Memorial Julius Schlegel and Rescue of the Art Treasures Monte Cassino

The 1975 erected memorial in the Wertheimsteinpark consists of a base with inscription and a bust of Julius Schlegel. The bank employee was conscripted as an officer into the Wehrmacht in 1939 and served on various fronts. From May 1943, he served in the Parachute-Panzer-Division "Hermann Göring" in southern Italy, where he advanced to commander of the repair unit. When he realized that the monastery Monte Cassino was in danger due to its strategic location, he convinced the abbot of the monastery and personally transported the artistic treasures of the abbey, including unique manuscripts as well as the relics of Saint Benedict of Nursia, to Rome. The monastery was indeed severely damaged by Allied bombers in February 1944. Schlegel was seriously wounded in the summer of 1944 and returned home to Vienna as a war invalid, where he then worked in a paper shop. He was detained by the Allies as a suspected plunderer of the abbey, but was released again thanks to the statements of the monks from Monte Cassino. From 1954 to 1958, he served as a member of the Vienna Landtag and member of the municipal council for the Austrian People's Party.