Recontextualizing Medieval Heritage and Identity in Contemporary Austria

This book explores ways in which the medieval narrative past has been re-imagined in contemporary Austria. Focusing on the Styrian Literature Pathways of the Middle Ages, the Nibelung monuments in the cities of Tulln and Pöchlarn on the Danube River, and the Siegfriedskopf at the University of Vienna, it argues that each installation constructively applies medievalism to the process of working through the twentieth-century past. Sterling-Hellenbrand uncovers how medieval texts have been re-created in the Austrian landscape and how public installations make visible the values of the communities that build them. The author demonstrates how these modern installations facilitate an innovative process of engaged remembering: they prompt us to initiate challenging conversations about the past to tell different stories for the future.