Researching the History of the Viennese Adult Education Centres under National Socialism

"The practice of the adult education centres after 1945 has made it clear that this educational institution is not a place of suppression. On the contrary, the adult education centres helped initiate and fuel the contemporary history discussion in Austria long before the establishment of the university discipline. However, the adult education centers have paid little attention to their own victims," says Dr. Christian H. Stifter, historian and director of the Austrian Archives for Adult Education. "Without the cooperation of the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance (DÖW), this first documentation would not have been possible. After all, the extensive data entries of the Austrian Archives for Adult Education - a total of 8442 records - were matched with the victim databases of the Documentation Archive."

Although this research project was started late, in 2019, the Viennese adult education centres are, in European comparison with other metropolitan adult education institutions, pioneers in the field of victim research.
Due to the ongoing research, more and more names of persons who were deported, fled into (inner) emigration or committed suicide are becoming known.

• Overview of the research project
  
  
• Virtual Exhibition "The victims of National Socialism in the area of the Viennese adult education centres"
  
  
• Memorial pages in course programs of the Viennese adult education centres
  
  
• Speech text for the commemorative plaque unveiling at the Volkshochschule Ottakring