Theater Museum

The Theater Museum (formerly: sterreichisches Theatermuseum ) is a federal museum located in Vienna’s Palais Lobkowitz.The Theater Museum is currently part of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien and has been located in Vienna’s Palais Lobkowitz since 1991.

The museum’s beginnings may be traced back to the Austrian National Library’s theatrical collection, which goes back to the Baroque period.Under the direction of Joseph Gregor, the theater collection was established as an independent organization in 1922, and it was significantly expanded in 1923 with the purchase of the largest private theatralia collection then in existence, that of Burgtheater actor and Burgtheater director Hugo Thimig.A large portion of the collection was also donated by Stefan Zweig, who left his writings to the museum before escaping the Nazis in 1938.With Hermann Bahr’s estate, the museum has Austria’s most important literary heritage of Viennese Modernism.

The theater collection should include all aspects of the theater, not simply literary and historical material.For decades, there have been plans to establish a theatrical museum.However, the Austrian Theater Museum, which was originally situated in the Hanuschhof close to the Vienna State Opera, was formed in 1975 with the primary purpose of presenting exhibitions using the Austrian National Library’s existing material.Because there was soon insufficient room for the holdings, the Republic of Austria purchased the adjoining Palais Lobkowitz, which opened as the Austrian Theater Museum on October 26, 1991.

With its opening, the Austrian National Library’s existing theater collection was joined with the holdings of the Theater Museum, resulting in one of the largest and most significant collections in the subject of theater, as well as the ability of exhibiting them in elegant showrooms.The Austrian Theater Museum became a legal element of the scientific entity Kunsthistorisches Museum in early 2001.The contents of the Vienna State Opera Museum, formed in 2005 and formerly separate, were absorbed into the Theater Museum on September 1, 2014.

The theater museum houses approximately 1,000 stage models as well as 600 costumes and accessories spanning three centuries.The museum’s collection comprises over 100,000 drawings and graphics, as well as over 700,000 theater photographs.The stick puppets by Art Nouveau artist Richard Teschner, particularly his figural mirror, are among the house’s most remarkable artifacts.The museum’s inventory has almost 2,000,000 individual pieces.

The Theater Museum’s specialty study library has around 100,000 books, journal volumes, stage materials, and playbills.The Austrian National Library still owns a substantial portion of the holdings, which may be researched using its catalogue.It is on loan to the Theater Museum indefinitely.

The estate of Hermann Bahr / Anna Bahr-Mildenburg, the greatest inventory of Viennese Modernism in Austria, is housed in the archive.There are other works by Alfred Roller, Max Reinhardt, Heinrich Schnitzler, Hugo Thimig, and Stefan Zweig.