About the Museum

The Esperanto Museum was founded in 1927 by Hugo Steiner as an association, then set up by contract in 1928 as a museum and technical library in the Austrian National Library, and opened in 1929 by a solemn government ceremony in the Hofburg.

After the annexation of Austria in 1938 by Hitler’s Germany the institution was closed, and its book holdings were to be incorporated in a library of disapproved books planned for Berlin. But since the books were the property of the National Library it was possible to stop them from being transported.

In 1947 there was a new opening in the Hofburg in the area of the Michaelerplatz (Michael’s Square). In 1990 came the foundation of the Department of Planned Languages; the functional separation into a museum and a library was recognised.

The institution was presented with a wholly new look in 2005 after its transfer into Palais Mollard (Herrengasse 9, 1010 Vienna).  For both the library, which had meanwhile grown to become the world’s biggest of its kind, and for the museum items ideal holding conditions in secure and air-conditioned rooms had been created.