Press releases 2022

The British Harrison Institute donated a scientific collection of 19,000 bird specimens, created by James Harrison (1892-1971) and his son Jeffrey (1922-1978) until the end of the 20th century, to the Natural History Museum Vienna. In celebration of this donation, but also in order to raise additional funds for the digitisation and scientific examination of this natural history treasure, the NHM organised a delightful fundraising gala on 3 November 2022. APA-picture gallery

The new “Universum History” documentary Leopoldina Habsburg – Die Geburt des modernen Brasilien will premiere on Tuesday, 1 November 2022, at 21:50 on ORF 2. The film sheds light on a largely unknown episode in the history of the Habsburg dynasty which centres on the tragic figure of Leopoldina. Her striving for knowledge and independence could not shield her from loneliness, pain and the constraints of the patriarchy in her second home country Brazil.

On Friday, 4 November 2022, at 10.30 a.m., the NHM Vienna invites you to a behind-the-scenes press tour of the bird collection.

On Friday, October 21st 2022, at 6.00 p.m. the NHM Vienna will receive a special donation: the Northwest Africa (NWA) 12323 meteorite, originating from the planet Mars. The rock was formed on Mars, then ejected from the planet by an impact event and landed on Earth in Northwest Africa as a meteorite weighing 447 grams.

15 October 2022 will be dedicated to the art of taxidermy: in addition to guided tours of the Museum's Zoological Preparation Unit at 12:30 and 13:30, the film The Second Life by director Davide Gambino will be shown at 15:00, followed by a panel discussion.

Invitation for press representantives and journalists on Tuesday, September 27th 2022, 9.30 a.m.:
The Karanga Aotearoa Repatriation Programme is undertaking the repatriation of Māori and Moriori ancestral remains from the collections of the Natural History Museum Vienna, Austria. This project is facilitated in partnership between the Te Papa Tongarewa Museum (Wellington), the Natural History Museum Vienna, the Austrian Government, and the New Zealand Embassy to Vienna.

On Saturday, 1 October 2022, the "ORF Long Night of Museums" will take place from 18:00 to 01:00. The Natural History Museum Vienna will be represented this year with an extensive programme on the theme of "Brazil".

For more than 270 years, the collections of the Museum of Natural History Vienna have been opening up new perspectives on natural and cultural history. With two generously dimensioned showcases on the staircase leading up to the new Deck 50, the rich history of the museum is now being retold, presenting the transformation of two of the museum's core tasks and the historical development of "order" and "visualisation".

On the occasion of the International Year of Mineralogy 2022, the Natural History Museum Vienna and the Austrian Mineralogical Society invite you to the panel discussion "Mineralogy IS the Future" on Wednesday, 28 September 2022, at 17:00.

25 years ago, Hallstatt and the Dachstein region became UNESCO World Heritage Sites, but research has been carried out there for 175 years. At the NHM branch office in Hallstatt, archaeologists from the NHM Vienna, in cooperation with the Salzwelten and Salinen Austria, are investigating the prehistoric salt mine and the cultural and economic area surrounding the salt production that has been active in the region for 7,000 years.
The press trip will highlight the history of the relationship between salt, water and wood through the millennia and explain how salt made its way from Hallstatt to other areas and cities such as Vienna. On site, the weekend event "Archaeology on the Mountain" also provides insights into the latest research from various disciplines such as anthropology, archaeology, botany, wood research, music archaeology, textile archaeology, molecular biology, geology and others – followed by a special tour of the prehistoric mine.

The Natural History Museum (NHM) Vienna and the Hallstatt Salzwelten will present “Archaeology on the Mountain 2022” on Saturday, 17 and Sunday, 18 September 2022, from 10:00 to 17:00 – an invitation to actively participate, experiment and make discoveries. This year’s theme is the anniversary of the Hallstatt UNESCO World Heritage Site, shaped by salt – water – timber.

Compared to other cities, Vienna enjoys a very high diversity of wild bees. The reasons for this: the climate, the geographical location and a sufficiently large quantity of natural habitats. In the context of a current research project, researchers explore the site of the Breitenlee marshalling yard, which is home to rare species of wild bees.

On 1 September 2022, Prof. Dr. Martin Polaschek, Austrian Federal Minister of Education, Science and Research, visited the Natural History Museum (NHM) Vienna and familiarised himself with the museum’s citizen science initiatives. In 2024, the NHM Vienna and the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (BOKU) will jointly organise Austria’s annual citizen science conference, as well as a special international edition. The events will be funded by the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF).

On the occasion of the ongoing special exhibition BRAZIL. 200 Years of Relations, the Natural History Museum Vienna joins Brazil in celebrating the 200th anniversary of the country’s independence with a major event on 7 September 2022.

The new special exhibition "Pathways of Pathogenes" at the NHM-branch Narrentumr sheds light on the various causes of a pandemic as well as historical and present-day ways of spreading diseases. Selected diseases are presented in detail, from how carriers become infected to typical symptoms, treatment methods, and prevention.

The ninth impact crater of a meteorite in Brazil has just been discovered in the context of a joint research activity. Dr Ludovic Ferrière, curator of the meteorite collection at the Natural History Museum (NHM) Vienna, found clear evidence in the form of shocked quartz.

An exhibition at the Yassi Foundation in Tehran (Iran) juxtaposes contemporary art from Austria with an important botanical collection of the Natural History Museum (NHM) Vienna. The FLORA IRANICA exhibition showcases the historical collection of herbaria collected by the Austrian botanist Theodor Kotschy (1813 – 1866) in Persia and Afghanistan, among other countries.

On 30 June 2022, the 8th International Asteroid Day will take place at the NHM Vienna under the motto "Space Mineralogy".

In the nutrient-rich waters of the eastern Atlantic Ocean, there live remarkable testaceous single-celled organisms: the tests of the foraminiferal species Jullienella foetida can reach sizes of up to 14 cm and play an important role within their ecosystem. An international team of researchers including the NHM were now able to use modern analyzing techniques to study the secrets and success of these special tests.

Herz Armaturen Ges.m.b.H. and the Natural History Museum Vienna have been enjoying a long-standing partnership. As a result of the friendly relationship between the two entities, the NHM Vienna is equipped with products from Herz and has thus given a reliable and energy-efficient partner a place in the building.
In keeping with the motto "Museum mit Herz", Herz Armaturen and the Natural History Museum Vienna invite you to a joint press conference on Tuesday, 14 June 2022, at 9:30 a.m.

The long-eared owl (Asio otus) is a common and widespread species among the ten owl species native to Austria. It hardly ever breeds in cities, however, and the fledglings that successfully flew the nest in the centre of Vienna at the end of May are a true rarity!

The new special exhibition “BRAZIL. 200 years of Relations” was inaugurated on 7 June 2022. It is now on display in the four cabinets and two special exhibition halls at the Natural History Museum Vienna until 23 April 2023 (extended until 3 September, 2023). The exhibition showcases the fascinating diversity of Brazil from the perspective of centuries of shared history between Brazil and Austria with their global interactions.

On Tuesday, 7 June 2022, at 10.30 a.m., the NHM Vienna invites to a press conference on the occasion of the new special exhibition.

In today’s event the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) launched a children’s book to raise awareness of wildlife crime and other crimes that affect the environment at the Natural History Museum of Vienna (NHM Vienna).

An international research team led by NHM Vienna palaeontologists has found the first Cretaceous ichthyosaurs (“fish dinosaurs”) from the Austrian Alps. The unique fossils from sandstones of the Rossfeld Formation in Salzburg and limestones of the Upper Austrian Schrambach Formation turned out to be a scientific sensation.

The Natural History Museum Vienna offers an extensive programme as part of the Long Night of Research. The NHM Vienna is one of the most important research institutions in Austria. Research projects of the departments of prehistory and anthropology, guided tours through collections and laboratories, identification of precious stones, the digital planetarium, the City Nature Challenge 2022 and the exchange with researchers on Deck 50 offer an insight into the research work of the museum. In the Narrenturm ("Fools Tower"), the newly designed exhibition rooms give visitors an understanding of the history of disease and pathology.

The Hallstatt-Dachstein/Salzkammergut region has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list for 25 years. On Austrian World Heritage Day, representatives of UNESCO, the Upper Austrian World Heritage sites, the Province of Upper Austria, the mayors of the municipalities and the Director General of the Natural History Museum Vienna met to celebrate this anniversary. The initiator of the celebration, Dr. Hans Reschreiter of the NHM Vienna, received the “World Heritage Award”.

A team of researchers from the Natural History Museum (NHM) Vienna and the University of Vienna has examined more than 10,000 unique fossils from the Alpine Triassic period (approx. 233 million years ago) and discovered previously unknown structures in the rock. The mystery of these fossil remains has now been solved: they are the world's first evidence of fossilised squid cartilage. The results were published in the PLOS ONE scientific journal.

On 27 and 28 April 2022, the symposium Lobau soll leben: Wasser für die Au – Erkenntnisse und Perspektiven der Wissenschaft (Keeping the Lobau alive: water for the floodplain – scientific findings and perspectives) will be held at the Natural History Museum (NHM) Vienna. The symposium is dedicated to the Lobau as one of the last large contiguous floodplain areas in Central Europe. It will focus on the area’s ecological significance, efforts to preserve its biodiversity and the current state of research.

For the first time, the Natural History Museum (NHM) Vienna is organising the annual City Nature Challenge (CNC) in Vienna, a friendly contest between cities competing against each other. Between 29 April and 2 May 2022, all people in Vienna are invited to get out into the great outdoors equipped with their smartphones to document the wealth of species found in the Austrian capital!

This year's World Heritage Day marks a special anniversary: the World Heritage Convention was launched 50 years ago, and Austria ratified the Convention 30 years ago. Three World Heritage sites are associated with the Natural History Museum Vienna: Hallstatt, the Wachau and the prehistoric pile dwellings in the Alpine region. A wide variety of events is scheduled to celebrate these sites on and around 18 April 2022.

There are large and small, round and square, green or spotted - there are all kinds of eggs to be found in the animal world! But there are not only lots of eggs to discover during the Easter programme at the NHM Vienna, the Easter Bunny also leaves his mark.

As part of the lecture afternoon "neugier!wissen!schaft", the Carl von Schreibers Research Awards were presented to young female researchers at the NHM Vienna on 30 March 2022. A total of seven female award winners were honoured:

The Natural History Museum (NHM) Vienna presents a new exhibition at the Fossilienwelt Weinviertel (Stetten, Lower Austria). Designed by the NHM Vienna’s Geology & Palaeontology Department, the special exhibition “Ice Age Animals - the World of Woolly Rhinos and Cave Lions” runs from 2 April to 31 October 2022.

The diversity of trematodes, minuscule parasitic worms, is being researched at the Natural History Museum in Vienna. In the context of a research project, two species previously unknown in Austria were discovered that can cause a skin rash in humans, the so-called swimmer’s itch. The species were identified by means of DNA analysis within the framework of the ABOL (Austrian Barcode of Life) initiative.

The Natural History Museum Vienna stands in solidarity with people who have fled from the Ukraine. We are also indebted to the Russian scientists and to all those in Russia who oppose the ongoing war against Ukraine. To offer some relief and recreation, the NHM Vienna invites families, adults and children who have arrived in Vienna to visit the museum free of charge.

Today’s press conference on World Wildlife Day, in cooperation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance and the Zoo Schönbrunn, aimed to raise awareness of the serious consequences that wildlife and forest crime and crimes in the fisheries sector have on the world’s biodiversity and climate, and peoples’ livelihoods.

The Venus of Willendorf counts among the most significant artefacts in human history. For more than a hundred years, scientists have puzzled over the figurine’s meaning as a cult object, often interpreted as a symbol of fertility. Similarly, little was known about the origin of the raw material used to make the Venus. The figurine is made of oolite, a very special limestone not found in the Willendorf area. Now, using high-resolution tomography scans, a research team around anthropologist Prof. Dr. Gerhard Weber of the University of Vienna, as well as geologists Dr. Alexander Lukeneder and Dr. Mathias Harzhauser and prehistorian Dr. Walpurga Antl-Weiser of the Natural History Museum Vienna, has discovered that the material for the Venus figurine came from a long way away.

The Natural History Museum Vienna in cooperation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) invites media representatives to the press conference.

11.5 million years ago, the Paleo-Danube first flowed eastwards through the Alpine foothills. In the gravel pits found along the way from Krems to Hollabrunn and Mistelbach (Lower Austria), the most commonly found fossils are bones of enormous elephants and hornless rhinos or the teeth of three-toed horses. The fluvial deposits are remnants of the floodplain of the Paleo-Danube, and researchers have now found out where exactly the delta of this Miocene precursor of the Danube was located.

In a formal ceremony held on 14 February 2022, ancestral human remains (iwi kūpuna) from the collection of the Natural History Museum Vienna (NHM) were returned to a delegation from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA).

On Valentine's Day, Monday 14 February 2022, mineralogist and head of the gemstone collection, Dr. Vera M. F. Hammer, will present a baroque gemstone bouquet, a gift of love from Maria Theresa to her husband Emperor Franz I Stephan of Lorraine, in a special guided tour and provide insights into the gemstone collection of the NHM Vienna.

On Tuesday, February 1, 2022, at 10.30 a.m., the NHM Vienna invites you to a press presentation of the new exhibition path.