House of History Looks to U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum as Model

Austrian Press Agency (07/21/08)

House of History Looks to U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum as Model

Vienna – Lengthy discussion surrounding Austria’s “House of History” (“Haus der Geschichte”) now has an international standard after which to model itself. According to the call for bids announcing the concept to be implemented which was presented to the Austrian Press Agency, the project will look to orienting itself toward the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. The award procedure which begins in June is already in the second phase, until January 2009 when a final concept is presented.

Furthermore, the Federal Chancellery states that the “smaller federal museums” might provide the project size. Among those are the MAK Vienna or the MUMOK. According to statistics, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has some 1.7 million visitors each year. Since its establishment in 1993, about 23 million people have visited the museum, among which eight million are schoolchildren, states the homepage (http://www.ushmm.org). In terms of financing, its extremely difficult to offer a comparison since the model in the U.S. lives a great deal from private donations.
Until September 15, every firm that made into the second round should present a basic concept. The applications are international, says the Federal Chancellery. How many there are one is not allowed to say due to the situation of the competition. End of April of this year, the the Federal Government agreed in the Council of Ministers to commission a museum’s advisory firm with detailed planning for the House of History. “Professional developers of museums should not only evaluate and recommend potential locations, but also produce the museum’s content and didactic concepts.