A Longing for Peace
80 Years since the End of the War in Linz – 1945/2025
Sehnsucht Frieden 031 Sehnsucht Frieden 004 Sehnsucht Frieden 014 M1 Sehnsucht Frieden 009 
City sign of Linz with the addition ‘City of Peace’, since 1986 Playground at Volksgarten, 1951 Franz Glaubacker, Lakeshore and barracks, 1948 Students doing cleanup work in front of the Bruckner School, 1946 Pin badge of the Austrian Peace Congress, 1950 Bomb damage on Handel-Mazzetti Street, 1944 Hans Wöhrl, Barrack camp on Salzburger Reichsstraße, Linz/Wegscheid, 1955
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.
Curators: Martina Zerovnik, Sebastian Piringer
Exhibition Design: koerdtutech and Larissa Cerny
| Date | Title | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Thu 22.10 | Press Conference: Death Positive Death is a very lively companion. Sometimes quiet, sometimes loud, often unexpected and at times longed for. And yet we prefer to push it far away from us. This exhibition brings it right into the center – gently, confrontationally and with humour and raw honesty. For we all have to die. | 10:00 am–11:00 am |
| Thu 22.10 | Opening: Death Positive. Because Dying Happens Death is a very lively companion. Sometimes quiet, sometimes loud, often unexpected and at times longed for. And yet we prefer to push it far away from us. This exhibition brings it right into the center – gently, confrontationally and with humour and raw honesty. For we all have to die. We celebrate life with “Totensemmeln” from Bäckerei Brandl and listen to the heavenly sounds of Blonder Engel. Free admission | 7:00 pm–9:00 pm |
| Fri 23.10 | Death Café at the Domcafé in Linz “I Miss You” Grief Support Café with Nicole Leitenmüller, crisis counselor for the Diocese of Linz. Meeting place: Domcafé, Domplatz 1, 4020 Linz | 4:00 pm–6:00 pm |
| Sun 25.10 | Public guided tour of the current exhibitions at the Nordico City Museum Duration: 60 minutes, max. 25 people, guided tour ticket: €4 (plus admission) No registration required (“first-come, first-served”) | 2:30 pm–3:30 pm |
| Sun 25.10 | Folding Origami Stars (during Kinderkulturwoche) Step by step, fold by fold, a star takes shape, and in the process we enter a state of focused, meditative calm. Those who wish can talk about life, memories, goodbyes, or losses; those who wish can share farewell rituals or thoughts on how we cope with the absence of a loved one and what connects us in that experience. For children and adults as part of Kinderkulturwoche | 3:00 pm–5:00 pm |
| Tue 27.10 | BestOff 2026: Artistic Research Roundtable 1 Artists Valentina Rodríguez Morales, Marcel-Nikodem Dziewulski, Marieluisa Lenglachner, and Katharina Maria Wimmer present their research projects under the thematic umbrella of extractivism, ecology, and fascism. The four projects examine systems of power and domination inscribed in materials and landscapes. The artistic research projects – which focus on coal, marble, Google data centers, and the Danube and Río Danubio rivers – combine material and historical research with personal and speculative perspectives. The event is part of the BestOff 2026 series at the University of Art and Design Linz. | 7:00 pm–9:00 pm |
| Fri 30.10 | Día de Muertos. The Festival of the Dead We’re using the evening before Halloween as an opportunity to celebrate life: a parade featuring paper skeletons and colorful skulls that you can take home. For children and adults | 3:00 pm–5:00 pm |
| Sun 01.11 | Writing Letters to the Dead Griefyards Writing Day with Poet Anja Grundner. | 1:00 pm–4:00 pm |
| Sun 01.11 | Public guided tour of the current exhibitions at the Nordico City Museum Duration: 60 minutes, max. 25 people, guided tour ticket: €4 (plus admission) No registration required (“first-come, first-served”) | 2:30 pm–3:30 pm |
| Tue 03.11 | BestOff 2026: Artistic Research Roundtable 2 The artists Katarina Matić, Andreas Popp, Hannah Lang, and Neha Chandel present their projects exploring the themes of memory, borders, and architecture. While Matić and Popp examine how stories are repressed and forgotten, Hannah Lang and Neha Chandel focus on how these processes are inscribed in architecture and geography. The artists’ works raise questions about how past conflicts persist in the present and how spaces can become sites of confrontation, but also of encounter and reconciliation. The event is part of the Kunstuniversität Linz’s BestOff 2026. | 7:00 pm–9:00 pm |
Publication
A book of the same name will be published to accompany the exhibition by Verlag Anton Pustet, Salzburg. Edited by Andrea Bina, Sebastian Piringer and Martina Zerovnik, with contributions by Gerda Forstner, Éva Kovács and Kinga Frojimovics, Johannes Kaska, Paul Mahringer, Bertrand Perz, Sebastian Piringer, Karin Schneider and Wolfgang Schmutz, Claudia Theune, and Martina Zerovnik.
Design: Larissa Cerny. Approx. 210 pages, €28
Available soon at shop.museenderstadtlinz.at or at the museum shop at Nordico.
Collaborations
The exhibition was developed in cooperation with the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI). As part of the commemoration year, the project also contributed to the online exhibition Liberation, Objects by the Mauthausen Memorial | Concentration Camp Memorial.
Participation Space
What are your thoughts on war and peace? Where do you see connections between history and the present, where does contemporary history continue to have an effect, and where has National Socialism left its traces? The participation space invites visitors of all ages to engage directly with the exhibition materials, ask their own questions, and leave them within the exhibition.