Alert
Attention

Annual maintenance work will take place again this summer, which is why the reading rooms at the Heldenplatz location and in all collections will be closed from Friday, July 25, to Tuesday, August 5, 2025.

Due to the shutdown of the ordering system, no media orders can be accepted from Thursday, July 24, 2025, 4 p.m. to Tuesday, August 5, 2025, 4 p.m. The regular opening hours will then apply again from Wednesday, August 6, 2025.

The study room of the Albertina is closed from July 15 to August 15. During this time (except July 25 to August 5), media ordered from the Albertina collection will be transported twice a week (Monday and Thursday) to the reading rooms of the National Library on Heldenplatz and can be used there.

State Hall

Starting August 1, 2025, the State Hall will open at 9 a.m.

State Hall

Due to an event, the State Hall will be closed on Monday, September 8, from 2 p.m.

State Hall

Due to an event, the State Hall will be closed on August 4, 2025.

Campaign poster for the Bürgerlich Demokratische Partei for the 1919 National Council election

When women obtained the right to vote, they became a target for canvassing. The gender roles were generally clearly differentiated in the advertising. The public image of politics was largely male dominated.

The campaign for the election to the National Constituent Assembly on February 16th 1919 was dominated – as throughout the First Republic – by class struggle issues. The conflict between socialism and capitalism and the struggle for a new political order in a Europe in chaos after the First World War also marked the political scene in Austria.

The first posters and flyers show how the parties targeted their canvassing specifically at women, the new electorate. Nevertheless the campaign issues for women were reduced almost entirely to the welfare of the family and the future for the children.

Nearly all the posters just portrayed men as political players. Women only appeared very occasionally and if they did, it was usually in the role of housewife and mother – as carers, mourners, sufferers. Some parties taking part in the election completely ignored the new female voters in their campaigns. It was only on the Civil Democratic Party’s posters that women were not depicted as housewives and mothers but as active participants in the development of the State.

Follow Chat
JavaScript deaktiviert oder Chat nicht verfügbar.