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History

1688 Peter Strudel, court and chamber painter to Emperor Leopold I, opened a private academy.

1692 Earliest mention of the Academy's official recognition by the Emperor - it is thus the oldest art academy in Central Europe. Lessons were held in Peter Strudel's private residence near Währinger Straße.

1714 When Peter Strudel died, the Academy was temporarily closed down.

1726 Reestablishment as Imperial Court Academy, a public institution, under Emperor Charles VI, with chamber painter Jacob van Schuppen as prefect. The school was accommodated in Van Schuppen's apartment in Kärntner Straße. Its curriculum included painting, sculpture, architecture, and engraving.

1731–1759 The school changed quarters several times. It was mostly located in Vienna's first district.

1756 Under the rectorate of Paul Troger, 217 new students enrolled, which marked an unprecedented heyday in the school's history.

1759 The Court Academy moved into the building of the former university - today's Academy of Sciences.

1766 Foundation of an engraving school by the copper engraver Jakob Matthias Schmutzer under the reign of Empress Maria Theresa. This Imperial and Royal Engraving Academy in Annagasse soon became a rival of the Court Academy.

1772 State Chancellor Wenzel Anton Prince Kaunitz united all of the then-extant art schools within the k.k. freye, vereinigte Akademie der bildenden Künste, today's Academy of Fine Arts: the Imperial and Royal Court Academy of Painters, Sculptors and Architects, the Imperial and Royal Engraving Academy, as well as the Engravers' and Ore Cutters' School, and later on, the Commercial Drawing School.

1773 The library, which until 2003 also included a print room, was first mentioned in records.

1783 Joseph II decreed that all craftsmen take their master's exam at the Academy and present their masterpiece. Drawing lessons at ordinary schools were placed under the supervision of the Academy, which put forth the candidates for the position of drawing teachers.

1786 The Academy moved to the so-called St.-Anna-Gebäude in Annagasse. Public art exhibitions were held.

1800 The Academy was placed under the supervision of an Imperial "curator."

1810–1848 State Chancellor Clemens Wenzel von Metternich became "curator" of the Academy.

1812 The Academy as supreme art authority was endowed with numerous privileges.

1822 Count Anton Lamberg-Sprinzenstein's bequest laid the foundation for the picture gallery, comprising primarily works by Rubens, Van Dyck, and 17th-century Netherlandish painters.

1829 Georg Ferdinand Waldmüller was appointed first curator of the picture gallery.

1848 The Academy was partly closed down during the Revolution.

1850 The Academy was no longer the supreme art authority, but an art school directly responsible to the Ministry of Education.

1871 Approval of the construction of the new building in Schillerplatz after plans by Theophil Hansen.

1872 According to a statute passed by Emperor Francis Joseph I, the Academy was turned into a Hochschule (college); from then on, its rector was elected and it disposed of a faculty of professors. Decorative arts ceased to be taught at the Academy.

1877 Festive opening of the new building in the presence of Emperor Francis Joseph I. Anselm Feuerbach, among others, was commissioned with its interior decoration, which was completed in 1892.

1920/21 Women were first admitted to the Academy.

1935 Foundation of the Department of Conservation and Technology.

1936 Scenography was introduced as a master course.

1938 Immediately after Austria’s “Anschluss” to the German Reich, an interim management was appointed. Both the teaching and the administrative staff were purged, and numerous students were excluded from their studies.

1941
Art education was introduced as a master course.

1944–1945 Classes were resumed in the severely damaged building in Schillerplatz in April 1945 under the provisional rector Herbert Boeckl.

1955 The Academy Organization Act provided for scientific departments supplementing tuition in master courses.

1996 The Semperdepot (built between 1874 and 1877 after plans by Gottfried Semper as a scenery depot for the Federal Theaters) was revitalized by Rector Carl Pruscha to be used by the Academy as studio facilities.

1998 Under the Art Academy Organization Act, the Academy was de jure turned into a university, but retained its name Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien.

2002 The 2002 University Organization Act provided for the Academy's legal autonomy, with the rector, vice-rectors, academic senate, and university council put in charge of its operation.

2005 Rector Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen's development plan, restructuring courses and providing for a three-tier system of bachelor's, master's, and doctor's degrees, was approved by the university council.

2010 Establishment of the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Practice program.

2011–2019 Eva Blimlinger, together with Vice-Rectors Andrea B. Braidt and Karin Riegler, served as the first female Rector in the history of the Academy.

2017 Start of general renovation of the Academy building on Schillerplatz.

2019 Johan F. Hartle is appointed Rector and is leading the Academy together with Vice-Rectors Ingeborg Erhart and Celestine Kubelka (until 2022), Werner Skvara (since 2022)

2021 Return relocation Schillerplatz