Gedenktafel US-General George S. Patton

On April 28, 2005, a memorial plaque was unveiled in the foyer of the building of the Spanish Riding School at Michaelerplatz in the Innere Stadt district, commemorating US General George Smith Patton and Colonel Charles Hancock Reed, who were involved in the repatriation of the Lipizzaner horses to Austria after the liberation from National Socialism in 1945. The plaque was donated by the Spanish Riding School. General George S. Patton Jr. (1885–1945) became well known during World War II for his successes against the Axis powers in North Africa, Sicily, and the Ardennes. On April 11, 1945, his 3rd Army, the US Third Army, liberated the concentration camp Buchenwald. Patton was also a horse lover. This fact is responsible for the fact that all horses of the state stables, which had been gathered within the area of influence of the German Wehrmacht, including the famous Lipizzaners from the Styrian Piber, were brought to safety by American troops. Under Patton's command, the stud that had already been moved to the West Bohemian Hostau was evacuated. The horses of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna and the federal stud Piber were reunited in Upper Austria and placed under the protection of the 3rd Army.