Monument Karl Renner

Karl Renner stood as State Chancellor at the cradle of the First and Second Republics, and from 1945-1950 he then was also the first Federal President of the Second Republic. The portrait head of Alfred Hrdlicka in the City Hall Park in Vienna stands in the center of a stone podium made of green labrador surrounded by a six-meter-high steel frame construction. For this reason, the monument earned derision from the Viennese, who said that the „chancellor was trapped in a birdcage.“

On closer inspection, it is noticeable that the bust is not in the center, but is slightly shifted toward Parliament and the Ring. Renner’s recommendation in March 1938 to vote for the annexation of Hitler’s Germany allegedly prompted Hridlicka to create this asymmetrical design.