Planetariums in Austria

Prof. Elis Strömgren, Director of the Copenhagen Observatory, wrote the following sentence in 1925:

“Never has a means of observation been created that is as instructive as this one, never one that has had a more enchanting effect, never one that addresses everyone to the same degree as this one. It is school, theatre, film all at once, a school hall under the vault of the sky and a spectacle where the heavenly bodies are actors.”

Only shortly after Elis Strömgren’s pioneering words about the planetarium, which was newly invented in 1923, the history of “star theatres” also began in Austria. Austria was the first country outside Germany, the country of invention, in which a planetarium was built. It was in Vienna in 1927 that the first planetarium was opened for the exhibition “Vienna and the Viennese”. Technically, it was the Model II projection device from Carl Zeiss Jena. Soon 100,000 and more visitors flocked to the temporary building at the Messepalast and so the new Vienna Planetarium was soon regarded as a true “wonder machine”.

At the beginning of the 1930s, the planetarium was relocated by contract to a new building at Vienna’s Praterstern. In the following years, however, operations at the new location came to an increasing standstill, and the Second World War ended the initial boom. After that, it took until 1964 when a new planetarium was built in Vienna near the Vienna Giant Ferris Wheel. The next planetariums were built in Klagenfurt in 1977, in Königsleiten (closed) in 1997, in Schwaz in 2001 and in Judenburg in 2006. The Digital Planetarium, which opened in September 2014 to mark the 125th anniversary of the Natural History Museum in Vienna, was closed and dismantled in January 2023 after less than 10 years of operation. This means that Vienna lost its digital planetarium after a short time. In June 2023, the Planetarium Schwaz reopened its doors as Your Dome.

Today, Austria’s planetariums attract well over 100,000 visitors a year. The programme of the houses ranges from children’s shows to school presentations and shows for adults to musical, cultural and scientific events.

You are welcome to explore the vastness of space with us in one of Austria’s planetariums. Experience cosmic hours – to discover the unknown, to expand horizons and to cross borders, because as the saying goes:

„The Sky is Not the Limit“!

Austrian Planetariums


Kirchplatz 1, 8750 Judenburg, Österreich

Tel: +43 3572 44088
Email: planetarium@sternenturm.at
Internet: www.sternenturm.at


Villacher Straße 239
9020 Klagenfurt am Wörthersee

Tel: +43 463 21700
Email: planetarium@topgroup.at
Internet: www.planetarium-klagenfurt.at


Alte Landstraße 15
6130 Schwaz

Tel.: +43 5242 72129
E-Mail: info@yourdome.tirol
Internet: www.yourdome.tirol


Oswald Thomas Platz 1
1020 Wien

Tel.: +43 1 89 174 150 000
E-Mail: planetarium@vhs.at
Internet: www.planetarium-wien.at


Dr. Ruth Grützbauch
Lassallestraße 36
1020 Wien

Email: hello@publicspace.at
Internet: http://www.publicspace.at

Planetariums International

The idea of the planetarium and its institution has spread far and wide across the globe since its foundation in 1923 in Germany (Jena/Munich). Today there are thousands of planetariums and astronomical educational institutions with planetarium character worldwide. In the German-speaking world, after decades of loose association, the Society of German-speaking Planetariums (GDP) was founded at the 2011 meeting in Vienna.

Worldwide, it is the International Planetarium Society (IPS), which was founded in 1970 and today has over 600 members in 42 countries. Its community unites professional planetarium operators, teachers, technicians, authors, media specialists, scientists, companies and friends of the planetarium under the stars of the dome.

Here you will find the links to the societies of the GDP, APLF and IPS: