The story of this place
Laid out in the 19th century before the Hofburg with equestrian statues of two military heroes, Heldenplatz entered history's darkest chapter on 15 March 1938. Days after German troops marched into Austria in the Anschluss, Adolf Hitler stood on the Hofburg balcony here and proclaimed the annexation of his homeland into the Third Reich before a crowd estimated at 200,000 cheering Austrians. The moment sealed Austria's absorption and foreshadowed the persecution of its Jewish population. After the war Austria long styled itself Hitler's first victim; the square is now a place of sober reflection on that complicity.