New Head of the Bundestheater-Holding is Sonja Hammerschmid

The new managing director of the Bundestheater-Holding is a former minister and rector, but lacks leadership experience in the theater and musical theater scene: The former SPÖ Minister of Education, Sonja Hammerschmid, was introduced on Wednesday by Minister of Culture Andreas Babler (SPÖ) as the successor to the managing director Christian Kircher, who has been in office since 2016. She will lead the holding from April 1, 2026, for five years.

It is a "decision for expertise and competence" and "a clear signal for art and culture, for professionalism and for equality," said Babler at the presentation. "She knows what artistic freedom needs and what economic stability demands." With the first woman at the helm of the Bundestheater, a "turning point should also be felt." Hammerschmid has often prevailed in male-dominated industries and has "proven that she can lead complex, large organizations": "We want no glass ceilings, but the best minds. Dear Sonja, you are the right person in the right place!"

Hammerschmid Appointed as New Head of Bundestheater-Holding

The Upper Austrian Sonja Hammerschmid (57) is a trained molecular biologist, who came to the top of the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna through research and research management in 2010 and became the first woman to head the Universities Conference (uniko). In 2016, she moved from the rectorate of Vetmed to become Minister of Education in the government led by SP Chancellor Christian Kern, where she remained until mid-December 2017 and then became a member of the National Council and SP education spokesperson. In 2021, Hammerschmid left politics, became Director of Research and Development at Gropyus AG, and joined the supervisory board of the Austrian toll system provider Kapsch TrafficCom. In the cultural sector, she has held or holds positions, among others, on the supervisory board of the Kunsthalle Wien, on the board of the Leopold Museum, and on the board of trustees of the Natural History Museum. She unsuccessfully applied for the rectorates of the University of Salzburg and the University of Art and Design Linz.

"Experience with the National and International Theater and Musical Theater Scene" Required

The call for applications for the management of the Bundestheater-Holding sought "a goal- and solution-oriented personality with several years of management experience in leading and steering an organization of comparable complexity, preferably in the cultural, theater, or media sector." Expected were, among other things, a completed university degree or comparable professional experience, experience with the national and international theater and musical theater scene, as well as with "controlling and related steering processes, as well as with corporate development and change management processes."

39 applications were received, 15 from women and 14 from abroad. Nine applications made it to a longlist, four to a shortlist. The recommendation of the selection committee, which included the chairwoman of the supervisory board of the Bundestheater-Holding, Edeltraud Stiftinger, Silvia Angelo, board member of ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG, former culture minister Rudolf Scholten, and Thomas Königstorfer, commercial director of the Landestheater Linz, was unanimous, said section chief Theresia Niedermüller, who was also a member of the committee.

"I am very much looking forward to the task, but I have respect - for the art, the institutions, and the people who make them up. It is about the flagships of the cultural nation with incredible radiance," said Hammerschmid, but admitted upon APA inquiry: "My background is strongly in the museum sector. But it is a management function, I am not an artistic director. It is about management, and I believe I have sufficiently proven that I can do it." She will primarily bring in her management experience as a rector and uniko president, as there are "definitely parallels" between universities and the Bundestheater: Both are "deeply autonomous institutions" that demonstrate a similar self-understanding in the freedom they live and negotiate multi-year performance agreements with the funding provider. Additionally, she has "been a minister long enough to know the ministerial and political processes."

"We Cannot Exempt the Bundestheater from Budget Cuts Either"

The Bundestheater-Holding is the parent company of the Burgtheater, State Opera, Volksoper, and the Art for Art Theaterservice GmbH. Group-wide, around 2,500 employees are employed, and the annual ticket revenues amount to over 60 million euros. Christian Kircher (61), whose contract expires at the end of March 2026 and who had waived a renewed application, recently named rising personnel costs as the biggest challenge for the Bundestheater. He sees the time for a generational change after two terms and hopes for a legally fixed indexation of the basic compensation of the houses in the future to cover the rising personnel costs. The basic compensation amounts to 203.8 million euros this year. This sum has been "maintained" for 2026, Babler said today, but admitted: "We cannot exempt the Bundestheater from budget cuts either." This is "a financial reality that I cannot and do not want to gloss over."

The culture minister explicitly thanked Kircher, who is leaving of his own accord. He laid a solid foundation on which Hammerschmid can build well, and "more commitment than would have been necessary in the job description: He was always there!" In his time before, namely as financial director of the Vienna Museum, Kircher was also with the then minister Hammerschmid. "It was about school projects back then, and she was very on point," Kircher recalled today in conversation with the APA about his first encounters with the "super leader" who will now be his successor. Kircher values the leadership competence she has demonstrated as more important than professional experience in the economic management of stages. However, he emphasized that the financial leeway of the Bundestheater is becoming increasingly tight and cannot be ignored.

His personal professional future is still uncertain, emphasized the head of the Bundestheater-Holding, who will present his last annual report in February 2026. His future role as a board member of the Carinthian Summer is purely an honorary and unpaid association function and includes no operational activity, Kircher said.

(APA/Red)

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