Heldenplatz, or Heroes’ Square, located in the center of Vienna between the Hofburg and the Ringstraβe, holds a prominent place in the city's landscape and in Austrian memory. It is almost synonymous with the Anschluss and Adolf Hitler's speech there to mark the occasion on 15 March 1938. Peter Stachel delves into the history of this space—beyond Hitler—in Mythos Heldenplatz: Haupt- und Schauplatz der Republik, a revised edition of his 2002 book. Stachel has added analysis of more recent events and an explanation of how the name Heldenplatz emerged. Monika Sommer, director of the House of Austrian History—one of the most recent additions to Heldenplatz— has contributed a new introduction, and cultural-memory historian Heidemarie Uhl has added a chapter on the Heroes’ Memorial.

Stachel's research follows French scholarship from the 1990s on the memory of place. Austria, he asserts, is different from France, which has had a more uniform collective identity. He argues that in contrast to France, twentieth-century Austria has undergone several political transitions that have divided public memory. The book does not follow chronologically as the author analyzes the political space of Heldenplatz, “the main square of the Republic of Austria and the main square of recent Austrian history” (24). It begins with unrest on the square in 2002. An exhibition, “Crimes of the Wehrmacht,” held at the nearby Atelierhaus of the Academy of Fine Arts, resulted in protest and counterprotest on Heldenplatz that turned violent. Stachel then shifts to 1938 and Hitler's speech from the Neue Burg welcoming Austria into the German Reich, analyzing the myths associated with this event. This was not Hitler's first Anschluss speech; that took place the night before from a window of the nearby Hotel Imperial. The images of cheering crowds cannot be understood simply as a sign of enthusiastic support for the Anschluss; in fact, the author explains, schools and most businesses were closed to give the Viennese the opportunity to participate. Additionally, the image of 15 March and the celebrating crowd is of National Socialist origin. It depicts what its creators wanted—a large, euphoric crowd—and the question of how many people attended has been central to the discussion of Austria's participation in the National Socialist regime.

After a detailed analysis of literary references to Heldenplatz since the end of World War II, Stachel reminds readers that this space has a longer, symbolic history dating from well before the Nazi era. He begins with the Burgtor, originally one of the city's gates. Napoleon's troops destroyed the original in 1809, and its replacement, completed in 1824, served as a monument to the victory over Napoleon. The most dramatic reconfiguration of Heldenplatz and the surrounding urban landscape occurred with the razing of the old city wall and the construction of the Ringstraβe, beginning in 1857, and the subsequent construction of the Kaiserforum, the imperial symbol of monarchical power, which was never completed. The unveiling of additional monuments—in particular the equestrian statures of two military heroes, Archduke Charles and Prince Eugene of Savoy—followed construction of the Kaiserforum. These monuments transformed the square into Heldenplatz, as the site was referred to in 1865 upon the unveiling of the monument to Prince Eugene.

This book provides a detailed account of the construction and unveiling of the two monuments and analysis of the shifting symbolic appropriation of Prince Eugene: at first a celebrated Habsburg hero, then an Austrian figure in the first half of the 1930s, and subsequently a German national and National Socialist hero during World War II. Stachel reminds readers that the historical Eugene of Savoy is an uncomfortable fit for a German nationalist narrative: he was from a French-Italian noble family, preferred to speak French or Italian in private, and had a friendly relationship with Jewish court financier Samuel Oppenheimer. The real Prince Eugene had to be removed from historical reality, Stachel argues, to make him a useful symbol.

The Burgtor became a site of contestation during the 1920s. It came to dominate the political memory of Heldenplatz, particularly with the 1934 unveiling of the Heroes’ Monument dedicated to the dead of the Great War. Since that time, additional inscriptions have been added to this monument, and as such it serves as the sum of Austria's twentieth-century political identities. Uhl's chapter complements Stachel's analysis, highlighting the multiple, opposing memorializing functions of the Burgtor, which commemorated Austrians fallen in the Wehrmacht during World War II and, after 1965, also commemorated the “victims of the fight for Austrian freedom.”

As Stachel points out, Heldenplatz remains significant in the ongoing battle for Austrian political memory. For example, though the monument to Austrian Jews murdered in World War II was not yet erected on the square, in 2014 Heldenplatz became the home of a new memorial, one to “Victims of Nazi Military Justice,” a sign of Austria's struggle to collectively memorialize World War II. More recently, disputes on the square have taken places over the commemoration of 8 May, the date marking the end of the of World War II. Likewise, the annual Academic Ball hosted by Austria's Freedom Party at the adjacent Hofburg has led to demonstrations on Heldenplatz. These events serve as a reminder of the continued political importance of Heldenplatz and its role as a site tied to Austrian identity.

Stachel has produced a meticulously researched account of the square. He draws on contemporary descriptions and literary references as well as the larger secondary literature on memory. The book is richly illustrated—including numerous photographs and newspaper reproductions. This revised version is a welcome addition to the historiography of Habsburg and post-Habsburg Austria as well as to memory politics. It should appeal to a wide academic and general audience.