Eighty years ago, the Second World War came to an end, and with it the National Socialist regime, which was responsible for the deaths of many millions of people. Linz was largely destroyed; thousands of its citizens were dead, injured, traumatised, homeless, displaced or murdered. The city’s supply systems had collapsed, and many people were forced to wait – sometimes for years – in the numerous barrack camps across the city for a new home, their return journey, or onward travel to a new place to live. Linz, under American and Soviet occupation, saw reconstruction – as did the rest of Austria – as a new beginning. At the same time, this period was used as an opportunity to portray the country’s entanglement in the National Socialist dictatorship as something externally imposed. The occupation also brought with it a collective sense of lost freedom, which did not end until the signing of the State Treaty in 1955.

During these years, with the help of the Allied powers, the foundations were laid for an Austria that sought to offer its citizens a life of the greatest possible freedom, justice, and security, guided by the principles of reason.

The exhibition explores how life in post-war Linz was shaped by these factors and what traces the past has left behind in the city and its people. At the same time, it provides space for the present and for personal impressions.