Another Case of Making Choices: Alpine terrain, large-scale sites and mass finds of the 20th century

Abstract

As in many other European countries, Austria's archaeologists have been dealing with the remains from two World Wars as part of excavations for years. Over the last 20 years, three topics have become very important in Austrian Heritage Management and the following contribution attempts to give an overview. The three big issues are: There are still an unknown number of camps from both World War II and World War I Alpine terrain holds the remains of two World Wars on slopes and ridges of up to 3000m above sea level. These sites present challenges in terms of climate change, tourism and public interest in an area of conflict. Industrially produced mass finds of the 20th century from excavations can be connected with atrocities from the two wars and are therefore worthy of protection. Who decides, and on what basis?