Expansion of the Cellars 1938–1945

In August 1938 a decree was issued that air raid shelters had to be built. This triggered a rapid phase of construction work in the Neue Burg. The second basement floor of the corps de logis (the section near the Ringstrasse) and the neighbouring section known as the Segment Tract were extended to form protective areas for the staff of the Art Historical Museum and for safe storage of museum objects. Specifically, in the words of Fritz Dworschak, the director of the museum, this shelter was intended for objects from the weapons collection, the costume depot, the musical instrument collection and, “in the event of the construction of the Central Depot of confiscated Jewish art objects, also for these”. New lifts were installed and an existing one was extended to reach the second basement floor so that it was easier to transport larger works. The northern part of the semicircle, in the area of the ballrooms near the Heldenplatz, was designated an air raid shelter and a communal protective space for people who lived and worked in the Hofburg. In addition to the basements of the Neue Burg, the cellars of the other Hofburg wings, which descended three floors underground in some parts, also served as safe storage and shelters. An anti-aircraft gun emplacement was set up on the central section of the Neue Burg to provide extra air defence. The Burghauptmannschaft was responsible for implementing all construction measures in the former imperial residence. When the extension of the cellar spaces came to a halt because of material shortages in 1939, the director of the Art Historical Museum wrote directly to Albert Speer, Hitler’s “General Building Inspector”, to ask him for help. In 1944, on the request of the president of police, the first cellar floor of the corps de logis was additionally extended with a 920m² air raid rescue facility including a gas-proof entry, ventilator system, doctors’ and nurses’ wards and isolation and treatment rooms. On 30 March 1945 Reichsstatthalter Baldur von Schirach proclaimed a state of emergency in Vienna and moved his command post into the air raid shelter in the cellars of the Neue Burg, which he had decorated with sumptuous carpets, historical battle paintings and portraits of important generals.