Memorial Plaque for Theodor Herzl at Mozartplatz

On September 10, 2002, the then mayor Heinz Schaden, in consultation with the IKG Salzburg, had a memorial plaque for Theodor Herzl (1860–1904) installed. The granite plaque, which commemorates the pioneer of political Zionism, is today located between the tourism office and various shops. However, this was only the climax of a long history of its creation. A first memorial plaque for Theodor Herzl was already attached to the façade of Herzl's former workplace (Mozartplatz 5) in July 2001. This plaque contained an incomplete quote from Herzl; the lines in which he stated that he could never become a judge in Salzburg as a Jew were not engraved. After an intervention by the International Summer Academy of Fine Arts under the direction of Wolfram P. Kastner and Wolfgang Krenn, a public debate about the city of Salzburg's handling of its past was sparked. The installation of a new plaque, showing the full quote by Herzl, was initiated after the then federal president Thomas Klestil and the former president of the Austrian Israelite Communities Federation, Ariel Muzicant, had also intervened.