Vienna museum showcases Nöstlinger’s career and unseen work

A new exhibition at the Literature Museum, part of the Austrian National Library, presents previously unknown manuscripts, drawings and photographs by children’s author Christine Nöstlinger, ORF reported. The show runs until 13 February 2028 and marks the 90th anniversary of her birth.

Nöstlinger’s papers have been part of the National Library’s collections since 2025. The exhibition traces her career and invites visitors on a journey into their own childhood. In the 1970s, she helped launch a new anti-authoritarian movement in Austrian children’s and young adult literature.

Her breakthrough came in 1970 with her debut, Die feuerrote Friederike. The story follows Friederike, a red-haired girl who is bullied for being different and eventually flies away with her cat. In her 1973 autobiographical novel Maikäfer, flieg!, Nöstlinger was among the first to address Nazism in children’s and young adult literature.

She wrote more than 150 books, which have been translated into 45 languages and adapted for film and theatre. Her work often centres on outsiders who challenge established power structures and traditional gender roles. Her dialect poems also show the range of her writing beyond children’s literature. Vienna’s municipal housing blocks often feature in her work, and she continued to observe different social classes, conflicts and injustices throughout her career.