• Jewish Museum Vienna
The Jewish Museum Vienna was founded in 1895 on a private initiative. Immediately after Austria's »Anschluss« (»annexation«) to the German Reich, the museum was forced to close. The museum was founded anew in 1988 on initiative of Viennese mayor Helmut Zilk. In 1993, the museum moved into the »Palais Eskeles« in Vienna's old town. Since 1996, an exhibition on the history of Viennese Jews from the Middle Ages until today has been on display in the museum.
Image: Vienna, undated, Pre-war view of the city, Stiftung Denkmal
Vienna, undated, Pre-war view of the city, Stiftung Denkmal

Image: Vienna, undated, Judaica collection of Max Berger, Jüdisches Museum Wien, Votava
Vienna, undated, Judaica collection of Max Berger, Jüdisches Museum Wien, Votava
Jews had been living in Vienna since the Middle Ages. At the beginning of the 20th century, the city was considered one of the most important centres of Jewish culture worldwide. In the waning years of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, many thousands of Jews came to Vienna from the empire's eastern provinces. This migration wave led to tensions between the mostly assimilated Viennese Jews and the poor and for the most part orthodox newcomers. Anti-Semitism, too, rose dramatically. Violent attacks on Jews took place already years before the »Anschluss«.
The Jewish Museum in Vienna was one of the world's first Jewish museums and was established in 1895 on a private initiative. It was supported and run by the »Society for the Collection and Preservation of Artistic and Historical Memorials of Jewry«. From 1913, the museum was located in Malzgasse in Vienna's Leopoldstadt.
In 1938, there were over 6,400 objects in the museum's collection. Directly after Austria's »Anschluss« to the German Reich in 1938, the SS administration and the police enforced the museum's closure. The collection was expropriated by the Gestapo and in 1939, the objects were transferred to the collection of the Viennese Museum of Ethnology. Moreover, museum workers from the ethnological department of the Museum of Natural History used part of the collection in the anti-Semitic propaganda exhibition »The Corporeal and Spiritual Properties of the Jews«.
Image: Vienna, undated, Pre-war view of the city, Stiftung Denkmal
Vienna, undated, Pre-war view of the city, Stiftung Denkmal

Image: Vienna, undated, Judaica collection of Max Berger, Jüdisches Museum Wien, Votava
Vienna, undated, Judaica collection of Max Berger, Jüdisches Museum Wien, Votava
The Jewish Museum deals with the changeful history of Jewish Vienna from the Middle Ages until today: the first medieval community until its expulsion, integration into bourgeois society and the murder of over 65,000 Austrian Jews under National Socialism.
Image: Vienna, undated, Workshop with children, Jüdisches Museum Wien, Votava
Vienna, undated, Workshop with children, Jüdisches Museum Wien, Votava
At the beginning of the 1950s, part of the items which had been expropriated in 1938 were returned to Vienna's Jewish community. However, over half of the original objects from the time before 1938 had been lost.
In 1988, the Republic of Austria, the City of Vienna, the Jewish Community of Vienna, the Viennese Philharmonic Orchestra and individuals jointly founded the Jewish Museum anew. The remaining exhibits from the first Jewish Museum's collection and a considerable Judaica collection of Max Berger constituted the core of the new exhibition.
In 1993, the Jewish Museum moved to its current location in the »Palais Eskeles« in Vienna's old town. The building underwent extensive modernisation in 1995/96. Since then, an exhibition on the history of Vienna's Austria-Jewish history from the Middle Ages until today has been on display in the museum.
In October 2000, the »Museum Judenplatz« was opened as a branch of the Jewish Museum.
Image: Vienna, undated, Exterior view of the Museum in the Palais Eskeles, Jüdisches Museum Wien, Votava
Vienna, undated, Exterior view of the Museum in the Palais Eskeles, Jüdisches Museum Wien, Votava

Image: Vienna, undated, Objects on display in the exhibition, Jüdisches Museum Wien, Votava
Vienna, undated, Objects on display in the exhibition, Jüdisches Museum Wien, Votava
Name
Jüdisches Museum der Stadt Wien
Address
Dorotheergasse 11
1010 Wien
Phone
+43 (1) 535 043 1
Fax
+43 (1) 535 042 4
Web
http://www.jmw.at
E-Mail
info@jmw.at
Open
Sunday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.



Possibilities
Permanent exhibition on the history of Austrian-Jewish relations, temporary special exhibitions, Judaica collection of Max Berger and historical collection, workshops and guided tours