Commemorative Project

This project researches and documents the fate of students, employees, and alumni of the University of World Trade (Hochschule für Welthandel, HWH), the institution that would later become today’s WU, who suffered political or racist discrimination or persecution after the Anschluss to Nazi Germany in March of 1938. Biographies of the victims have been collected in a virtual Memorial Book for the Victims of National Socialism, and their names are immortalized on the memorial sculpture erected on Campus WU, designed by Alexander Felch.

A brief description of the project is available in the project brochure. Peter Berger and Johannes Koll contributed articles on the purges at Austrian universities to the collection “Säuberungen” an österreichischen Hochschulen 1934-1945. Voraussetzungen, Prozesse, Folgen, edited by Johannes Koll, Böhlau-Verlag: Vienna/Cologne/Weimar 2017:

* Peter Berger: Die Wiener Hochschule für Welthandel und ihre Professoren 1938-1945

* Johannes Koll: „Da mosaisch zu den Rigorosen nicht zugelassen“. Verfolgung und Vertreibung von Studierenden an der Wiener Hochschule für Welthandel nach dem ‚Anschluss‘ Österreichs

* Johannes Koll: From Vienna to Malta. Interview with former student of the Vienna University of World Trade Robert Eder

* Johannes Koll: Nachwort

Provenance research

The aim of this project is to determine how many works published before 1945 became part of the library collection of the University of World Trade as a result of politically or racially motivated persecution. The corresponding research results are documented and the works are restituted to their rightful owners or their legal heirs whenever possible. A brief description of the project is available in the project brochure and further information can be found on the project website.