Starting August 1, 2025, the State Hall will open daily at 9 a.m.
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.
Achieving the women's suffrage was a process that varied in length in different countries. The first voices in Europe to demand political participation for women were heard during the French Revolution and the revolutions of 1848. These voices remained the exception. It was not until the last third of the 19th century that women’s movements emerged in many countries. Women got together to claim their social and political rights. The ways of achieving this varied.
The triggers for the emergence of women’s suffrage movements included electoral law reforms which continued to exclude women, only granted the privilege to a few women or only allowed women restricted (voting) rights. This strengthened the women’s movements.
Most of the countries involved in the First World War experienced radical political changes around 1918. Austria was not the only country where women’s suffrage was adopted at the end of the war. In countries where these upheavals did not occur, such as Belgium and France, women had to wait even longer for political equality. Southern Europe, along with Switzerland, only adopted women’s suffrage after the Second World War.