The Austrian theatre Museum in the Palace Lobkowicz was established on the basis of the theatre collection of the Austrian national library in 1991.

The flourishing popularity of theatre arts in Vienna was at the end of 19th – early 20th century. The townspeople are happy to spend time on music shows and theatrical premieres. Therefore, in 1921 it was decided to create in the Austrian national library collection devoted to the theatre. All preparatory work was carried out by Josef Gregor, who was known as a theatre-lover and a librarian.

A year later, in 1922, was first opened theatrical Comedy show, which aroused great interest among the public. Getting a lot of positive reviews, decided to purchase Director Hugo Simila his private collection, which formed the basis of the Museum exposition. In 1938 Stefan Zweig bequeathed his collection of autographs of prominent poets and playwrights of the Museum.

After the approval of the Ministry of education of Austria, the collection was called "the Theatre collection". Since then, in cultural circles repeatedly talks about the creation of a separate Museum, which would be entirely devoted to the theatre. Finally, in 1975 the Austrian theatre Museum was opened.

The Museum is housed in the Lobkowicz Palace, which was the most important city Palace. The Palace was built for Philip Sigismund von Dietrichstein after the second siege by the Turks in 1683.

Currently the Museum is more than 100 thousand prints and drawings, approximately 600 different models of theatrical costumes, more than half a million photographs Directors, actors and composers. One of the most brilliant and valuable artifacts in the Museum, is the marionette theatre of Tessera, which has the name "Golden Cabinet". In addition, for real fans of the theater will be interesting Museum library, which has about 80 thousand books.