Klagenfurt exhibition explores Ingeborg Bachmann’s life and work
Saturday 17th October 2026 on 17:15 in
Austria
A new exhibition at the kärnten.museum, a museum in Klagenfurt, explores the life and writing of Ingeborg Bachmann. It opened on Saturday, the 53rd anniversary of the author’s death, ORF reports.
“Ingeborg Bachmann. In an Austrian city” has travelled through Germany and Italy after originating at the Austrian National Library. Its final stop in Klagenfurt brings together private items, dozens of photographs spanning Bachmann’s life and objects from the museum’s own collections.
The exhibition traces Bachmann’s writing and the themes that continue to resonate in her work, including war and its aftermath, illness, relationships and gender. It also examines her interest in music and philosophy and follows places central to her writing, which began in Klagenfurt and returned to the city in works including “Youth in an Austrian City” and “Three Paths to the Lake”.
Manuscripts, typescripts, books and other material from Bachmann’s estate, held by the Austrian National Library and now part of UNESCO cultural heritage, offer insight into her literary work and ideas. Original letters to Paul Celan, Max Frisch and Ilse Aichinger are shown alongside draft poems and autobiographical notes. Writing tools, furniture, pictures, accessories and clothing from her personal life are also on display, along with audio and video recordings.
“It is very comforting to see how she is being celebrated,” Bachmann’s younger brother, Heinz Bachmann, told ORF Kärnten. He said it was lovely to see objects he knew so well again.
Artist Anselm Kiefer has a dedicated space in the exhibition, presenting works inspired by Bachmann’s writing. His 2014 piece “For Ingeborg Bachmann” combines steel, glass, lead, wood and dried flowers in a fragile image of remembrance. The large-scale painting “Undine Goes”, from 2025, draws on Bachmann’s 1961 story of the same name, showing the water spirit’s face emerging from layers of green paint.
The exhibition brings literature and visual art into dialogue, offering further perspectives on Bachmann’s work and its engagement with gender relations, social power structures and the traces of history.