Participation process for expansion of the Gusen Memorial

In 2021-22, the Republic of Austria purchased several properties at the site of the former Gusen I concentration camp and the entrance area to the “Bergkristall” tunnel system built by prisoners in St. Georgen an der Gusen. With your participation, the existing memorial will be developed further.

In order to ensure the broadest possible engagement of all regional, national and international interest groups right from the start, the Mauthausen Memorial launched a participation process to develop a master plan with design and functional guidelines.

After a comprehensive baseline survey was completed, the art:phalanx communications agency and architectural firm heri&salli began their work with the participation formats in August 2022.

Workshops, information events and interviews, including some with survivors of the Gusen concentration camp, ensure transparency and a collaborative partnership with the various interest groups, including representatives of victimised nations and victims’ organisations as well as the regional population. The diverse range of ways to actively participate in the design of the future memorial have been received very positively.

We are pleased to present our summary of Phase 1 (analysis phase) of the participation process for expansion of the Gusen Memorial.

The collected findings open up a broad all-round view of the interests of the process participants with regard to the expansion of the Gusen Memorial. All in all, the results offer a meaningful basis for the consolidation of the participation process in phase 2, and thus also for the development of the master plan.

The present summary is also an expression of the great commitment of all of the participants, and the result of their meaningful contributions and the constructive, respectful discussions that were held in all of the different participation formats.

Structure of the summary documents

The Part 1 document contains introductory comments, an abbreviated version of the evaluation and a planning analysis, and a look ahead to phase 2 (consolidation phase). Part 2 presents a detailed evaluation of the data we have gathered.