Reading by Nina Schedlmayer and discussion with Georgia Holz (Sen. Sc. University of Applied Arts and member of the VBKÖ archive team)
Friday, December 5th, 2025, 18:00
Location: VBKÖ, Maysedergasse 2/28, 1010 Wien
Organizer: Association of Women Artists in Austria in cooperation with the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna as part of the conference “honoris causa 2025.” See honoris causa 2025
The book can be purchased on-site at the o*books book table.
Hitler’s Queer Artist
Stephanie Hollenstein, born in 1886, came from a peasant background, served in the First World War as a soldier, and openly embraced her homosexuality. After studying at the Munich School of Applied Arts, she earned a living as an expressionist painter and became active in the Association of Women Artists in Austria. In 1926, she was a founding member of Wiener Frauenkunst, a progressive offshoot of the VBKÖ. She wrote antisemitic texts and joined the Nazi Party before 1938. As a result, she was installed as president of the VBKÖ in 1939 and steered the association into line until her death in 1944.
In her book, cultural journalist Nina Schedlmayer traces the life of this ambivalent artist, who is symptomatic of the VBKÖ’s history of perpetrators. A history that the VBKÖ actively addresses and examines.
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Nina Schedlmayer studied art history in Vienna and earned her doctorate on art literature during the Nazi era. She is editor-in-chief of the cultural magazine “morgen,” writes for Handelsblatt, Weltkunst, and Parnass, among others, and runs the artemisia.blog about art and feminism. In 2017, she received the first Austrian State Prize for Art Criticism. “Hitler’s Queer Artist. Stephanie Hollenstein. Artist and Soldier” was published by Zsolnay in 2025.