3rd Man Museum

The Third Man Museum (Dritte Mann Museum) is a private film museum located in Vienna's 4th district, Wieden, near the Naschmarkt. Opened in 2005, it occupies more than 400 square meters across 16 rooms and houses a comprehensive collection of original exhibits devoted to the 1949 film The Third Man, directed by Carol Reed from a treatment by Graham Greene. The museum serves both as a destination for film enthusiasts and as an entry point to understanding post-war Viennese history, particularly the Allied occupation period from 1945 to 1955. It received the Vienna Tourism Prize in 2020.

The museum was established in 2005 as an independent two-person project. Gerhard Strassgschwandtner initiated the venture and assembled the collection, while Karin Höfler handled the design and concept. They built the museum from scratch without outsourcing, and it operates without sponsors or subsidies. The founders worked as both specialists and generalists in creating the institution. Since its opening, the museum has developed annual temporary exhibitions and regular programming. In 2023, it acquired the Elchinger gravestone, which appears prominently in all three cemetery scenes of the film, and transferred it to the museum. The 75th anniversary of the film premiere in 2024 prompted additional commemorative events.

The museum holds approximately 3,000 original exhibits organized around two main themes: the international success of The Third Man and the everyday reality of Allied-occupied Vienna. The collection includes film production materials, personal items from cast and crew members, memorabilia, and approximately 1,000 documents related to the Allied occupation and pre-war period. An exhibition within the museum explains the historical backdrop of the film and portrays daily life in a city occupied by American, British, Soviet, and French forces between 1945 and 1955, incorporating many original documents from that era. The museum also creates annual temporary exhibitions, such as "Vienna 1945 - ZERO HOUR" running until January 11, 2025.

Signature items include Trevor Howard's personal script with hundreds of annotations used during filming in Vienna and London, along with letters and photographs from his private estate. The museum holds Graham Greene's film-specific correspondence and more than 100 editions of his novel. Anton Karas's zither, used in London in 1949 to compose and record the film music, is displayed, as is his former private exhibition from his Vienna garden house with its original arrangement of documents and photos. Other notable pieces include the cap worn by Herbert Halbik (who played the four-year-old Hansel), two Debrie Parvo 35-mm film cameras (models LS and K) rented by Austrian cameraman Hans Schneeberger for the British film team, and a fully functioning 1936 Ernemann VIIb projector on which visitors can view a two-minute sequence of the British version. The museum also possesses multiple film scripts from various production stages, over 70 film posters from premieres and re-releases, around 2,000 additional memorabilia pieces, and a special Orson Welles exhibition featuring items from Oja Kodar's private archive.

The museum is situated in the 4th district of Vienna, Wieden, in immediate proximity to the Naschmarkt. Its more than 400 square meters are divided into 16 rooms that display the collection. The interior was designed and conceived by Karin Höfler as part of the founders' collaborative effort to create the exhibition spaces from scratch.

The Third Man Museum operates as a private institution without sponsors or subsidies. On regular opening days, it can be visited from 14:00 to 18:00 without guided tour participation. The museum offers exclusive guided tours monthly, usually on a Wednesday, led in English by collector-owner-operator Gerhard Strassgschwandtner, who provides deeper insight into the film's production history and the collection's development through documents. The museum also organizes a guided city walk, "Post-war Vienna," visiting key sites of Viennese post-war history with the exhibition included. Since September 2020, a free smartphone audioguide of museum highlights has been available globally through the Hearonymus app. The museum's website is https://www.3mpc.net/.