Karl Eibl Memorial

Karl Eibl (1891–1943), who had attended school in Krems and had been stationed in the city during the First World War, joined the Wehrmacht as a major in 1938. In 1943, he led a tank corps' advance during the attack on Stalingrad, where he lost his life. The Wehrmacht was an operational part of the extermination war on the Eastern Front 1941–1945.

The Brotherhood of Comrades St. Pölten-Krems erected a memorial for Karl Eibl in 1959. It was unveiled during the first reunion of Stalingrad fighters outside of Vienna. Krems was chosen as the location for this meeting, among other reasons, because the then mayor of Krems, Franz Wilhelm, had taken a stand against the condemnation of war criminals.

With the Karl-Eibl Memorial, Krems has the only memorial for a general of the Wehrmacht in the German-speaking area. It was initially located in the park near the Wachau Bridge in Krems and was only moved to its current central location in the 1970s. For over 60 years, wreath-layings by the city of Krems took place at the memorial. In 2021, the Kremser Historiker:innenbeirat finally initiated, as one of its first initiatives, an additional plaque.