The apartment where Johann Strauss composed the “Blue Danube” waltz and the homes of Franz Schubert and Joseph Haydn all represent an idea of Vienna: a city steeped in culture where some of the world’s great artists lived. Yet all of these attractions are being temporarily shuttered this year as the city cuts its arts spending in response to financial woes.
When it announced the cuts last month, the city’s government cited factors like “global political developments” and rising energy and labor costs, and its broad austerity measures also included unpopular price increases for public transit, resident parking permits and dog licenses.
The changes have raised the question of how to balance the cost of everyday public services with artistic endeavors and prompted concerns that the temporary arts downsizing will become long-lasting.
“The politicians should have a second look at what they’re doing, because they cannot measure the consequences right now” said Stefan Herheim, the artistic director of Musiktheater an der Wien, an opera venue that is closing its second stage for the 2026-7 season because of the funding cuts.
Vienna is following in the footsteps of Berlin, which in 2024 reduced its culture budget by €130 million, about $155 million, and Paris, where institutions have felt the effects of a €150 million cut to the culture ministry’s coffers.
But Herheim said the changes were still shocking.
“We knew these things were going to come — this is happening all over Europe,” he said, “but we thought in a city like Vienna with its immense tradition and this infrastructure, this wouldn’t happen as radically and as soon.”
Vienna’s administrative group for culture and science, which brought in the austerity measures, said in an email that it remained “committed to the Viennese approach to culture: culture must remain affordable for everyone,” and that its funding would continue to provide for 11,000 free events annually.
To reduce the culture budget, which had risen substantially since 2018, the city has cut €5 million for several theaters, including Musiktheater an der Wien, and reduced its subsidy for the Vienna Philharmonic’s popular Summer Night Concert by €250,000, about 12 percent of the event’s total cost. It has also cut €1.3 million from the budget of the Wien Museum, a historical institution that also oversees 15 locations, including the composers’ homes.
The Wien Museum said last week that it would temporarily close the Strauss apartment along with the apartment where Schubert died, Haydn’s final residence and the Neidhart Festsaal, a 15th-century dance hall that features medieval wall paintings. The museum is also reducing opening hours at some of the other historical venues it manages, although the museum itself, which reopened in 2023 after a €108 million renovation, will still offer free admission to its permanent collection.
“I’m incredibly grateful to be a part of a policy that values culture to this degree and also finances it. But that said, there is a financial crisis now,” said Matti Bunzl, the Wien Museum’s director. Although the central Wien Museum makes money from ticket sales, the gift shop and an on-site restaurant, he said, “it’s nowhere near what it costs to run this institution.”
“The degree to which we self-finance is, by American standards, shockingly small,” Bunzl added. “We still have a huge commitment from the public, but the numbers are slightly decreasing, and that’s forcing us to decrease what we can do.”
Given its decreased budget, Wien Museum said it had focused its reductions on locations with low visitor numbers and had tried to avoid cutting salaries or dismissing any employees, although it said it would not hire new employees for its visitors’ services department, which consists of part-time workers.
The city’s austerity measures have stirred anxiety in the cultural sector, even in organizations that weren’t immediately affected, and there are fears of deeper cuts to come.
“You face a big problem in the long run,” said Regina Laschan, the head of communications and programming for Basis.Kultur.Wien, which organizes cultural events in Vienna’s neighborhoods. “If you have less money in the cultural scene, those people have to search for other jobs. Even if they come back, the scene has changed.”
As part of the cuts, Musiktheater an der Wien, which recently underwent an €80 million renovation and last year won best company at the International Opera Awards, will close its smaller extension, the Kammeroper, an intimate venue that has fostered emerging talent for over 70 years.
The Kammeroper was once an independent venue, and when it faced closure more than a decade ago, Musiktheater an der Wien stepped in to save it by absorbing it into the larger company. Now, said Herheim, the artistic director, “You can call it a pause in theory — but in reality, it’s closing it down.”
“It’s sold out almost every night, and we can do four performances there for the price of one at the big theater,” Herheim said of Kammeroper. “It’s where so many singers started their careers.
“What are we actually saving in comparison to what we’re losing?” he said. “And what consequence will this have in the future?”
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