Exhibitions | Overview

Triangle of the Viennese Tradition

Schönberg – Zemlinsky – Hoffmann

New exhibition: starting March 5, 2024

Inspired by Arnold Schönberg’s 150th birthday, celebrated around the world, the new exhibition at the mdw’s Exilarte Center sheds light on the social and cultural environment of the founder of the Second Viennese School. In particular, attention is paid to Alexander von Zemlinsky, who taught Schönberg and introduced him to the Viennese music circles, and to Richard Hoffmann, who was a pupil of Schönberg and later became his assistant.

Fritz Kreisler

Fritz Kreisler – A Cosmopolitan in Exile. From Child Prodigy to “King of Violinists”

New exhibition: starting September 17, 2022

September 2022 – May 2023

Due to his Jewish origins, the Vienna-born violin virtuoso Fritz Kreisler was boycotted by the National Socialists and his compositions were banned from the stage. In September 1939 Kreisler immigrated to the USA, where he settled in New York together with his wife Harriet.

Eggerth and Kiepura

My Song For You – Marta Eggerth and Jan Kiepura Between Two Worlds

October 2020 – May 2022

Now as Virtual Reality 360° Tour

The dream couple in film, opera and operetta – after the “Anschluss” in 1938, they were forced to turn their backs on Austria and emigrated to the USA.

Presentation of the Exilarte Estates

Permanent Exhibition – Exhibition Room

In the context of the current exhibition, twelve estates preserved in the archives of the Exilarte Center are presented.

“I return to Vienna when I compose”

May 2017 to June 2020,
now permanent exhibition – Exilarte Center entrance

The first exhibition opening the newly founded Exilarte Center at the mdw is devoted to the lost musical legacies and the fates of the many musicians prosecuted by the Nazis.

The Emmy und Egon Wellesz Piano

Permanent Exhibition
Room A0103

The story of Emmy and Egon Wellesz´s piano can be experienced at the Exilarte Center.

Erwin Piscator and Maria Ley- Piscator

Political Theater in Exile

May 2019 – June 2020

„Piscator is the greatest theater man of all time. He will leave a legacy that we should use” (Bertolt Brecht)

The word expired when that world awoke”

Special exhibition on the commemorative years 1918, 1933, 1938

May 2018 – June 2020

2018 brings a number of anniversaries that are themselves symbolic of the shifting nature of the passing age.