15 Years of Guided Tours in the Bergkristall Underground Memorial in St. Georgen/Gusen

October 20th, 2025

On October 20, 2025, the Mauthausen-Gusen Memorial held a ceremony along with the recent meeting of the Mauthausen International Advisory Board at the House of Remembrance and in the former "Bergkristall" underground plant in St. Georgen.

The ceremony focused on the guided tours of „Bergkristall“, which have been offered regularly for 15 years now.

Since 2010, the „Bergkristall“ underground memorial was accessible for approximately 50 days, 500 visitor groups and 20,000 visitors. Also up to 1,000 hours of educational work were carried out.

The ceremony was rounded off with a memorial ceremony in the tunnel system and special tunnel tours, in which GMC members Julia Mayr and Bernhard Mühleder participated. Tamina Mayrwöger sang songs, one of which was originally composed in Concentration Camp Gusen I. The Gusen Memorial Committee (GMC) was also represented at the ceremony by President Reinhard Kaspar and founding member Prof. Rudolf Haunschmied.

Over many years, Prof. Rudolf Haunschmied laid essential foundations which have made the tunnel tours in "Bergkristall" possible for the past 15 years. This includes, for example, supporting Dr. Wolf Szymanski (head of department in the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior) in 1999 and 2000 in regulating the legal succession to „Bergkristall“ by the Republic of Austria after the Greater German Reich and entrusting the tunnel system to the care of the Austrian Federal Real Estate Company (BIG) by law. From 2000 onwards, he also supported the municipality of St. Georgen/Gusen in requesting the official bodies of the Republic of Austria to create a worthy memorial in „Bergkristall“. Haunschmied also informed BIG construction experts, such as site manager Karl Lehner, about the world-historical significance of „Bergkristall“ in order to ensure that this legacy of the prisoners of the former Gusen II concentration camp was handled with care during the planning of the securing work on the huge tunnel system. Finally, in 2009, Prof. Haunschmied obtained a halt to construction from the Austrian Federal Minister of Economic Affairs, Dr. Reinhold Mitterlehner to prevent the backfilling of the entire tunnel system, which was already underway then. In 2009, Mr. Haunschmied also participated in the development of a memorial concept for „Bergkristall“, which was then led by the Mauthausen Memorial. In 2010, together with Secretary General Albert Langanke, he organized the first official guided tour of the „Bergkristall“ tunnels for members of the International Mauthausen Committee (IMC) in the then new underground Bergkristall Memorial in St. Georgen. As an expert on "Bergkristall", colleague Haunschmied has also led countless guided tours of the tunnels for the Mauthausen Memorial in St. Georgen since 2010.

The continued interest of many thousands of visitors to this day underscores the great significance of the efforts made by members of the Gusen Memorial Committee (GMC) to save "Bergkristall".

We wish for ourselves that thousands of interested people from all over the world will take advantage of the opportunity to take a guided tour through „Bergkristall“ with the Mauthausen-Gusen Memorial in the coming decades, thus keeping the memory of the former Gusen II concentration camp alive, which was once one of the worst concentration camps of Nazi Germany.

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