!!!Museen

Museums, collections, memorials: The history and origin of Austrian 
museums goes in various phases. The former imperial collections 
(Habsburg Fideicommissum) and the national museums, re-established in 
the 19%%sup th/%  century (e.g. Museum of Applied Art) and 
20%%sup th/%  century (e.g. Technical Museum), are today all 
administered as  Museums, Federal by the Federal Ministry for 
Education and Cultural Affairs, the Museum of Military History is 
administered by the Federal Ministry of Defence. The  Museums, 
Provincial often developed as foundations of private societies). They 
mostly consist of numerous departments with collections of 
prehistoric, archaeological, historic, folkloric, art, and scientific 
collections. For many decades they carried out scientific work in 
disciplines which were not taught at universities (e.g. folklore and 
ethnology, numismatics, study of weaponry). Some old Austrian towns 
have important local museums (e.g. Graz, Villach, Wiener Neustadt, 
Horn, Krems, Linz, Wels, Steyr, Enns, Bad Ischl, Lienz); the Salzburg 
City Museum has been merged with the Provincial Museum Carolino 
Augusteum. Of special importance are the church museums, such as the 
abbey museums of Admont, Heiligenkreuz, Klosterneuburg, Kremsmuenster, 
Melk, St. Florian, the cathedral and diocesan museums in Vienna, 
Salzburg, Klagenfurt and St. Poelten. - Of supraregional importance 
are specialized museums devoted to special fields of interest, e.g. 
Eggenburg (Krahuletz Museum), Hallstatt (prehistoric finds), Petronell 
(Carnuntum), which are subject to the administration of the provinces 
and municipalities. Local museums and sites of excavations are 
administered by the provincial governments and the provincial museums 
as well as by the Federal Office for the Preservation of Monuments 
(central administrative office and "Provincial Curator", 
"Landeskonservator"). - Among private museums, castle museums are 
particularly important: e.g. Forchtenstein (Esterházy), Rohrau 
(Harrach), Klam bei Grein (Clam) and Kreuzenstein. - Open air museums 
(Stuebing, Styria; Kramsach, Tirol) are essential for the preservation 
of testimonies to rural culture and farming, while the "Wehrgraben" 
museum in Steyr, founded in 1987, or the museums in the Waldviertel 
region (Gross-Siegharts, etc.), which have been combined to form the 
"Forum lebendiger Textilgeschichte" (Forum of Living Textile History") 
bear testimony to the history of industrialisation.

!Literature
M. David and E. Egg, Der oesterreichische Museen-Fuehrer 
in Farbe, %%sup 4/%1985; Federal Ministry of Science and Research 
(ed.), Publikationsreihe Oesterr. Museen stellen sich vor, no. 
1-25, 1973-1987.


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