Austria will also commemorate the anniversary of the end of the war and the establishment of the state this year

Otto Wagner, urban rail stop, photo: https://www.wien.info/

Vienna - In addition to the Czech Republic and Slovakia, this year Austria will also commemorate the centenary of the end of World War I and the dissolution of the Habsburg monarchy with a series of exhibitions, concerts, scientific lectures, and other cultural events. The highlight of the celebrations for the formation of the alpine republic will be the opening of a unique museum of Austrian history in the capital in the fall. This year, Austrians will also remember several other anniversaries from the year '18. Exhibitions will, for example, be dedicated to the centenary of the deaths of painters Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, and architect Otto Wagner. An overview of the anniversary events, which are under the patronage of former president Heinz Fischer, is published on the website Oesterreich100.at.

The cultural highlight is expected to be the opening of the Museum of History of Austria (HGÖ), which has been in preparation since at least 2015. It will be located in the Hofburg building, the former residence of the Habsburg monarchs in the center of Vienna. The new museum, inspired by a similar German project in Bonn on the Rhine, will focus on the history of Austria from the mid-19th century, with particular emphasis on events after 1918. The grand opening is planned for early November, approximately coinciding with the centenary of the declaration of the Austrian Republic at the end of World War I.

On the exact day of the one hundredth anniversary of the declaration of the Republic of German Austria on November 12, 1918, Austrian politicians will gather for a ceremonial state act at the Vienna Opera House.

Several exhibitions will also focus on the anniversary of the end of the war and the subsequent two decades of turbulent development, which culminated in the alpine republic becoming part of Nazi Germany, in the capitals of individual federal states, including Lower Austria's St. Pölten, Upper Austria's Linz, and Graz. The museum in Tyrol's Innsbruck will inform history enthusiasts about the care for the wounded from the battles between 1914 and 1918.

In early April, an exhibition titled "Emperor Without a Crown" dedicated to the last Austrian emperor - and Czech king - Charles I will open at the Danube castle of Eckartsau. It was in the hunting lodge between Vienna and Bratislava that Charles spent his last days with his wife Zita before going into exile.

This year, the Austrian National Library will also commemorate its 650th anniversary with a series of cultural events. As early as the end of January, it will open an exhibition titled The Treasury of Knowledge.

Austrian historians have also prepared for the year '18, organizing a series of lectures and new books within the "year of science," which will address not only the themes of the end of the war and the establishment of the republic in 1918 but also the annexation of Austria in 1938, the revolution of 1848, and the beginning and end of the Thirty Years' War (1618 to 1648). This year, Austria will also remember the events of 1968, including the violent suppression of the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia.

The Austrian Mediatheque will present in October the result of a collaboration with the Czech Radio archive on the research project "Prague/Vienna - Audiovisual Responses of 1918 in Vienna and Prague."

Great celebrations are also being prepared by Austrian art galleries. The centenary of the death of expressionist painter Egon Schiele, who often stayed and worked in Český Krumlov, will be commemorated with exhibitions at the Vienna gallery in the Belvedere Palace and the Leopold Museum, which possesses the largest collections of Schiele's works. Both exhibitions will begin in the fall. As early as April, the Schiele Museum in the Danube town of Tulln, where the painter was born, will reopen after renovations.

Art lovers can also look forward to exhibitions marking the anniversaries of the deaths of painter Gustav Klimt and Art Nouveau architect Otto Wagner. In Linz, an exhibition showcasing the work of the graphic artist and illustrator Alfred Kubin, who was born in Litoměřice, will open.

For music enthusiasts, the Vienna Music Society (Wiener Musikverein) will hold a concert on February 19 to mark the centenary of the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. The event titled "Rendezvous with Debussy - Music at the Cradle of the Hungarian and Czechoslovak Republics" will focus on the influence of French composer Claude Debussy on the musical development of the two successor states of the Habsburg monarchy.