Der “Verein für Heimatschutz in Steiermark“

“Good” and “bad,” “wrong” and “right”: such oppositions are a prominent feature of many of the publications written by cultural heritage organizations, resulting from the international cultural reform movement that established itself rapidly also in Austria, as a reaction to the landscape and cityscape transformations around 1900. The “Verein für Heimatschutz (Cultural Heritage Association) in Steiermark” (Styria), located in Graz, was founded in 1909 and is still in existence today, although it has been renamed “BauKultur Steiermark.” Based on the example of this local organization, an interdisciplinary team of authors examines the evolution of the cultural heritage agendas over the course of the twentieth century, in the context of national and regional searches for identity and (cultural) policy cooperations, but also of historical events and international architecture debates.