Memorial plaque for the architectural history of the Landhaus (Gauhaus) Innsbruck

Due to space constraints, the Tiroler Gauleitung decided without consulting Berlin in 1938 to build a Gauhaus. The ideas competition was won by the brothers Walter and Ewald Guth. They envisioned a four-story, monumental central building, determined by a symmetrically designed southern façade with a high, projecting central risalit. The concavely curved side wings followed the idea of the "abstraction of a rising eagle." Numerous interventions changed the building in favor of a Nazi-classical orientation. The Gauhaus housed exclusively NSDAP offices. Already on May 6, 1939, the first celebration took place; three months later, offices were occupied; by the end of 1941, the building was completed. Part of the total costs were covered by the sale of the Canisianum, which had been stolen from the Jesuit Order, and indirectly also by three "arianized" properties. For the Berlin central offices, the Gauhaus was a failure. Its official designation was therefore only Landhaus extension building, and there was no official opening. The Tyrolean state government moved there in 1955. After criticism from the journalist Markus Wilhelm, the state government decided in December 2018 to complete the pending processing of the building's history. An expert commission presented the research report by Christian Mathies and Hilde Strobl in September 2020. In April 2021, the state government installed a commemorative plaque with a text by state archivist Christoph Haidacher in the entrance area of the Landhaus.