The Globe Museum at the Austrian National Library is regarded as the only one of its kind in the world. No other institution offers the opportunity of seeing 240 original exhibits which include terrestrial and celestial globes, globes of the moon and Mars, planetaria, lunaria and telluria. Visitors can also study developments in the construction of globes and changes in ideas on cartography and cosmography. The many aspects of this comprehensive collection make the museum attractive and of international academic and cultural significance. Handwritten sources dating from early modern times record globes at the imperial library. These globes have disappeared with the passing of time. Apparently there was a beautiful armillary sphere supported by a sculptured figure of Atlas, made by Martin Furtenbach in 1535 for Raimund Fugger. Vincenzo Coronelli, the famous Venetian globe maker and universal scholar, not only had academic contacts with the imperial court but was also in personal touch with Emperor Leopold I to whom he presented a magnificent pair of globes, each with a diameter of 110 centimetres. The globes were elaborately coloured, decorated with the emperor's portrait and dedicated to his honour. This pair of globes together with an almost identical second pair owned by Franz Stephan von Lothringen are marked beneath the dome in the central oval of the baroque library on the plans of the imperial library's great hall. Purchases of globes are first recorded in the latter half of the 19th century. A pair of globes by Gerard Mercator (1541 and 1551) was purchased in 1875 from a private owner. These were - erroneously - thought to have been unique originals once owned by Emperor Charles V. When Eugen Oberhummer, a Viennese geographer, carried out research on ancient globes in Vienna in 1921, the following holdings were listed in the national library: apart from the two gilded giant globes decorating the facade of the great hall above the west and east entrances (Gaea supporting the terrestrial and Atlas the celestial globe) and the two Coronelli pairs of 110 centimetres in diameter mentioned earlier, there were a pair of Blaeu globes (68 centimetres in diameter) between the dome and the entrance, the pair by Mercator described above (41 centimetres in diameter) and a celestial globe by Gerard Valk (34 centimetres in diameter), as well as a pair of Bleau globes (34 cm in diameter) and two 18th century armillary spheres in the camera praefecti. These items became part of the geographical collection where they remained incognito during the years between the two world wars. The director's annual report for 1948 refers to the globes as follows: "Globes are among those items hardly consulted by library users."
It is thanks to Robert Haardt that interest in globes has been re-awakened. As a result of his preoccupation with the possibilities of constructing globes, Haardt became interested in a broader context, thereby introducing a renaissance in the application of globes. There can be no doubt that Haardt deserves credit for his unshakeable conviction of the didactic and scientific relevance of globes Haardt not only regarded a globe as a collector's item of importance to research or art history or artistic production, he was also convinced of a globe's contemporary importance in research and education. Starting out from the idea of the globe as a three dimensional model true to scale and without distortion, he began to adapt existing models in order to construct a new type by which distances, angles and surfaces could be directly measured. Haardt named this instrument a "rolling globe". It had no axis and was equipped with a transparent cap to measure surfaces, distance and angles (in kilometres, degrees and English miles) . Between the wars, Haardt had already spent much time and energy on establishing a globe museum. Nor did he give up these attempts during World War II. He collected information on ancient globes, maps and atlanta, ordered illustrations and photographs and even found out about possibilities and requirements to loan objects for a Viennese globe museum which he was intending to establish. Immediately after the end of the war, the globe museum project was reactivated. Haardt had found many supporters - such as Hugo Hassinger, a university teacher and respected specialist in historical geography, who expressed a highly positive opinion in his various publications and in a memorandum addressed to the ministry of education, thereby paving the way for a globe museum to be put on exhibition in Haardt's private apartment in the fourth district of Vienna (Gußhausstraße 20).
Meanwhile Haardt had managed to acquire some remarkable globes from private owners - the most famous example being the only known surviving terrestrial globe by Rainer Gemma Frisius (37 centimetres in diameter). Haardt's globe museum grew steadily - on the one hand by means of loans from public institutions, on the other hand thanks to purchases financed by the ministry of education. Robert Haardt never tired of collecting globes - whether individual specimens or in the form of symbols or ornaments. He also collected literature, catalogues, illustrations and descriptions. The difficulties involved in keeping state-owned items under private management in a private apartment eventually persuaded the Republic of Austria to terminate such undefined legal status. Attempts to incorporate the globe museum into the map collection at the military archives or into the Geographical Society proved unsuccessful on account of insufficient staff and accommodation. On 2 December 1953, the ministry of education decided to entrust the Austrian National Library with the holdings. When the globe museum was established at the library in 1954, 36 globes were recorded as part of the map department. A few years after the end of the second world war, the ministry of education considered "nationalising" the globe museum and listing those items purchased with public means in the inventory of the holdings at the Austrian National Library. Despite excellent collegial relations with the library, Haardt found it very difficult to part with "his" collection. In March 1953, Rudolf Kinauer, the director of the map department, decided to check the holdings from a list Haardt had given the ministry of education. The director general at the Austrian National Library informed the ministry that he could only consider the globe museum as part of the map collection and not as an independent institution owing to shortage of staff and for budgetary reasons. On 23 April and 5 May 1954, 51 reference works, 13 maps and 10 portfolios containing illustrations were handed over. The opening celebrations for this internationally unique museum of 71 exhibits took place on 14 April 1956. The smaller globes were placed on wooden tables, the larger ones on the floor in chronological order according to historical importance.
During the first thirty years (1956-1986), new accessions of 74 globes were recorded at the museum. This significant increase in holdings (amounting to an annual average of 3.7 new items) was only possible thanks to numerous donations from private owners and public funding. 42 of the 74 globes were donations, 27 were purchased, two had formerly been part of the holdings at the Austrian National Library and three had been acquired in exchange for other items. In 1970 the globe museum could be moved to new accommodation. It was re-opened on 7 March after being closed for almost a year. The move enabled noticeable improvements in the space available and in exhibition facilities. The main advantage was better accessibility for the public. But it was not until accommodation in the attic had become available for a completely new globe museum, that modernisation and adaptation in accordance with up to date conservational standards could be carried out. During the course of a thorough renovation programme, walls were knocked down in order to create three large rooms on two floors connected by a spiral staircase. The only bitter reminiscence for the staff responsible at the map department and globe museum was the realisation that there was too little reserve accommodation for future accessions. At the time of writing - more than ten years after the reopening on 2 April 1986 - accommodation for the collection, which now amounts to 260 items, has become totally exhausted. [Editor's remark in 2003: Due to the acquisition of a Baroque building located in the center of Vienna for the purposes of the Austrian National Library it will be possible that the Globe Museum can move into a new location. There will be enough space for the collection and it will be possible to present the globes in consideration of recent developments in museology.]
A tour of the globe museum at the Austrian National Library offers a stroll through the history of ideas of what the earth and the heavens should look like. No other medium is able to offer a similar perspective of the developments in the geographical concept of the world or in our knowledge and ideas of the earth and the universe.
The establishment of the globe museum in 1956 closed a sensitive gap in the history of science and culture. The steadily rising interest in ancient globes and instruments in recent years is responsible for a new standard reference work "Modelle der Welt. Erd- und Himmelsgloben", ("Models of the world. Terrestrial and celestial globes") published in 1997. The subtitle of the volume, which contains numerous large-format coloured illustrations, reads: "Cultural heritage in Austrian collections". The museum has rapidly developed from its early beginnings in the 1950s. The number of precious new accessions - thanks largely to the frequent generosity of the friends of the museum - and the increasing number of visitors not only prove active public interest but also serve as a legitimate mandate for future policy. |
© Nationalbibliothek, 2000 last update: 23.05.2003 
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