Press releases 2023

The 54th General Assembly of the Consortium of the European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF54) took place on the 28th and 29th of November, hosted by the Natural History Museum of Vienna, Austria.

An international team including researchers of the Natural History Museum Vienna has become the first to discover specimens of the amphipod predator Rhachotropis abyssalis in three different oceans, with a distance of up to 20,000 kilometres between them. In each case, the animals live at a depth of more than three kilometres. The results have been published in the specialised journal “Scientific Reports”.

Founded in 1752 by Emperor Francis I, Duke of Lorraine, Schönbrunn Zoo is the world’s oldest zoo and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It ranks among the most renowned zoological gardens globally.
The Natural History Museum Vienna is a research museum that emerged from the Imperial collections and looks back on a history of more than 270 years. Dedicated to “the realm of nature and its exploration”, the museum is a total work of art with a unique atmosphere. It is committed to conserving and expanding its extensive scientific collections as the basis of research and presentations to the public.
Both world-renowned institutions are not only inspiring venues, but engaged in learning and exploration by their very nature. They showcase natural diversity and are important research partners for nature and wildlife conservation projects.

On Saturday,  7 October 2023 , the “ORF Long Night of Museums” opens museums to visitors  between 6 p.m. and 1 a.m. This year, the Natural History Museum Vienna offers an extensive programme hinging on the theme of “archives of the future”.

The Hochschwab massif is one of the largest karst massifs of the Northern Calcareous Alps, though it is not among the most widely known. The Natural History Museum Vienna’s karst and cave research team and the state cave research association of Vienna and Lower Austria have carried out extensive research there since 1996 in order to collect data fundamental to quality assurance for Vienna’s drinking water supply.

Special exhibition from 13 September 2023 in the renovated Hall 21

The Natural History Museum Vienna and the Hallstatt Salzwelten are happy to announce the 2023 issue of their traditional “Archaeology on the Mountain” event. On Saturday, 16 and Sunday, 17 September 2023, from 10:00 to 17:00, the public is invited to an open day to learn about the world of prehistoric miners. The main theme of this year's event is “Research Past and Present”.

Boasting more than 700 recorded species, Austria is a European hot spot of wild bee diversity. The number of species recorded in Lower Austria alone is higher than that found in all of Germany. A current study published by researchers of the Natural History Museum (NHM) Vienna and the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (BOKU) Vienna documents the changes found in wild bee populations and landscapes in and around the “Sandberge Oberweiden” nature reserve in the eastern Marchfeld region.

A gold treasure comprising five artefacts was discovered in 2019/2020 in the Late Bronze Age settlement at Ebreichsdorf during an archaeological dig undertaken by Novetus GmbH in the course of the extension of the Pottendorf railway line by the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB). The gold artefacts were analysed in order to shed light on their making and origin. The Federal Monuments Office then carried out conservation work on the artefacts.
On 18 August 2023 at 10:30 a.m., the Natural History Museum Vienna will host a press conference in its auditorium together with ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG.

A gold treasure comprising five artefacts was discovered in 2019/2020 in the Late Bronze Age settlement at Ebreichsdorf during an archaeological dig undertaken by Novetus GmbH in the course of the extension of the Pottendorf railway line by the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB). The gold artefacts were analysed in order to shed light on their making and origin. The Federal Monuments Office then carried out conservation work on the artefacts.
On 18 August 2023 at 10:30 a.m., the Natural History Museum Vienna will host a press conference in its auditorium together with ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG.

Where do viruses come from? Since when have they been in existence on our planet? A new knowledge station at the Natural History Museum (NHM) Vienna answers questions about viruses and also presents a new virus model – a greatly magnified model of SARS-CoV2, the virus that triggers Covid infections. Developed and built in cooperation with the IMBA, the Institute for Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the model will be on show on the NHM’s “Deck 50” from 26 July 2023.
Press conference on Tuesday, 25 July 2023, at 10:30 a.m.

Bronze burial objects and textile remains found in a newly discovered prehistoric cremation grave at the Salzberg in Hallstatt. The burial ground is larger than previously assumed.

Tiny pyrite tubes found in boreholes in the context of the construction of a new underground line in Vienna contain clues about unusual methane production 11 million years ago.

14 June 2023 is the launch date for the new permanent mineralogy exhibition entitled “World of Crystals” in Hall 1 of the Natural History Museum (NHM) Vienna. After the extensive renovation and redesign of several display cases, the impressive exhibition will demonstrate why crystals in all their symmetry and magnificent colours hold so much fascination.
Press conference on tuesday, June 13, 10.30 a.m.

Ever since the establishment of the Natural History Museum (NHM) Vienna in 1870, Hallstatt research has enjoyed close ties with the museum on Vienna's Ringstrasse Boulevard. Between 1846 and 1863, the Hallstatt Iron Age burial ground was systematically investigated for the first time. Under the NHM’s first director, Ferdinand von Hochstetter (1829-1884), further excavations from 1877 to 1878 unearthed burial objects from 27 excavated graves that were then transferred to the new museum in Vienna. This Iron Age burial ground is currently the venue of new investigations and the oldest known shaft in the prehistoric salt mine is now also accessible for research.

The 1873 World Exhibition in Vienna has left its imprint on the collections of the Natural History Museum (NHM) Vienna. On the occasion of the World Fair’s 150th anniversary, the NHM Vienna has launched a social media series designed to present in the coming weeks highlights from the holdings of related written documents, images from the archives and objects from the fields of mineralogy, zoology and botany on the Museum’s digital channels.

All radiation – be it ultraviolet, heat, X-rays or nuclear radiation – will cause damage to the human organism if it is exposed to too much for too long.The new exhibition "Radiation damage" in the three special exhibition rooms in the Narrenturm will show the effects of radiation on the human body from 24 May 2023 to 20 April 2024.

A new book published by the Natural History Museum Vienna is devoted to a detailed exploration of the great variety of avian fauna around Lake Neusiedl, featuring all 371 species of wild birds that have been documented in the region. The region was mapped over decades in close cooperation between Austrian and Hungarian ornithologists. The book is available for pre-order until 15 September 2023 for a subscription price of €65 (later €95) at the publishing house of NHM Vienna.

Under the lead of the Natural history Museum (NHM) Vienna, an international team will spend the next three years investigating a worldwide climatic crisis that took place during the Triassic period: the Carnian Pluvial Episode (CPE). Rocks and fossils from the Alpine Triassic bear witness to this ecological disaster, one of the largest in the history of the planet. When it hit the planet 233-235 million years ago, this episode was marked by a climate change that resulted in global mass extinction in the Mesozoic oceans.

On the occasion of this year’s “Girls‘ Day”, the NHM Vienna contributed to an initiative of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, aiming to provide career guidance for girls and young women by giving them a wide range of insights into the world of science and museum operations. In the morning, Federal Minister Martin Polaschek paid the museum a visit.
 

“Club Vielfalt” is the title of the NHM Vienna’s new childrens’ university programme series: between April and November 2023, workshops for children from the age of 8 and adolescents provide insights into the museum’s research activities. The NHM childrens’ university is part of the “2023 Childrens’ and Youth Universities”, a funding programme of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research.

Celebrating its second anniversary in April this year, the 3D Museum of the Natural History Museum Vienna by now boasts roughly 200 freely accessible 3D models on the Sketchfab platform. Now the NHM’s biggest display item has arrived at the digital museum: the skeleton of Diplodocus carnegii which dominates the museum’s dinosaur hall with its 27 metres in length and is very popular with the visitors.

The results of a global initiative aimed at making the collections of the world's largest natural history museums accessible to everyone are now being presented in a new scientific publication. The initiative’s objective is to create a uniform database that leverages the collections of 73 museums in 28 countries. Under the leadership of CEO Dr. Katrin Vohland, the Natural History Museum (NHM) Vienna takes part in this initiative.

The Easter Bunny, Easter eggs and catkin twigs can be seen in many places during the Easter holidays. But what is the origin of the related customs stories? The Easter holiday programme at the NHM Vienna is hot on the trail of the Easter Bunny.

When the NHM’s former Imperial Hall was reopened on 21 February 2023, the limelight was on the Earth as a dynamic planet. Open to visitors as of now, the new Geology Hall features an exhibition designed by the architectural firm Schuberth und Schuberth. It focuses on the structure and composition of the Earth as well as the beginning of the Anthropocene and illustrates that everything could have gone quite differently!

Hall 6 - the former "Kaisersaal" - is undergoing general renovation and will be open to the public in a new setting from 22 February 2023. The new permanent exhibition "The Earth. A Dynamic Planet" focuses on the structure of the Earth as well as the beginning of the Anthropocene and shows that everything could have turned out quite differently.
On Tuesday, 21 February 2023, at 10:30 a.m., the NHM Vienna invites you to a press conference on the occasion of the newly designed hall.

The Natural History Museum Vienna (NHM) and the Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art are participating in a cooperation project initiated and organised by the House of European History (HEH) around the vast topic of producing, throwing away, reusing and preventing waste. Waste is perhaps the most visible and tangible aspect of the looming environmental crisis. The project seeks to make the untold history of waste visible in Europe and thus tell a story of social change.

A new scientific study at the NHM Vienna has found that cattle from the Mediterranean region came to areas in present-day Austria as early as the Iron Age, between 450 BCE and the end of the first century BCE. The study’s results supply the first genetic evidence of cattle mobility and cattle imports from southern regions, shedding new light on socio-economic population structures in the Iron Age.

In cooperation with several international and national cooperation partners, including the Austrian Customs Office, researchers of the NHM Vienna have developed a series of workshops and lectures for schoolchildren intended to raise awareness about wildlife crime and species protection. The first workshop was held on 27 January 2023 at the NHM Vienna.

At the 2022/23 turn of the year, Director General and CEO Dr Katrin Vohland has decided to take stock of her first two and a half years at the Natural History Museum Vienna. Together with CFO Mag. Markus Roboch she will also provide an outlook on the major structural and conceptual development and modernisation of the NHM Vienna in the next few years.