Villa Beer Becomes a Museum: Vienna Contributes 500,000 Euros
Located near Schönbrunn Palace, Villa Beer is planned to become a public house museum in the medium term according to the plans of the Villa Beer Foundation. Currently, the architectural jewel of Viennese Modernism is being renovated. Vienna is supporting the measures with 500,000 euros from the Old Town Preservation Fund, as Culture Councillor Veronica Kaup-Hasler (SPÖ) announced in a press release on Thursday.
Already last year, the city supported the project with 200,000 euros. Unlike the current half a million euros, it was not a renovation-related grant, but assistance for preliminary work as part of a two-year funding, as stated in response to an APA inquiry from the councillor's office. "The commitment and sensitivity with which a private owner secures the monument with high financial effort, additionally subjects it to a contemporary ecological renovation, and will open it to the public, is unique," argued Kaup-Hasler for the current financial injection from the Old Town Preservation Fund. This "helps us enormously," expressed Lothar Trierenberg, managing director of the Villa Beer Foundation, who was grateful for the purchase of the house threatened by decay in 2021.
Family Beer lived in architectural jewel in Vienna for only one year
In 1929, the industrial family Beer acquired the property on Wenzgasse in the Hietzinger Cottage, and construction began the same year under the leadership of architect Josef Frank, whose birthday is being celebrated for the 140th time this year. Financial difficulties forced the owners already in 1932, one year after moving in, to mortgage the house and property.
The focus of the future house museum will be on conveying the architecture of the four-story residential building. However, the historical context is also of central importance, it was said. The biographies of its architects and the Beer family, whose life stories are representative of many other Viennese Jews forced to emigrate in the 1930s, will be explored. The renovation work is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
(APA/Red)
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