An online lecture by Herwig Czech, University Professor, History of Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, organised as part of the CEU Presidential Lecture Series. PRESENTER / Herwig Czech, Medical University Vienna RESPONDENT / Ina Friedmann, Wissenschaftsbüro Innsbruck INTRODUCTION / Michael Laurence Miller, CEU MODERATOR / Michael Ignatieff, President and Rector, CEU When the Heil- und Pflegeanstalt "Am Steinhof" was opened in 1907, it was one of the largest and most generous psychiatric institutions in Europe. After Austria’s Anschluss to the Third Reich in 1938, Steinhof became one of the focal points of the Nazi regime’s internal war against psychiatric patients and persons with mental disabilities. Between 1940 and 1945, as part of the “child euthanasia” program, a so-called “special children’s ward” named Am Spiegelgrund existed on the Steinhof premises where approximately 800 children and young people lost their lives. In the context of the so-called “Operation T4,” more than 3,200 patients were deported in 1940/41 and gassed at Hartheim Castle near Linz. After the official halt to “T4” in August 1941, “euthanasia” was continued at Steinhof by means of deliberate malnutrition and systematic neglect, to which 3,500 patients fell victim. The lecture gives an overview of Steinhof’s role during National Socialism and addresses the enduring legacy of these crimes. Learn more: www.ceu.edu Subscribe for more videos: https://www.youtube.com/CentralEuropeanUniversityChannel

A lecture by Edith Sheffer Senior Fellow at the Institute of European Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Organised by Central European University (Vienna, 18th of February 2021). PRESENTER / Edith Sheffer, University of California, Berkeley RESPONDENT / Paul Weindling, Oxford Brookes University INTRODUCTION / Michael Laurence Miller, CEU MODERATOR / Michael Ignatieff, President and Rector, CEU Learn more: www.ceu.edu Subscribe for more videos: https://www.youtube.com/CentralEuropeanUniversityChannel

A lecture by Leslie Topp, Professor of Architectural History at Birkbeck, University of London. PRESENTER / Leslie Topp, Birkbeck, University of London RESPONDENT / Emese Lafferton, CEU INTRODUCTION / Michael Ignatieff, President and Rector, CEU MODERATOR / Michael Lawrence Miller, CEU When the Steinhof psychiatric hospital complex was opened in 1907 it was publicised and acclaimed in superlatives: the largest, the most advanced, the epitome of the modern psychiatric facility. But what modern meant in terms of psychiatric hospital design was not at all self-evident in the early twentieth century, and sceptical voices from within and beyond the psychiatric profession saw the very institution of the asylum as outdated and oppressive. Otto Wagner was only one of a series of advanced architects across the Austrian lands of the Empire who sought to make a tired institution culturally meaningful through architectural, landscape and small-scale urban design. But while other designers opted for the familiar imagery of the organic village, Wagner imagined the hospital complex as a utopian city on a hill, recasting carceral control and isolation as advanced master planning in an early modernist mode. This lecture situated Steinhof in the context of the other psychiatric hospitals of the region, and architectural and psychiatric history more broadly, arguing that it embodies a difficult modernity. Learn more: www.ceu.edu Subscribe for more videos: https://www.youtube.com/CentralEuropeanUniversityChannel