Détache-moi!/Zimmerflucht

The installation Austrian Suitcase features the house banner of our building in the 6th district in Vienna. After the end of World War II this banner in red-white-red was created from a former German flag cut in two and enlarged with a household scrap in white linen. At its center it clearly shows a darker, circular section where, during the NS-period, a field with a swastika had been affixed on the (then) German flag. The suitcase is that of Dr. Hans v. Karabacek, the building’s owner before, during, and after the war, and the tenant, with his family, of this space. It also contains two earlier house flags, one of which is composed of the colors of the monarchy, black and yellow. Karabacek’s own story of being measured for Jewish features at the Natural History Museum is related in “Immeasurable,” in Michael Huey, Inside Stories, Album Verlag, Vienna 2021, pp. 176-195.