Legal Law

Museum planned for Hollywood star Hedy Lamarr in Vienna

Once forgotten, Hollywood star and inventor Hedy Lamarr has catapulted herself back into the public eye in recent years thanks to plays, documentaries and exhibitions. The Jewish Museum Vienna will be able to ensure that it stays that way in the future: the house bought the estate of the US actress with Austrian roots who died in 2000 – thanks to the support of the museum’s American circle of friends.

The seller is Lamarr’s son Anthony Loder. The Hedy Lamarr archive contains photos, personal letters and documents as well as items of clothing – and not least her legendary drawings on torpedo defense, which are considered to be the forerunners of later Bluetooth technology.

All of this should not gather dust in the depots, but rather be on display at a new, permanent exhibition location in Vienna. The Jewish Museum is therefore looking for a suitable location for this new Hedy Lamarr Museum.

The aim is to trace the story of Hedwig Kiesler, born in Vienna in 1914, who became one of the greatest Hollywood stars in the 1930s and 40s after emigrating and is also considered the inventor of the frequency hopping method on which Bluetooth and WLAN are based today. Lamarr, who died in the USA in 2000, was buried in a grave of honor at Vienna’s Central Cemetery.

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