| This tour deals with the end of the war and the new beginning. After 53 Allied air-raids, the Red Army finally manages to liberate Vienna in a ten-day battle in April 1945 leaving almost 50,000 civilians and soldiers dead, 100,000 dwellings uninhabitable, and St. Stephen’s Cathedral gutted. The Red Army is in sole control, only later joined by the western Allied powers. People are traumatised, there is physical and emotional chaos and disorientation. But there is also a spiritual cohesiveness and the determination to make a fresh start. Paramount aims are reconstruction and political stability. But how to deal with hundreds of thousands of refugees, with the people liberated from concentration camps, returning prisoners of war, the invalids and orphans and the victims as well as the perpetrators of the Nazi regime? The tours route leads from Schwedenplatz to Heldenplatz, photos and archival material help to evoke the atmosphere prevailing in Vienna in those troubled times. |
