This paper examines the evolving assessment of recent architectural heritage within Austrian monument protec-tion, focusing on post-war and postmodern architecture. It traces the gradual recognition of twentieth-century buildings in heritage practice and discusses the theoretical relationship between postmodern architecture and postmodern heritage discourse. Drawing on concepts by Charles Jencks, Heinrich Klotz, Wilfried Lipp, and others, the author explores postmodernism as a cultural phenomenon characterized by pluralism, fictionality, irony, and the tension between elite and popular culture. Through Austrian case studies—from Hans Hollein’s commercial portals and the Haas House to the Hundertwasserhaus and other controversial landmarks—the article analyzes changing criteria of significance and protection. It argues that the evaluation of postmodern heritage requires a broader understanding of cultural value that embraces ambiguity, narrative, artistic expression, and the per-formative contradictions inherent in heritage preservation itself.