Press: 19 Museen und 1 Zoo in Graz und der Steiermark

Welcome to the press page of the History Museum!

Here you find detailed information ans press images on current exhibitions and on the museum

At the heart of the History Museum lies the ways in which Styria has evolved and transformed itself from the High Middle Ages to the present. The ways in which Styria has changed over the last 900 years can be explored in the exhibition titled 100 x Styria. The Open Collections area shows the variety of the Cultural-Historical and Multimedia Collections, while the exhibition Bertl & Adele recalls the fate of two Graz schoolchildren in the Holocaust. Among the museum’s highlights is the ‘Ducal Hat of Styria’, which also decorates the Styrian coat of arms.

History Museum,

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Exhibitions

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About the History Museum

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Upcoming exhibitions and press dates

Temporary exhibition

Listen! Listen! 100 Years of Radio

Press release

History Museum

12.06.2024

Text and image material of the exhibitions

Temporary exhibition

It's All Work. Women between Paid Employment and Care Work, Fotoarchiv Blaschka 1950-1966

Press release

History Museum

02.03.2024 - 12.01.2025

Temporary exhibition

1934. The Price and Value of Democracy

Press release

History Museum

07.02. - 26.05.2024

Permanent exhibition

Why? Styria and National Socialism

Press information

History Museum

since 23.11.2022

Permanent exhibition

100 x Styria

Press release on the permanent exhibition

History Museum

Permanent exhibition

Open collections

Press information on the permanent exhibition

History Museum

Image material

Bettina-Habsburg-Lothringen, Head of Department Cultural History

Universalmuseum Joanneum/J.J. Kucek

View of the facade of the History Museum

Photo: UMJ/N. Lackner

View of the facade of the History Museum

Photo: UMJ/N. Lackner

View of the History Museum

Photo: UMJ/N. Lackner

View of the facade of the History Museum

Photo: UMJ/N. Lackner

View of the History Museum

Photo: UMJ/N. Lackner

View of the History Museum

Photo: UMJ/N. Lackner

View of the History Museum

Photo: UMJ/N. Lackner

View of the History Museum

Photo: UMJ/N. Lackner

View of the History Museum

Photo: UMJ/N. Lackner

History Museum,

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/J.J. Kucek

History Museum,

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/J.J. Kucek

History Museum,

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/J.J. Kucek

History Museum,

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/J.J. Kucek

History Museum,

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/J.J. Kucek

History Museum,

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/J.J. Kucek

History Museum,

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/J.J. Kucek

History Museum,

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/J.J. Kucek

Inner courtyard

Photo: UMJ

Grand Staircase Palais Herberstein by architect Joseph Hueber (1754/57), Sackstraße 16,

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/N. Lackner

Grand Staircase Palais Herberstein by architect Joseph Hueber (1754/57), Sackstraße 16,

Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/N. Lackner

About the History Museum

The Museum at Palais Herberstein is reinventing itself: from April 26, 2017 the History Musem combines the Cultural-Historical Collection with the Multimedia Collections of the Universalmuseum Joanneum under one roof. The Cultural-Historical Collection's mission is to document the 'province's cultural epochs from the Early Middle Ages to the present'. Opened in 1895 as the "Cultural-historical and Arts and Crafts Museum" in Graz' Neutorgasse, the collection has been housed in the Museum im Palais in Sackstraf3e since 2011.

It originates in an initiative of the sculptor Karl Lacher (1850-1908), who was fascinated by the movement arising from the first World Fair (held in London in 1851) that rebelled against the might of industrialisation and the accompanying symptoms of decline in craftsmanship. The collection's identity has been developed over the last few decades mainly in the direction of arts and crafts and design; the appointment of Bettina Habsburg-Lothringen as head of the collection in 2014 signalled the beginning of a reprofiling in the form of a return to the original mission. The Cultural-Historical Collection comprises some 35,000 objects from a range of areas: fashion, musical instruments, furniture, glass, ceramics, jewellery and scientific instruments.

The history of the Multimedia Collections began in 1958 as the Styrian 'Central Archive for Image and Sound Recordings'. In 1971 it was renamed the 'Image and Sound Archive', and in 2009 it became the 'Multimedia Collections'. Originally accommodated in Burgergasse and then in Palais Attems, the items, meanwhile grown to more than 2.5 million objects, were transferred to the Joanneum Quarter in 2011. Despite the growing importance for museums of photographs, sound and film recordings as documentary eveidence of periods, regions, and the history of technology,the Joanneum Multimedia Collection had been unable so far to position itself properly.

Reliving history

The interplay between both collections now enables us to view the evolution and transformation of Styria since the Middle Ages from ever fresh angles. Thanks to the Multimedia Collections, the 20th century is now also given appropriate space in coming exhibitions. The planned exhibitions also represent the first markers on the route that the History Museum has carefully set out for itself. Three areas will take centre stage in future: a focus on people, insights into the museum's storage depot, and relations with the region. The redesign of the museum as regards space has been carried out by INNOCAD Architectural Office.

Collected history in the new viewable storage depot

Under the motto 'Collected History', around 2,000 of the total of 35,000 objects are arranged for viewing as a dense collage, ordered by such themes as 'eating and drinking', 'travelling and transportation', or 'research and knowledge'. Over a surface area of some 4,800 square feet, musical instuments, furniture, technical devices, women's, men's and children's fashion, monstrances, tools, tiles and busts, locks, lamps and burial crosses, jewellery, clocks, bicycles and much more besides are on show. The concept of interior design, of the historical premises, is based on a flowing wall covering made of metal cable trays, which simultaneously serve as supports for the exhibits. The light-bearing, freely-designable metal construction protects the inner walls on the one hand, and gives them the industrial, modular feel of a depot on the other.

In addition, the permanent exhibition was extended by objects from the Multimedial Collections as of autumn 2017, which, with their two million objects or more, are among the most important audiovisual collections in all of Austria. The presentation in the viewable storage depot allows a lasting insight into the comprehensive collections, as well as the history and perspectives of both History Museum collections.

History Museum is part of the Universalmuseums Joanneum

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