Editorial
“The stork made its rounds // and brought Leonora with a smiling beak. It flew by in all its splendor // and filled her parents with joy!” With these verses, the Volkskunde team congratulates the electrical engineering company Landsteiner on the birth of little Leonora. The banner is not hanging in a village square, but on a construction container in Lange Gasse – right where work has been underway for months to shape the future home of the Volkskundemuseum. A tradition usually associated with rural life has found its way onto our construction site, subtly illustrating what much of our work is about: traditions are passed on, adapted, and imbued with new meanings in new contexts.
The banner was discovered and photographed by our photographer Kramar, whom we interview in this issue. For many years, he has documented the museum through his lens, while his own artistic projects explore the cultural significance of the stork. That he, of all people, should have spotted this small treasure on the construction site seems almost like a historical coincidence.
The other stories in Schaufenster also speak of movement and transformation. Renovation work on the museum building will be completed later this year, with the return to the building and the reopening scheduled for 2027. This September, however, visitors will already have the opportunity to take a look behind the scenes when dotdotdot brings short films to the museum garden. The Turning Points project collects personal memories of moments of social change. New acquisitions continue to expand our collections, and at the Otto Wagner Areal, the Hof der Kulturen, MUSMIG, and numerous partners are creating spaces for encounter, exchange, and collaborative work. Amid all these changes, one thing remains constant: a museum thrives on the people who support it, visit it, question it, and enrich it with their stories. We therefore warmly invite you to join us for our Summer Festival on July 7, starting at 5 p.m. at the Otto Wagner Areal. The beer will be cold, the sausages hot, and the weather – naturally – perfect. Come and celebrate with us!
Please read the following articles in the current issue 3/2026 of the News:
Schaufenster: Interreg-Projekt Turning Points
Schaufenster: Neues vom Hof der Kulturen
Schaufenster: Platzwunder und Pionierarbeit: Update von der Sanierung des Gartenpalais Schönborn
Volkskunde/Europäische Ethnologie
Digitales Museum: Neu in der Online Sammlung Plus
Abgestaubt: Tatsächlich abgestaubt. Ein handgemaltes Plakat