About the Holding

Austrian Federal Theatres is Austria’s largest theatre organisation. Historically, the association goes back to the former imperial and royal court theatre, i.e. the Hofburgtheater (Court Theatre) and the Hofoper (Court Opera). In 1922, a second smaller theatre, Akademietheater at Lisztstrasse, was opened besides the Burgtheater, and in 1955 the Volksoper at Währinger Gürtel was integrated into Austrian Federal Theatres. Today, Austrian Federal Theatres is the umbrella organisation uniting the three state theatres – Burgtheater and its affiliated venues Akademietheater and Kasino am Schwarzenbergplatz, the Vienna State Opera and Volksoper Wien – the Vienna State Ballet, and ART for ART Theaterservicegesellschaft.

Following their separation from federal administration in 1999, the federal theatres are now organised as a group of five independent limited companies:

Die Bundestheater-Holding GmbH
It is responsible for managing the Austrian Federal Theatres Group and for strategic management of the subsidiaries in line with their cultural and economic objectives. It is 100%-owned by the Republic of Austria.    

The theatre companies
Burgtheater GmbH
Wiener Staatsoper GmbH
Volksoper Wien GmbH
are independent and artistically autonomous companies and 100%-owned by Bundestheater-Holding GmbH.    

Theaterservice GmbH
ART for ART Theaterservicegesellschaft comprises the costume and set workshops, ticket sales, facility management and information technology under one roof. 51.1% are held by the Bundestheater-Holding, the remaining 48.9 % stake is shared among the three theatre companies (16.3% each).      

Wiener Staatsoper ballet company
In 2005, the ballet companies of the Vienna State Opera and of Volksoper Wien were merged. The Wiener Staatsoper ballet company is artistically and financially independent and organisationally subordinated to the two music theatres as a consortium.    

The tasks of Austrian Federal Theatres are set out in the Federal Theatres Organisation Act.

The work of the Bundestheater-Holding is based on the principles of economy, efficiency and effectiveness. This holds in particular for the use of the grants allocated to the Bundestheater-Holding and the theatre companies by the Republic of Austria. This basic state funding represents the financial basis allowing it to fulfil its cultural and political mandate which is laid down in the Federal Theatres Organisation Act.

Group Structure Download

The main tasks of the Bundestheater-Holding include:

• strategic management of the subsidiaries    
  
• group-wide controlling 
  
• group-wide accounting and payroll accounting   
• assuring the financial security of the theatre companies as precondition for the fulfilment of their cultural policy mandate
• strategic coordination of group-wide ticketing
• strategic coordination and management of IT
• uniform regulation and implementation of fundamental issues of group-wide relevance 
  
• negotiation and conclusion of collective bargaining agreements for the group companies
  
• maintenance and repair of buildings and properties (venues) left for usufruct 
• group-wide internal audit 

Organisational Chart Bundestheater-Holding Download