Museum Arbeitswelt Steyr

The Museum Arbeitswelt stands in Steyr, a town in Upper Austria where the Steyr River turns an old industrial quarter into a lively setting. Housed in converted mid-19th-century factory buildings, it opened in 1987 during the Upper Austrian state exhibition ‘Work Man Machine: The Path into the Industrial Society’. The museum grew from an idea sparked by new English industrial museums of the late 1970s and soon became a recognised cultural and event venue. In 2002 a flood of the Steyr destroyed the exhibition area, but it was rebuilt and reopened. The museum examines how life and work have changed since industrialisation, winning the Austrian Museum Prize in 2019. Its ‘Politikwerkstatt’, running since 2009, offers workshops on democracy, racism, migration and participation. Regular talks and events provide a forum for current social questions and deepen understanding of each exhibition’s themes. A special memorial, the Stollen der Erinnerung, opened in 2013 beneath Schloss Lamberg. There, an exhibition on forced labour and the concentration camp in Steyr covers the years 1938 to 1945 and the city’s resistance history. Visitors find a changing programme of exhibitions that look at technology, society and culture. Past shows have explored robotics, migration, the history of metalworkers and the life of Anne Frank. The current displays include ‘Future Food – Essen für die Welt von morgen’ and ‘Aufsässiges Land. Streik, Protest und Eigensinn’. The building itself, with its red-brick walls along the riverbank, offers a quiet space for reflection after exploring the exhibits.