New Head of the Bundestheater-Holding is Sonja Hammerschmid
The new managing director of the Bundestheater-Holding is a former minister and rector, but lacks leadership experience in the theater and musical theater scene: The former SPÖ Minister of Education, Sonja Hammerschmid, was introduced on Wednesday by Minister of Culture Andreas Babler (SPÖ) as the successor to the managing director Christian Kircher, who has been in office since 2016. She will lead the holding from April 1, 2026, for five years.
It is a "decision for expertise and competence" and "a clear signal for art and culture, for professionalism and for equality," said Babler at the presentation. "She knows what artistic freedom needs and what economic stability demands." With the first woman at the helm of the Bundestheater, a "turning point should also be felt." Hammerschmid has often prevailed in male-dominated industries and has "proven that she can lead complex, large organizations": "We want no glass ceilings, but the best minds. Dear Sonja, you are the right person in the right place!"
Hammerschmid Appointed as New Head of Bundestheater-Holding
The Upper Austrian Sonja Hammerschmid (57) is a trained molecular biologist, who came to the top of the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna through research and research management in 2010 and became the first woman to head the Universities Conference (uniko). In 2016, she moved from the rectorate of Vetmed to become Minister of Education in the government led by SP Chancellor Christian Kern, where she remained until mid-December 2017 and then became a member of the National Council and SP education spokesperson. In 2021, Hammerschmid left politics, became Director of Research and Development at Gropyus AG, and joined the supervisory board of the Austrian toll system provider Kapsch TrafficCom. In the cultural sector, she has held or holds positions, among others, on the supervisory board of the Kunsthalle Wien, on the board of the Leopold Museum, and on the board of trustees of the Natural History Museum. She unsuccessfully applied for the rectorates of the University of Salzburg and the University of Art and Design Linz.
"Experience with the National and International Theater and Musical Theater Scene" Required
The call for applications for the management of the Bundestheater-Holding sought "a goal- and solution-oriented personality with several years of management experience in leading and controlling an organization of comparable complexity, preferably in the cultural, theater, or media sector." Requirements include a completed university degree or comparable professional experience, experience with the national and international theater and musical theater scene, as well as with "controlling and related management processes, as well as with corporate development and change management processes."
"I am very much looking forward to the task, but I have respect - for the art, the institutions, and the people who make them up. It is about the flagships of the cultural nation with incredible radiance," said Hammerschmid, but admitted upon APA inquiry: "My background is strongly in the museum sector. But it is a management function, I am not an artistic director. It is about management, and I believe I have sufficiently proven that I can do that." She will primarily bring in her management experience as a rector and uniko president, as there are "quite parallels" between universities and the Bundestheater: Both are "deeply autonomous institutions" that have demonstrated a similar self-understanding in the freedom they live and negotiate multi-year performance agreements with the funding provider. In addition, she has "been a minister long enough to know the ministerial and political processes."
"We Cannot Exempt the Bundestheater from Budgetary Pressure Either"
The Bundestheater-Holding is the parent company of the Burgtheater, State Opera, Volksoper, and the Art for Art Theaterservice GmbH. The group employs around 2,500 staff, and annual ticket revenues amount to over 60 million euros. Christian Kircher (61), whose contract expires at the end of March 2026 and who has waived a new application, recently named rising personnel costs as the greatest challenge for the Bundestheater. He sees the time for a generational change after two terms and hopes for a legally fixed indexation of the basic compensation of the houses in the future to cover the rising personnel costs. The basic compensation amounts to 203.8 million euros this year. This sum has been "maintained" for 2026, said Babler today, but admitted: "We cannot exempt the Bundestheater from budgetary pressure either." This is "a financial reality that I cannot and do not want to gloss over."
(APA/Red)
This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.