Dritte Mann Museum, Vienna

Dritte Mann Museum is a film museum devoted entirely to original material from The Third Man, the international film success shot in Vienna in 1948. It opened in 2005 and presents about 3000 original exhibits across 14 rooms. The collection’s most unexpected object may be the zither Anton Karas used to create and record the film’s music in London.

You can also encounter the gravestone seen prominently in all three cemetery scenes; the museum acquired it in 2023. Trevor Howard’s working script carries hundreds of handwritten annotations, while letters and photographs from his private papers add a personal layer to the production story. Two Debrie Parvo film cameras connect the displays with actual filming in Vienna.

The museum also preserves around 1000 documents about Vienna before and during Allied occupation from 1945 to 1955, so the film becomes a doorway into everyday post-war life. Gerhard Strassgschwandtner began the project, with Karin Höfler shaping its design and concept; together they built this private museum without sponsors or subsidies. A functioning Ernemann VIIb projector from 1936 screens a two-minute passage from the British original film.