Memorial Plate for the Liberation of the City of Salzburg at the Hospital of the Brothers of Mercy with the Rainbow Division's Rainbow

In an extremely heavily trafficked curve of Rudolfskai, immediately next to the garage exit of the Hospital of the Brothers of Mercy, there is a red-yellow-blue rainbow and a plaque on a small concrete block. The painted rainbow, as well as many other such rainbows in the city and countryside of Salzburg, was painted by the 42nd Infantry Division of the US Army – better known as the Rainbow Division – during the post-war period. On May 4, 2005, the then mayor Heinz Schaden unveiled an additional commemorative plaque in the presence of the US Consul General William Wallung. The Rainbow Division was stationed in Salzburg between July 1945 and July 1996 and is today wrongly considered among the liberators of the city. In fact, Salzburg was liberated by the 3rd Infantry Division, but this division is far less present in the city's collective memory than the Rainbow Division, which may be due to the latter's extremely large presence in the city and its commander, Major General Harry J. Collins, who spent most of his retirement in Salzburg, where he was also buried after his death. The additional plaque attached to the rainbow was unveiled by Mayor Heinz Schaden on May 4, 2005.