Waggerl Haus Museum

The market town of Wagrain, at the entrance to the Kleinarltal, was the home of the writer Karl Heinrich Waggerl for more than fifty years. He is among the most important Austrian writers, and his work is closely bound up with the description of his immediate surroundings and with Wagrain. In 1897 he was born into poor circumstances in Bad Gastein. In 1920 he moved with his wife Edith to Wagrain as a schoolteacher. From that moment until his death in 1973 he lived in the Waggerl Haus, which is first mentioned in documents in 1776 and where his literary work was also written.

Thanks to a bequest from Edith Waggerl, who died in 1990, the municipality of Wagrain was able to convert the house into a museum together with the team of the Wagrain cultural association Blaues Fenster and with academics. It opened in 1994.

The most important rooms have been left as Waggerl lived in them. Throughout the house there are examples of his craft and artistic work as a bookbinder, painter, draughtsman, photographer and collector. Several side rooms hold information panels, display cases, three listening stations and a video film that deal critically and informatively with his person and his work. The museum also has features of a local heritage museum, because the concept of Heimat was central to Waggerl's work.