Österreich. Tschechien. geteilt - getrennt - vereint

The occasion for this provincial exhibition was the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. It took place across borders for the first time, with the two Waldviertel towns of Horn and Raabs/Thaya and the UNESCO World Heritage town of Telč in the Czech region of Vysočina as the exhibition venues. The title of the exhibition referred to the eventful history of Austria and the Czech Republic.

The exhibition also aimed to facilitate mutual understanding, break down old ways of thinking, highlight differences and similarities and show visitors the interwoven history. “Only those who know history can understand it. And only those who can understand history can also learn from it,” said Governor Erwin Pröll at the opening. Austria and the Czech Republic are linked by a long and eventful history, and it was the accession of the two countries to the EU that opened the door to a completely new future.

The national exhibition was scientifically supervised by Stefan Karner on the Austrian side and Michal Stehlík on the Czech side. In his opening speech, Karner spoke on the topic of “Shared history from two sides”: “Throughout history, there have been people on both sides who have not only erected windbreaks, but also built windmills and thus made positive use of the wind.”

The exhibition was based on a wide range of exhibits from archives, museums and private collections in Austria and the Czech Republic, some of which had never been shown before. The Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on the Consequences of War and the ORF Lower Austria organized a contemporary history collection of more than 1,000 exhibits, the most touching of which were shown in the exhibition, such as homemade sandals made from car tires during Soviet captivity.

In the renovated Kunsthaus Horn, the shared history of the two countries was presented, especially that of the 20th century. There were numerous rarities on display - from a replica of the Wenceslas Crown to Emperor Karl's prayer stool and Colonel Redl's pocket watch to memorabilia from the time of the fall of the Iron Curtain.

In the restored Lindenhof in Raabs, the topic of “borders” was brought to life and questions such as why borders exist, what role nationalism played and the significance of denominations were explored. In Telč, the joint cultural output of Austria and the Czech Republic was presented in the castle, the town hall and the town gallery: Haydn, Mahler, Hoffmann, Schiele and Werfel are some of those artists whose personal histories are linked to both countries.

The first cross-border provincial exhibition was visited by 405,192 people. These guests brought 16.4 million euros in revenue to the Waldviertel. According to a study by Danube University Krems, the regional added value amounted to around 44 million euros. 36.8 million euros were invested in the region's infrastructure on the occasion of the provincial exhibition, 22 million of which came from the province itself.

Kunsthaus Horn
Lindenhof Raabs/Thaya
Telč Castle