Gerhard Skiba
Encyclopedia
Gerhard Skiba of the Austrian Social Democratic Party was elected mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 of the city of Braunau am Inn
Braunau am Inn
Braunau am Inn is a town in the Innviertel region of Upper Austria , the north-western state of Austria. It lies about 90 km west of Linz and about 60 km north of Salzburg, on the border with the German state of Bavaria. The population in 2001 was 16,372...

 in 1989. He became internationally known after setting up a memorial stone
Hitler birthplace memorial stone
The Hitler birthplace memorial stone is a memorial to victims of the Nazis placed in front of Salzburger Vorstadt 15, Braunau am Inn, Upper Austria, the building where Adolf Hitler was born in 1889.-Birth house of Hitler:...

 for the victims of Fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

 in front of the house where Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

 was born.

In 1992 representatives from Bautzen
Bautzen
Bautzen is a hill-top town in eastern Saxony, Germany, and administrative centre of the eponymous district. It is located on the Spree River. As of 2008, its population is 41,161...

, Mauthausen
Mauthausen
Mauthausen is a small market town in Upper Austria, Austria. It is located at about 20 kilometers east of the city of Linz, and has a population of 4,850 .During World War II, it became the site of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp complex....

, Wunsiedel
Wunsiedel
Wunsiedel is the county town of the Upper Franconian district of Wunsiedel in northeast Bavaria, Germany. The town became well known for its annual Luisenburg Festival and the Rudolf Hess Memorial March held by the Neo-Nazis here until 2005.- Geography :...

 and other towns with an “unwelcome heritage” followed his invitation for the 1st Braunau Contemporary History Days. "Old city": 750 years Braunau am Inn will be the title of the 19th Contemporary History Days in September 2010.

On August 11, 2006 Gerhard Skiba invited Gunter Demnig
Gunter Demnig
Gunter Demnig is a German artist. He is best known for his "Stolperstein" memorials to the victims of Nazi persecution and oppression in Nazi Germany.- Biography :...

, an artist from Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

 to lay four Stolpersteine
Stolpersteine
Stolperstein is the German word for "stumbling block", "obstacle", or "something in the way". The artist Gunter Demnig has given this word a new meaning, that of a small, cobblestone-sized memorial for a single victim of Nazism...

 for victims of the National Socialism in Braunau am Inn.

Gerhard Skiba was awarded the Elfriede Grünberg Prize in 2007 to honor his merits to struggle National Socialism. The award is named after Holocaust-Victim Elfriede Grünberg. In 2006 also Leopold Engleitner
Leopold Engleitner
Leopold Engleitner is a Holocaust survivor and conscientious objector who speaks publicly on his experiences with students. He is the subject of the documentary Unbroken Will...

 (104), the oldest survivor of the concentration camps Buchenwald, Niederhagen
Niederhagen concentration camp
The Niederhagen concentration camp was a German concentration camp on the outskirts of Büren-Wewelsburg which existed from September 1941.-The camp:...

 and Ravensbrück
Ravensbrück concentration camp
Ravensbrück was a notorious women's concentration camp during World War II, located in northern Germany, 90 km north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück ....

, received the Elfriede Grünberg Prize.

In 2007 Gerhard Skiba presented the Trapp Family with the Egon Ranshofen-Wertheimer
Egon Ranshofen-Wertheimer
Egon Ranshofen-Wertheimer was a diplomat, journalist, doctor of laws and state.-Early life:...

Award, which was founded in order to honor Austrians who stood up for and represented Austria in an extraordinary way abroad.

On September 23, 2010 Gerhard Skiba resigned for health reasons.

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