Vienna Secession, also known as the house of the Union of Austrian artists, was built in 1897 by a group of Austrian artists, among whom were: Gustav Klimt, William Leaf, Josef Hoffmann, Olbrich, and others. The need to build such a facility arose because of the conservatism and traditional views of art dominating the Vienna House of artists.

The construction involved artists, architects and sculptors. The financial aspect is also lying on the artists, the city, for its part, has allocated land for the construction. The building has a large gilded dome, and the interior spaces and Windows made of colored glass and designed by Moser. The secession building located in the heart of the city, Karlplatz, became the regular meeting place of all creative population of Vienna.

Above the entrance of the building was carved the phrase "to Each age its art, to every art its freedom". Artists were concerned primarily with studying the possibilities of art outside the academic tradition. They hoped to create a new style, which should be devoid of historical influence. The group has received significant credit for his exhibition activity, which allowed us to introduce several of the French Impressionists of the Vienna public. 14th exhibition of the secession, designed by Josef Hoffmann, was dedicated to Ludwig van Beethoven and became particularly popular. However, on 14 June 1905 Gustav Klimt and some other artists left the Secession because of disagreements on the artistic concept.

During the Second world war the building was severely damaged and was restored in 1963. The image of secession was chosen as themes for commemorative coins: coins are in denominations of 100 euros were minted 10 November 2004. Currently in the secession is about 20 exhibitions annually.