Sammlungen

After the IKG collection the Max Berger Collection is the next largest collection of the Jewish Museum. Max Berger, who was born in Poland in 1924, was the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust. At the beginning of the 1950s he came to Vienna. In memory of his family he searched for traces of a destroyed world and began a tireless activity as a collector. His collection is concentrated on objects from the region of Austria and the Austria-Hungary. He was just as fascinated by simple items of folk art as by magnificent showpieces. Up until his death in 1988 he collected approximately 10,000 objects that provide an impressive testimony to Jewish life in Vienna and the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. In accordance with his testament the City of Vienna acquired the major part of this impressive collection for the Jewish Museum, which was already planned at the end of the 1980s.