Qwien opens new cultural center: A highlight for Vienna's queer history!

Qwien opens new cultural center: A highlight for Vienna's queer history!

On Wednesday, June 10, 2025, the time has come: Qwien will open its new location in Vienna-Margareten and thus celebrate an important step in the city's queer feminist cultural history. This institution, which has been operating as an archive and library in the Wieden district since 2009, has specialized in queer history and is now creating a new, modern cultural center with an area of ​​​​around 900 square meters, which almost triples the previous size, so to speak vol.at reported.

Andreas Brunner, the co-director of Qwien 2.0, and Hannes Sulzenbacher from the Jewish Museum have big plans: The move doubled the number of employees to eight full-time equivalents. The new premises not only offer plenty of space, but also the opportunity to organize cultural events yourself in the future instead of just cooperating with external partners.

Opening exhibition and cultural program

A highly interesting opening exhibition is entitled "Making History. A Queer Millennium in 27 Incredible Objects" and illuminates the many facets of queer history. Many testimonies of queer love have been marginalized or even destroyed over the centuries. The exhibition shows objects such as historical dedications, a baroque angel and even a beer mug, which have previously played no role in the queer historical narrative. The exhibition runs until November 9th, and opening times are Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Thursdays to 8 p.m., as in qwien.at specified.

In addition to the opening exhibition, Qwien announced that it would plan two temporary exhibitions in the main room each year. A smaller multifunctional room is used for lectures, readings and discussion events. The photo exhibition of Sabine Schwaighofer's oeuvre, which opens on June 17th, will be particularly interesting. In addition, Qwien continues to support queer city walks and will show the ORF documentary “Austria under the Rainbow” next Thursday.

A place of knowledge and encounter

The Qwien Library houses around 5,000 volumes on topics such as homosexual history, sexuality, and queer art and is considered the largest collection of magazines for homosexual men and women in Austria. An extensive archive preserves the written and material evidence of gay and lesbian life as well as trans and intersexuality, which represents an invaluable contribution to the preservation of queer culture.

The roots of Qwien lie in the efforts to promote queer culture, which began in the Ecce Homo association. Among other things, he organized the queer culture and entertainment festival “Vienna is the other way around” until 2003. The lease for the new location on Ramperstorffergasse runs for 30 years, which underlines the long-term nature of this project. Discussions are also underway with municipal departments 7 (culture) and 13 (education and youth) regarding the framework budget in order to further secure Qwien's cultural work.

Overall, it shows that Qwien is not just an archive and a library, but a living space for reflection, exchange and a place of knowledge about the queer history of Vienna and beyond Wikipedia is held. The new residence could become more than just a cultural space – it could become a center for queer identity and history in Vienna.