Brenner, Hohenems, Klingenbach, Spielfeld – Stefan Oláh

Borders are zones of separation, encounter and transition. They have many different effects on people's lived experiences.

The borders in Central Europe were redrawn after the First World War. Some of the resulting conflichts continue to this day. After the Second World War, during the Cold War, the Iron Curtain divided the communist countries of Eastern Europe from the democratic “West”. For decades, neutral Austria acted as a bridge between the two. With the collapse of the communist state system after 1989, the borders were opened. Once free trade in goods and the free movement of people were established, national borders within the EU seemed to lose their importance. Increasing movements of refugees and migrants as well as the spreading of the new Corona virus have led to temporary closing of borders, also in Austria.

Five border locations have been selected and examined at two different points in their history, making the various functions, experiences and changes of borders visible.

Brenner/Brennero 1963 | 1967 – Disputed Borders

The Brenner Pass over the Alps in Tyrol both connects and divides people. After the First World War, the 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain compelled Austria to cede South Tyrol to Italy. The highly controversial and emotionally charged redrawing of the border would repeatedly lead to conflict. In the 1960s, the building of the Europa Bridge was intended to make the Brenner region into a symbol of European unity. At the same time, ethnic conflicts in the region South Tyrol escalated.  

Stefan Oláh
„Brenner“, 2018

Photography

Hohenems 1938 | 1942 – Hope and Escape

When the river Rhein was diverted in 1910, the works created a land bridge between the towns of Hohenems, Vorarlberg, and the Swiss town of Diepoldsau. After the Anschluss in 1938, the border crossing offered Jewish people a possibility of escape to Switzerland. However, they were in no way received with open arms there. The Nazi regime gradually closed the crossing – before long, helping refugees became a crime punishable by death. 

Stefan Oláh
„Hohenems“, 2018

Photography

Andau and Klingenbach 1956 | 1989 – The Iron Curtain (falls)

In the 1950s, the Iron Curtain reached the border of Burgenland. Barbed-wire fences, watchtowers and death “strips dominated” this border area in the decades of the Cold War. Two sides have become synonymous with two different episodes: the bridge in Andau saw dramatic scenes in 1956 as people fled Hungary. In Klingenbach, by contrast, 1989 became a site symbolic of the tearing  down of the Iron Curtain.

Stefan Oláh
„Klingenbach“, 2018

Photography

Spielfeld/Špilje 1991 | 2015 – Protecting Borders

For centuries, the town of Spielfeld was in the heart of the bilingual Habsburg “crown land” of Styria. Under the Treaty of St. Germain of 1919, it became a frontier town between Austria and the country that would later become Yugoslavia. In 1941, the Nazi regime removed this border by incorporating “Lower Styria” (part of present-day Slovenia), into Styria. In 1945, at the beginning of the Cold War, the border was once more drawn through Spielfeld. The eyes of the world focused on Spielfeld during the Slovenian Independence War of 1991 and the “refugee crisis” of 2015.

Stefan Oláh
„Spielfeld“, 2018

Photography 

ⓘ  On display in the main exhibition.