(formerly Museum für Völkerkunde/Museum of Ethnology) is a federal

FACTSHEET WELTMUSEUM WIEN
Organisation
The Weltmuseum Wien (formerly Museum für Völkerkunde/Museum of Ethnology) is a federal museum
that is part of the museum-group Kunsthistorisches Museum mit MVK und ÖTM, Wissenschaftliche
Anstalt öffentlichen Rechts
Dr. Sabine Haag, Director-General
Dr. Paul Frey, CFO
Directors
Dr. Steven Engelsman, Director
Dr. Barbara Plankensteiner, Deputy Director
Collections
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Africa south of the Sahara
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North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and Siberia
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East Asia: China, Korea, Japan
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Insular South-East Asia
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South-, SE-Asia, Himalayas
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Oceania and Australia
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North- and Latin America
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South America
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Collection of Photographs
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Library
Number of Objects
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200.000 ethnographic objects
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100.000 historical photographs
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146.000 prints
Recent Important Exhibitions
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„Benin – Könige und Rituale. Höfische Kunst aus Nigeria“ ( June 9, 2007 – Sept. 3, 2007)
Cooperation with the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin, the musée du quai Branly, the Art Institute
Chicago and the National Commission for Museums and Monuments Nigeria.
Bénin. Cinq siècles d’art royal. musée du quai Branly, Paris (Oct. 2, 2007 –Jan. 6, 2008)
Ethnologisches Museum Berlin (Feb. 7, 2008 - May 25, 2008)
Art Institute Chicago (July 8, 2008 – Sept. 21, 2008)
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„Made in Japan“ (April 22, 2009 - March 29, 2010)
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„James Cook und die Entdeckung der Südsee“ (May 12, 2010 – Sept. 13, 2010)
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Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn (Aug. 28, 2009 – Feb. 28,
2010)
Historisches Museum Bern (Oct. 7, 2010 – Feb. 13, 2011)
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„Sitting Bull und seine Welt“ (Dec. 10, 2009 - March 15, 2010)
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„African Lace. Österreichische Stoffe fuሷr Nigeria“ (Oct. 22, 2010 - March 14, 2011)
National Museum, Lagos (June 3, 2012 – Jan. 22, 2012)
vorarlberg museum, Bregenz (June 21, 2013 – Jan. 6, 2014)
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„Die Kultur der Kulturrevolution. Personenkult und politisches Design im China von Mao Zedong“
(Feb. 18, 2011 – Nov. 21, 2011)
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„China unter Mao“ Übersee Museum Bremen (autumn 2014 - spring 2015)
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„Naga – Schmuck und Asche“ (Feb. 1, 2012 – June 11, 2012)
Rubin Museum of Art, New York (April 26, 2013 – Sept. 16, 2013)
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„Fetish Modernity“ (Nov. 14, 2012 - March 4, 2013)
Royal Museum for Central Afrika, Tervuren (April 8, .2011 – Sept. 4, 2011)
Museo de América, Madrid (Dec.1, 2011 - April 9, 2012)
Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures, Prague (20.65.2012 – Sept. 16, 2012)
Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden (May 9, 2013 - July 21, 2013)
National Museum of World Culture, Stockholm (Oct. 19, 2013 - March 30, 2014)
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„Jenseits von Brasilien“ (July 18, 2012 – Feb. 25, 2013)
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Präsentation „Penacho. Pracht und Passion“ (from Nov. 15, 2012)
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„Getanzte Schöpfung. Asien zwischen den Welten“ ( April 17, 2013 – Oct. 5, 2014)
History of the Museum
Its comprehensive collections of ethnographic objects, historical photographs and books on non-European
civilizations make the Weltmuseum Wien – formerly the Völkerkundemuseum/Museum of Ethnology –
one of the foremost ethnological museums in the world.
Some of its ethnographic collections can be traced back to the 16th century. Exotic artifacts played a
seminal role in the Kunst- und Wunderkammer collections assembled in the Renaissance, and the one
amassed at Ambras Castle by Archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol included numerous ethnograpica, among
them objects from Mexico and Afro-Portuguese ivories. In the course of the Napoleonic Wars the “Ambras
Collection” was removed to Vienna where it was combined with the c. 250 objects brought back by Captain
James Cook (1728-1779) from his voyages, which were acquired in 1806, the collections assembled by the
Austrian expedition to Brazil (1817-1836), those of the naturalist Johann Natterer, and those collected
during the 1857 - 1859 circumnavigation of the globe undertaken by the Austrian frigate “Novarra” to form
the core of the “K.K. Ethnographischen Sammlung” (Imperial Ethnographic Collection).
Following the razing of the old city walls and subsequent extensive urban planning, the former HofCabinette (Court Cabinets) were replaced by the “K.K. Naturhistorisches Museum” (Imperial Museum of
Natural History) founded in 1876. Ferdinand von Hochstätter, its first director, divided the collections into
five sections, founding, as the fifth, a separate “Anthropologisch-Ethnographische Abtheilung”
(Anthropological-Ethnographical Department), the predecessor of the Museum of Ethnology. From 1899,
the year the “K.K. Naturhistorisches Hof-Museum” was opened, the department’s director was Franz
Heger. Hager was an active collector, and additional acquisitions by explorers and travelers, the AustroHungarian navy, and the generous patronage of the Austrian imperial family quickly enlarged its holdings.
Soon, the lack of space became inacceptable, especially after the incorporation of the 14000 ethnographic
artifacts and over 1100 photographs that comprised the collection assembled in 1892/92 by Archduke
Franz-Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, during his circumnavigation of the
globe. An enlargement of the galleries was now absolutely imperative, and the “Este Collection” was
displayed in the newly-built Corps de Logis of Hofburg Palace, initially intended to house living quarters.
After extensive consultations and planning, the altered understanding of Ethnology and the gradual
drifting-apart of the holdings of the Antrhopologisch-Ethnographische Abtheilung resulted in the
separation of the ethnological collections from the Naturhistorisches Museum and the establishment of an
autonomous museum in the Corps de Logis of Hofburg Palace. In 1928, the “Museum für Völkerkunde”
(Museum of Ethnology) was formally opened.
Following the privations of the interwar years, the Second World War and the salvages of the post-war
years when the museum served as a military hospital before becoming the temporary home of the
orthopedic hospital. The subsequent improving economic situation resulted in an innovative period at the
Museum of Ethnology. Exhibition spaces, depots and offices were now enlarged; a chemical laboratory, a
photographer’s studio complete with darkroom, a cabinet-maker workshop, and even an in-house printer
were established. Now the museum was able to produce its own exhibition catalogues, leaflets advertising
events and lectures, and similar printed material. The Museum of Ethnology hosted special exhibitions at
its two permanent branches, at Matzen Palace and the former Carthusian Monastery Gaming, and in
collaboration with countless other museums. Between 1988 and 1994, a museum-bus toured Austria,
showcasing temporary exhibitions that were changed every year or had a regional focus.
In the 1990s a reorientation and thus a complete redevelopment of the museum became imperative.
During the initial building phase (until 2001) the cellars were turned into depots. In 2001 the museum was
incorporated into the museum-family “Kunsthistorisches Museum mit Museum für Völkerkunde und
österreichiscem Theatermuseum”. Between 2004 and 2007 the remaining galleries open to the public –
renovated in the 1990s – also had to be closed for major building work. This phase comprised extensive
rebuilding work and redevelopments on all floors (e.g. installing a goods elevator and one for handicapped
visitors, complete overhaul of the electrical wiring and security system, installing a computer system,
removing the library, creating a new event-location, renovating the permanent galleries, enlarging the
restoration workshops including building a new depot for textile artefacts, restoring the marble and stucco
elements in the Corps de Logis, refitting and enlarging the restoration workshops, partially restoring the
permanent galleries, and constructing a total of c. 20000 m2 of new office space and study- and meeting
rooms in the attic.
The reopening of the museum was celebrated with the exhibition „Benin – Könige und Rituale“ (May 9,
2007 – Sept. 3, 2007). In 2008 one permanent gallery (“Divine Images. Southern Asia, South-East Asia,
Countries of the Himalayas”) was reopened. During the last few years the museum has attracted visitors by
staging a large number of important special exhibitions, becoming a permanent fixture in Vienna’s cultural
life.
On May 1, 2012 Sabine Haag, Director-General of the Kunsthistorisches Museum mit MVK und ÖTM, and
CFO Paul Frey installed the Dutchman, Steven Engelsman, as the new director of the museum. He
conceived a complete reorientation of the museum that was announced in April 2013. At the same time
the museum’s new name “Weltmuseum Wien” and its new CI were presented. Now the museum faces
what is probably its biggest reorganisation and restructuring since moving into the Neue Burg in 1928;
after a complete renovation of the galleries and a new installation of the permanent collection and the
public areas the museum is scheduled to reopen in 2016.
Address
Neue Burg, Heldenplatz, 1010 Vienna
www.weltmuseumwien.at
www.facebook.com/WeltMuseumWien
Opening Hours
Daily except Tuesdays, 10am – 6pm
Press contact
Nina Auinger-Sutterlüty, MAS (Head)
Ruth Strondl, MAS
Communication and Public Relations
Kunsthistorisches Museum mit MVK und ÖTM
1010 Vienna, Burgring 5
Tel.: + 43 1 525 24 – 4021 / -4024
Fax: + 43 1 525 24 - 4098
E-mail: [email protected]
www.khm.at
www.weltmuseumwien.at