Discover 'The Forgotten Museum': An Exhibition on Austria's Cultural Past at House of Austrian History

This exhibition delves into the 'Museum of Austrian Culture' (MÖK), a now largely forgotten institution that existed in the Neue Burg. It explores the museum's founding in 1947, its mission to visually present Austria's cultural, economic, and social development, and its eventual closure in 1975, making way for other collections.

The Neue Burg once housed a significant, though now largely forgotten, institution: the Museum of Austrian Culture (MÖK). Founded as a department of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in 1947, the MÖK was established with the goal of visually representing Austria's history, focusing on its cultural, economic, and social development, and highlighting Austrian achievements. Following the years of Nazi rule, the museum emphasized its 'Austrian' identity and its role in public education, with a stated aim to foster critical observation to counter prevailing propaganda. Contemporary records and photographs depict the exhibition spaces filled with models, photographs, and didactic diagrams to convey complex themes. However, like the adjacent Museum of the First and Second Republic, the MÖK had a limited lifespan. Despite an expansion from three to six exhibition halls, its importance waned as the Neue Burg's spaces were reallocated to growing collections like the arms and musical instrument collections. The MÖK's presence at the Neue Burg concluded in 1975 to make way for the EphesosMuseum, and a brief revival in Eisenstadt in 1987 also proved short-lived, leading to its final closure in 1994.

This page focuses on the historical exhibition content. Specific ticketing information for current exhibitions or museum entry would be found on the museum's main website or ticketing pages.