Tucked away inside Vienna’s old town is the Jewish Museum; a centre of art, culture and history that pays testament to the important role played by the Jewish community in the city’s past and present.
Equally, the museum offers deeply thought-provoking insights into the Jewish experience and the struggle against antisemitism
- Documents the history of the Jewish community in Vienna
- Also features regular temporary exhibitions
- Permanent “Our City!” exhibition is a real eye-opener
- €12 for adults (free entry with the Vienna Pass. Tickets available online*.)
- Notable temporary exhibitions:
- See also: Jewish Vienna | The Holocaust Memorial
Inside the museum
The Jewish museum in Vienna offers a poignant overview of the history of the Jewish people in Austria and, most importantly, the relationship between community and country.
In doing so, the museum creates a paradox for a non-Jew like me. The displays are at once shocking and not shocking enough. Celebratory and reaffirming, but also terrifying and depressing. I’ll explain what I mean in my review below of the permanent exhibitions.
The museum actually covers two sites.
The main one on Dorotheergasse houses the permanent collections, with space for regular temporary exhibitions (one small one in a single room and a major exhibition across that fills several galleries.)
These exhibitions never cease to leave me intrigued, inspired and/or informed.
The site on Judenplatz hosts a temporary exhibition, but also sits above the remains of a medieval synagogue.
Both museum sites have an extensive history that predates their current use.
The Dorotheergasse address is actually Palais Eskeles, an aristocratic townhouse that traces its roots back to the early 15th century and beyond.
The Judenplatz address is the Misrachihaus, which has its origins in the middle
The permanent displays
There are various permanent installations and displays, but the central ones are:
Our city!
(Jewish Museum on Dorotheergasse)
The ground and second floors of the main museum deal with the history of the Jewish community in Vienna.
The first half tackles the rebuilding of this community after WWII. The second addresses the time before WWII, particularly the role played by Jews in Viennese life and the three great periods of often violent and deadly expulsion( in 1421, 1670, and under the Nazis).
The museum itself seems to walk a pragmatic line between expressing justified outrage and recognising the delicacy required when working within a society that is, perhaps, unwilling to face the whole truth.
The photos, documents and day-to-day items do not make easy viewing. But not in the sense you might imagine. The “horror” of oppression, racism, and, at times, genocide is never graphical but implied.
This horror lives in the throwaway remarks of post-WWII politicians, the insidiousness of antisemitic media images, the initial reluctance to officially accept Austrian complicity in the Holocaust, the careful graphics of Nazi administrators as they describe Jewish emigration, the casual use of Jewish caricatures in 19th-century walking sticks, and in society’s willingness to value music and science, but reject the Jewish musicians and scientists who produced it. Freud, for example, fled Vienna in 1938.
And then, among the negativity, you find the expression of Jewish community and achievement, the optimism of family and community life…indeed, the normality of family and community life, even in challenging circumstances.
When I left, I wondered if the exhibition was too gentle, too easy on the guilty: there are no images of concentration camp victims, for example. But that would, I imagine, be too personal for many visitors, and the message comes across, indirectly, anyway. Besides, in the end, the dominant theme is resilience.
It is a thought-provoking experience.
Medieval synagogue
(Jewish Museum at Judenplatz)
As well as hosting a temporary exhibition, the Judenplatz site takes you underground to the remains of the synagogue burnt down in the 1421 destruction of the Jewish community in Vienna. This was the first major expulsion and murder of Jewish people in the city’s history.
The remnants of the building are actually located below the Holocaust memorial on the outside square.
The rooms leading to the excavation site feature a virtual tour through medieval Jewish life in Vienna, as well as items rescued from the diggings: coins, pottery and similar. A rather nice wooden model of Vienna around 1420 reveals a settlement that’s, shall we say, a little smaller than today’s city with one or two fewer buildings of note.
Tickets & visitor tips
Tickets bought at one site are valid for the other site, too, for four days after purchase. At the time of writing, a standard adult ticket* cost €12, with concessions available and free entry for children. The Vienna Pass sightseeing pass gets you in once for free, for example.
- The main site offers multimedia guides (with an audioguide at Judenplatz)
- The main site has a supervised cloakroom with lockers at both sites
- All labels and overview texts are in both German and English
- The Dorotheergasse site includes a nice shop and a small café. The former sells a better-class of souvenir, as well as books, exhibition catalogues, crockery and clothing
How to get to the Jewish Museum
Dorotheergasse site
The museum
Alternatively, take bus 2A to Plankengasse or either the 2A or 1A to Habsburgergasse.
The site sits right in among Vienna’s beautiful old town, not far from the cathedral, winter palace, Spanish Riding School, Café Hawelka, and other city centre sights.
Address: Dorotheergasse 11, 1010 Vienna | Website
Judenplatz site
The 1A and 3A bus have a stop nearby (Schwertgasse). It’s also just a short walk away from three subway stations:
- Schottentor: U2 (and also the 1, 37, 38, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, D and 71 trams)
- Herrengasse: U3
- Stephansplatz: U1 and U3
Be sure to drift through the square outside. As well as the aforementioned Holocaust memorial, the surrounding buildings date back to the time of Mozart (who actually lived on the square, albeit in a house that has since been torn down. Music really is everywhere in this city).
Address: Judenplatz 8, 1010 Vienna | Website