POPULÄRE DENKMÄLER UND POPULISTISCHE POLITIK. DIE MONUMENTALISIERUNG VON „VOLKSTYPEN“ IM WIEN KARL LUEGERS

The function usually assigned/expected of the monument was impressing, intimidating, and instructing. Against this concept of the monument stands the popular monument, which does not seek to instruct, edify or intimidate, which, as in the case of the Augustin-Fountain in Vienna’s 7th district, could even place a ‘drunkard’ on the pedestal instead of ‘heroic figures’, and which was nevertheless politically instrumentalised. The article describes the monuments that were erected or planned for popular ‘Viennese types’ in the 19th and early 20th centuries and shows the connections between the ‘mythification’ (in the sense of Roland Barthes) of these ‘folk types’ and Karl Lueger’s populist politics.