Happy Birthday: Former Albertina Director Klaus Albrecht Schröder Turns 70

It didn't take long for Klaus Albrecht Schröder to be without a museum director position. At the end of December, he stepped down from the general directorship of the Albertina after more than 25 years, and since September 1, he has been the managing director of the Vienna Actionism Museum. True to his style, he immediately announced plans to modernize and expand the museum. On Monday, Schröder celebrates his 70th birthday.

Schröder former ORF news anchor

Born on September 15, 1955, in Linz, Schröder studied art history and history in Vienna from 1976 to 1983. He completed his dissertation on the Austrian painter Richard Gerstl. During his studies, the tall man with the melodious voice worked as a news anchor for ORF. In 1983/84, he was a research assistant at the Institute of Art History at the University of Vienna, and in 1987/88, he served as the personal assistant to the then Vienna City Councillor for Culture, Ursula Pasterk (SPÖ). Between 1988 and 1992, he was also the publisher and editor-in-chief of the art magazine "Kunstpresse".

However, Schröder made his decisive career leap at the Länderbank, where he led the art forum he initiated in 1985 until mid-2000. Even here, he impressed with rapid structural expansions, excellent international contacts, and popular exhibitions. He presented the Leopold Collection ("Egon Schiele and His Time" attracted 200,000 visitors in 1989) as well as the Batliner Collection (1998). While he had a severe falling out with Rudolf Leopold during his three years as commercial director of the Leopold Foundation (1996-1999), his relationship with Herbert Batliner was more enduring: In 2007, Schröder chose the same exhibition title "Monet to Picasso" at the Albertina as in the art forum, but was able to secure the works as long-term loans, achieving a coup.

Albertina general director until 2024

From 1996 to 2000, Schröder was a consultant for the state of Salzburg for the reorganization of the Salzburg State Museums, culminating in the construction of the Museum of Modern Art on the Mönchsberg. On August 1, 1999, Klaus Albrecht Schröder was appointed managing director of the Albertina, where he served as general director until the end of 2024. He achieved and managed the construction of an underground storage facility, the establishment of a study hall, the relocation of the entrance back up to the bastion with a distinctive flying roof by Hans Hollein, and the reopening of the museum in 2003. Of the 80 million euro construction budget, 20 million were privately raised.

He founded the photo collection of the Albertina, repositioned the former graphic collection as a universal art museum, established the Albertina modern at the Künstlerhaus in 2020, and in 2024 the Albertina Klosterneuburg at the former Essl Museum, increasing the exhibition space from 200 to 15,000 square meters and the annual number of visitors to well over a million. Only the also planned international locations could not be realized. Nevertheless, he said in the APA interview upon his departure: "I am proud that we were able to create and leave behind the very large organ of the Albertina as an instrument."

"Hare Affair" and Water Ingress

Career lows and crises such as the "Hare Affair," when in 2005 Dürer treasures like the "Young Hare" were loaned to the Prado without waiting for an export permit from the Federal Monuments Office, or the water ingress in the underground storage in 2009, where the treasures were saved from extreme danger (which led Schröder to philosophize about a "modern proof of God"), were weathered by Schröder unscathed.

He is, among other things, a recipient of the Grand Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria, the "Ordre des Arts et des Lettres," and the Golden Decoration of Honour for Services to the State of Vienna, and is married for the third time to Nina Lerchner, his former fitness trainer.

"That I would retire and poison pigeons in the park, no one seriously believed," joked the now-again museum director recently at his inaugural press conference at the Vienna Actionism Museum. Among a number of attractive offers from home and abroad, he ultimately chose Vienna, "because I no longer want to change my center of life." Actionism is "the most radical, progressive, and perhaps most important art form" in Austrian art history and its significance is "hardly to be underestimated." Initial construction measures have already begun. The reopening is planned for March 2026. He intends to hold his new position for a maximum of five years: "I will then be 75 years old." Then his time as a "private citizen" will finally begin.

(APA/Red)

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