The Verdict That Burned - Palace of Justice
Behind its serene Neo Renaissance facade, Vienna's Palace of Justice hides the memory of 15 July 1927, when a shocking acquittal of three killers sent a furious crowd to set the building ablaze, and police rifles left 89 protesters dead on the streets.
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Opened by Emperor Franz Joseph in 1881 as the proud home of Austria's Supreme Court, the Justizpalast looks like the very embodiment of order and calm authority. Yet this building was the stage for the bloodiest day of Austria's First Republic. In January 1927, right wing war veterans in the village of Schattendorf shot two innocent people dead, a war invalid and a boy of eight. When a Vienna jury acquitted all three gunmen on 14 July 1927, the city's workers erupted. The next morning a furious crowd stormed this palace, hurled court files from the windows, and set it on fire, while protesters cut the hoses of the arriving fire brigade. Police president Johann Schober armed his officers with rifles and ordered them to fire into the crowds. By nightfall 89 demonstrators and five policemen were dead, hundreds lay wounded, and one of Europe's great law libraries had turned to ash. Historians see that day as the wound that pushed Austria's young democracy toward civil war.
Fatti principali
- 3 acquitted gunmen — A Vienna jury acquitted all three right wing veterans who shot two people dead at Schattendorf, the verdict that ignited the July Revolt.
- 89 protesters killed — Police fired live rounds into the crowds on 15 July 1927; 89 demonstrators and five policemen died, with hundreds more wounded.
- 1881 year — Emperor Franz Joseph personally opened the Neo Renaissance palace, built as the new home of Austria's Supreme Court.
📍 Schmerlingplatz 10-11, 1016, Wien