wehrmacht in the right wing of the Burgtor. It is not until 1965 that a room is added in the left wing commemorating the Austrian Resistance against National Socialism. The crypt and memorial room are accessible from the Heldenplatz side. Since 2014 the concept of the heroes’ memorial has acquired a new definition.

The existence of these 3, very different memorials in the Outer Burgtor symbolise the contradictions in Austrian collective memory regarding National Socialism, the Holocaust and WW2.