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Legally speaking, the Natural History Museum (NHM) in Vienna has existed since April 29, 1876. At that time, His Majesty, Emperor Franz Joseph I, signed the founding document, making everything official. The next day he appointed the geologist Ferdinand von Hochstetter as boss, i.e. the first director of the house on the ring, the k. k. natural history court museum (opening: August 10, 1889 at 11 a.m.). Of course, the museum's collections go back to a generous purchase by Emperor Franz I Stephen of Lorraine, the husband of Maria Theresa, who in 1748 acquired the natural history collection of Johann von Baillous, which then numbered around 30,000 objects, and formed the basis for the k. k. Court mineral cabinet. Seen this way, the NHM is more than 250 years old.
Today, when “press reviews” are prominently featured on the museum’s website, they document current news and achievements. At the end of the 19th and the following 20th centuries, newspapers revealed important things from the everyday life of the museum. A lot of things won't be found in any commemorative publication; they seem too irrelevant, but they were once of current importance. A subjective selection of historical media reports with a focus on “collecting” invites you to wonder, smile and be amazed.
"The Emperor in the Natural History Court Museum" was the headline of the Neue Wiener Tagblatt on September 24, 1909. The reason for the visit was a very pleasant one: His Majesty visited the Diplodocus Carnegii that had arrived there, or rather its plaster cast. The director of the Carnegie Museum, William Jacob Holland, who came especially from America, turned to Franz Joseph: "Mr. Carnegie requests that you accept this gift as a weak token of the veneration that he, like all Americans, feels for Your Majesty." There is no doubt that Carnegie's plaster dinosaur (today Room X) falls into the category of an imperial gift: a gift you can't say no to.
Under the heading "A research trip to Spain" (The Fatherland, March 20, 1909) there is an announcement that Gustav Paganetti-Hummler, entomologist and writer, will go to Spain for six months in order to then make a gift to the museum: "At the special request of the director of the natural history court museum, court councilor Dr. Steindachner, he will also carry out ichthyological collections, the results of which will be given to the Imperial and Royal Natural History Museum The Court Museum will be given as a gift."
You have to know that the head of the house mentioned here is considered one of the great fish researchers. The bachelor was formally married to research. Thanks to numerous travels, he was able to expand the museum's fish collection into one of the largest in the world. We can find details about Steindachner's life in an obituary, "Memories of a Last Piece of Old Vienna", by the journalist Klothilde Benedikt (Neues Wiener Journal, December 21, 1919). Here she writes about him: "He delighted in the democratization of the collections through popular tours that moved into the house to which he donated over 10,000 species and part of his fortune." Steindachner, who not only actively collected for the Haus am Ring himself - and donated almost everything to the museum - also knew how to get other people excited about his fish, who then considered it an honor to give something to the museum.
For many it was and is a given to think primarily of science when it comes to finds. Take a look at the Wiener Zeitung from October 4, 1885, where there is a short, content-rich article ("Fossil Find"). When, after sea cow bones were found in the Wolf'sche Sandgrube in Vienna Ottakring in September 1885, bones also appeared in the neighboring pit, the owner, the lawyer Moriz Baumann, acted promptly and in an exemplary manner. "[He] had further sand extraction at the site stopped immediately, informed the director of the Imperial and Royal Natural History Court Museum of the find and allowed the excavation to be carried out by the museum's organs." The result, the expertly restored manatee, is now part of the paleontological collections. That's not all; Together with Prince Eugen, she became the namesake in the subtitle "Of Prince Eugen and the sea cow in Ottakring: a journey through time through Vienna's geological past" for the book "Wien am Sand" (Harzhauser & Hofmann, 2024). Conclusion: Good collecting in the 19th century as the basis for good PR in the 21st century.
Anyone who thinks they have something special takes it to the museum. Many hope that they would wait there for THE unique exhibit and pay a large sum for it. An anecdote entitled "Heiteres aus dem Wiener Hofmuseen" (Neues Wiener Journal, November 12, 1912) shows that the reality is different. "Recently a man in a cage brought a raven to the museum that had four feet. The man offered to buy the rare bird for a high price. But he was very disappointed when it was rejected. "But, a raven with four feet!?" he emphasized. "That's nothing," said the curator jokingly, "I have a servant here who has X-feet." There is nothing more to add to the curator's quick wit. Lessons learned? Even a museum doesn't collect everything.
Heinrich Drasche, whose initials HD can be found on millions of bricks in Vienna, is referred to here as the brick baron. In fact, he was ennobled as Heinrich Drasche Ritter von Wartinberg in 1870 and is considered the founding father of the Wienerberger company. Drasche, who also built the Heinrichshof opposite the opera named after him, was a generous patron and supporter of the museum. The Wiener Zeitung of May 4, 1860 reports about the "owner of the great brickworks on the Vienna Mountains" that he was the k. k. Hof-Mineralienkabinett, the museum's predecessor institution, made an "extremely interesting gift". In addition to the usually numerous mussels and snails, attentive workers had found a "pair of horns from a huge and previously completely unknown species of antelope". The scientific rescue chain worked perfectly. This rare piece came to the museum along with "part of the right thigh of a rhinoceros" and a lower jaw fragment from Hippotherium gracile, an extinct species of horse.
While these fossil remains were of particular scientific value, Drasche scored points in 1874 with the “complete skeleton of a giant deer”. Details about this spectacular find from the peat bogs of Ireland, which can be seen today in Room XVI (Ice Age children and their world), can be found again in the Wiener Zeitung (May 22, 1874). "The paleontological collection of the Imperial and Royal Imperial Mineral Cabinet has recently received a very valuable enrichment thanks to a gift from Mr. Heinrich Ritter v. Drasche." The monumental skeleton of the 16-ender is one of the "Big Five" of the Ice Age, along with cave lions, saber-toothed cats, woolly mammoths and Hundsheim rhinos. In a word: collect as you wish.
When the seriously ill polar bear Nora had to be euthanized in Schönbrunn Zoo on October 9, 2022, DER STANDARD had the headline: “Polar bear Nora died in Schönbrunn”. To everyone's delight, her body was taken to the Natural History Museum. A year later, the Arctic animal was given a "second life" as an upright polar bear: "Schönbrunner polar bear Nora returns as a fluffy monument." Everyone was happy and proud of the masterfully executed preparation:
Nora was not a novelty, numerous animals from the Schönbrunn Zoo or the Menagerie, as they said in the Kaiser's time, found and still find a new home in the NHM, which was always reported on with pleasure. This ensured the transfer of the objects from the k. k. Court mineral cabinet in the Augustinian wing of the Hofburg in the new building for headlines in the press (May 19, 1886): "Relocation of the 'Schönbrunner Pepi'. This morning the huge elephant, which was known under the name "Schönbrunner Pepi", made its entry into the new home, into the court museum on the Ringstrasse. The relocation of the taxidermied animal from Josefsplatze to the Ringstrasse had a large number Attracted more curious people." The pachyderm increasingly enjoyed the company of other zoo animals.
In 1908, “Monkey Peter” was an orangutan. Even the St. Pöltner Bote (March 26, 1908) reported the “end of the monkey “Peter” with a lot of pathos. "The Schönbrunn Menagerie Directorate has suffered a severe loss. The large orangutang "Peter", who was taken into the Schönbrunn Menagerie in October last year at the same time as two fellow tribesmen, died in the night from Sunday to Monday." Similar to "Pepi", "Peter" should also be said, who - when his end was approaching - "even spurned delicacies such as dates, figs, bananas, carob and oranges" (Illustrirtes Wiener Extrablatt, March 10, 1908), will find its second life in the museum. "The animal will be stuffed and incorporated into the Natural History Court Museum."
Among all the animals, “Rosl”, a female rhino, should also be mentioned. She was the mother of numerous “hippopotamus babies,” as Die Weltpresse wrote on March 25, 1947. Her death was tragic in that she had only given birth to her last offspring five days before she died. “Schurl,” her hippopotamus husband, who had now become a “widower,” suddenly became a single parent. In order for "Rosl" to be transferred to the museum, the first preparation work had to be done at the zoo. "Because Rosl's body weighs 2,000 kilograms, it was decided to remove the head and skin, which will be used for preparation in the Natural History Museum, in the basin. Eighteen strong men had to be brought in for this work." As far as the Schönbrunn animals are concerned, they get a second "life" at the museum's address as part of the collection. (Thomas Hofmann, May 8, 2026)