3rd Man Museum

The Dritte Mann Museum is a film museum in Vienna’s fourth district. It opened in 2005 across more than 400 square metres divided into 16 rooms. The displays centre on the 1949 British thriller The Third Man, directed by Carol Reed from a treatment by Graham Greene. The museum was created by Gerhard Strassgschwandtner, who gathered the exhibits, and Karin Höfler, who designed the space. It remains an independent project without sponsors or subsidies. Visitors also find material on Vienna’s pre-war and post-war years.

The collection holds about 3,000 original items linked to the film. Among them is Trevor Howard’s annotated script used during filming in Vienna and London. There are letters and photographs from Howard’s estate, plus correspondence from Graham Greene. The zither played by Anton Karas for the score is on display, along with Karas’s private garden-house exhibition now installed inside the museum. Items include Herbert Halbik’s cap from his role as little Hansel, two 35-mm cameras rented for the crew, and over 100 editions of Greene’s novel. A 1936 Ernemann projector shows a two-minute clip of the British version.

The museum also examines Vienna under Allied occupation from 1945 to 1955. Original documents, signboards and photographs illustrate daily life in the divided city. A recent addition is the Elchinger gravestone seen in all three cemetery scenes. Temporary exhibitions change each year, with a 2024 programme marking the film’s 75th anniversary. The museum received the Vienna Tourism Prize in 2020 for its focused and original approach.