Vienna plans to erect monument to guest workers

A monument honoring guest workers is planned in the Austrian capital, Vienna, welfare organization Volkshilfe Wien (VHW) announced in a statement Tuesday.

VHW said labor migration has played a decisive role in Austria’s development and that the monument is intended to give this history a permanent place in public space.

According to VHW, further steps toward implementation are underway. Vienna’s City Councilor for Culture Veronica Kaup-Hasler announced plans for a public call for proposals through KOR Kunst im offentlichen Raum Wien (Art in Public Spaces in Vienna).

The monument is to be financed primarily through donations. Kaup-Hasler said it is expected to cost a maximum of €250,000.

The project is also intended to facilitate scholarly research into the history of people who lived and worked in Vienna, with the findings to be presented in a space in the city’s Favoriten district.

The monument is planned near what is now Vienna’s main train station, Hauptbahnhof, close to the site of the former Sudbahnhof. It was there that guest workers from what was then Yugoslavia and Türkiye arrived in Vienna in the 1960s and 1970s.

“Anyone who talks about Austria’s prosperity must also talk about the people who helped build it. For generations, people have come here to work and build a life for themselves,” Tanja Wehsely, executive director of VHW, said in the statement.

“Their work and their life stories are still not visible enough in the public sphere. The monument is intended to give them the place in our collective memory that they deserve,” she added.

According to the Austrian Chamber of Labor, approximately 265,000 guest workers arrived between 1961 and 1974 under recruitment agreements.

About 200,000 came from the former Yugoslavia, accounting for around 80% of all guest workers.

About 30,000 came from Türkiye. The recruitment agreement with Ankara was signed in 1964.

Fewer than 1,000 came from Spain.