Since 2015, the Literature Museum of the Austrian National Library has been a unique place to engage with literature. 650 exhibits by around 200 authors, 60 audio and video stations, large-scale stagings and numerous events, workshops and guided tours for almost all age groups show how diverse and lively the museum and literature are.
Celebrate the tenth anniversary with us!
Daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursdays also until 9 p.m.
Available at the Literature Museum or in selected coffee houses in Vienna.
Exciting questions and attractive prizes will await all those interested in literature (in German only).
Definitely not just the printed book. It is even possible to imagine literature without spoken or written words. This permanent exhibition begins with a presentation of Franz Kafka's famous story 'The Metamorphosis' translated into sign language. And right next to it, there is a pair of torn trousers. They belonged to Thomas Bernhard and tell the story of how the material for a pair of trousers can become the material for a play. Literature includes both comics and graphic novels. We are constantly rediscovering what literature can be. It can be found in Netflix series as a dramaturgy that has been tried and tested for thousands of years. It can consist of a single word, sometimes a few sounds, or a one-thousand-page novel. The great Austrian wordsmith Ernst Jandl would have celebrated his hundredth birthday in 2025. He wrote a poem that provides a good answer to the opening question:
We are often asked this question. And we asked ourselves the same question when creating the Literature Museum. The answer is, of course, yes, it can. Our exhibition is not a book, not an encyclopaedia, not a literary history, not a theatre performance, not a lecture – but it has something of everything, and at the same time it is something completely unique and new. The location is a great advantage.
The first impression of the museum is not conveyed by an object, but by the atmosphere of an archive that could also be an unusual theatre space. The impression of space is created by the labyrinthine passages with wooden shelves reaching up to the ceiling, constantly opening up new perspectives. Lounge areas, a film space, cubicles and niches make this place unique. The Literature Museum has been integrated into the listed architecture of an archive building opened in the revolutionary year of 1848. A historic interior design meets a contemporary museum. The commitment to space goes hand in hand with a design decision: literature is given a stage. Its material is language, from the highest register to everyday language, from dialect to multilingualism. It has room for angry accusations and love poems. Literature appears on the stage that is the museum in all its forms: sometimes as a valuable manuscript, sometimes as a literary letter, as a novel-like wide-screen panorama or a concise note; as a scene from a play or an excerpt from a film; or in interaction with photography, film, music and the visual arts.
With its numerous audio and film stations, large-scale projections and installations, the Literature Museum is not only an unusual reading room, but also a listening and viewing room. It is about the joy of literature, the sensual qualities of language, voices, sounds, images, printed and handwritten texts, almost illegible and crystal-clear manuscripts. There is much to discover here: recordings of poets' voices from the distant days of the beginning of the 20th century, voices from exile, voices of contemporary authors. There are recitations and performances, narrations, commentaries and even polemics.
Which films did Franz Kafka see? How was 'The Good Soldier Švejk' filmed in the 1920s? What were the horrific images from the front lines of the First World War that Karl Kraus had in mind when he wrote his drama of humanity, 'The Last Days of Mankind'? What did the uniform worn by Arthur Schnitzler's famous 'Lieutenant Gustl' look like? What were the objects and documents that Christoph Ransmayr incorporated into his novel 'Morbus Kitahara'? All of this is revealed in the museum, not in isolation, but in its aesthetic, linguistic, historical and political contexts.
After all, literature transcends borders, regardless of where and how it was created. You can be travelling in Patagonia and read a story from Carinthia, or vice versa. Austrian authors are not a national football team. The answer is that all literature is both world literature and regional literature. But its creation is influenced by historical, linguistic and cultural developments. There is no denying that 'Austrian literature' has been shaped by the multi-ethnic and multilingual traditions of the multi-national Habsburg Empire, broadening the concept of 'German-language literature' and making the museum a European project. Austrian literature includes the works of those who fled into exile from the Nazis. Some never returned to Austria, partly because it took too long for them to be invited back. Today, this literature includes texts by authors who have roots in many parts of the world and speak many languages.
Spread over two floors, the entire diversity and polyphony of Austrian literature from the Age of Enlightenment to the present day unfolds as visitors walk through the rows of shelves. The intertwining of historical and thematic chapters exemplifies what distinguishes Austrian literature: its close connection to music, the visual arts, all forms of theatre, including performance art; the frequent use of the grotesque, satire and polemics; but also its insistence on the sweeping grand narrative. An important aspect concerns the relationship between the metropolis of Vienna and the provinces on the edges of the Habsburg Empire and neighbouring Germany. The definition of what should and can be considered Austrian is closely linked to Austrian literature.
The Museum was set to music by trombonist Bertl Mütter, who, together with his colleagues, made it the venue for a musical procession as part of the Wien Modern festival. The Museum pays regular visits to the neighbouring Metrokinokulturhaus. Hundreds of authors, critics, literary scholars, artists, actors, famous and less famous, young and old, with and without a migrant background have been guests. For the 100th anniversary of the birth of Franz Kafka, we co-produced a film about the last stages of his life. To mark what would have been Ernst Jandl's 100th birthday, an online poetry competition for young people is being held. And, of course, there are the special exhibitions: major solo shows on Ingeborg Bachmann and Stefan Zweig, Friederike Mayröcker and central figures of Viennese Modernism alternate with thematic exhibitions. The exhibition on 'World Author' Stefan Zweig has been on tour around the world for years. The show on Ingeborg Bachmann is currently on view at the Casa di Goethe in Rome. And the exhibition marking the centenary of the birth of the great poet Friederike Mayröcker will transfer to the Strauhof Museum in Zurich in July 2025.
Other exhibitions have explored the relationship between 'utopias and apocalypses', delved into the 'rapture of writing', focused on displaced and persecuted writers, and looked at Vienna through the lens of literature. Stories of origin are at the centre of the current special exhibition ‘Where We Come From’. The eponymous question concerns us all and is at the centre of literature.
In everything we do, we ask ourselves again and again: What is literature? What can it do? What do we need it for? No, we don't ask ourselves whether we need it. Of that, we are convinced. The self-confident, playful, careful use of language is the foundation of our coexistence. No more, no less.
With this in mind, join us in celebrating 10 years of the Literature Museum of the Austrian National Library!
