Blick in den Schatten

The large-scale exhibition at the Stadtmuseum St. Pölten makes the harbingers of Nazism from the turn of the century, the period of the Nazi reign of terror and socio-political continuities up to the present tangible. “Blick in den Schatten. St. Pölten und der Nationalsozialismus” (gaze into the shadow. St. Pölten and Nazism) will cover a wider time frame than just the years from 1938 to 1945. The exhibition refuses to draw a line under the scrutiny of this inhuman epoch. In cooperation with Tangente, the Stadtmuseum St. Pölten is striving to examine and highlight the potency of urban history.

The exhibition should be a place where the history of St. Pölten’s citizens is recounted and new narratives are actively taken on. A place where material from city archives and museum repositories is made available to the public in support of remembrance processes. A place where knowledge is not only passed on, but also generated. One focus is on enabling visitors to actively participate in the exhibition process. In participatory workshops with school and other groups, the exhibition team’s research will continually develop and expand.

The themes of the exhibition offer incentives for groups to devote themselves to individual aspects of contemporary history. To pick up traces, ask questions and relate them to the present. Both in dialogue with school groups and during guided tours.