Austrian Biographical Dictionary (ÖBL)

The Austrian Biographical Dictionary continues a tradition of biographical entries that goes back to Constantin von Wurzbach and his 60-volume work, ‘Biographical Dictionary of the Austrian Empire’ (published in 1856–1891). In 1946, the Austrian Academy of Sciences took over comprehensive biographical data from Amalthea-Verlag with the aim of publishing it in the form of a biographical lexicon.

For this purpose, the 'Commission for the Development of an Austrian Biographical Dictionary’ was founded in the same year and an editorial team was appointed. This commission was converted into the institute 'Austrian Biographical Dictionary and Biographical Documentation’ at the Austrian Academy of Sciences on 1 January 1994. On 1 January 2013, the 'Austrian Biographical Dictionary’ (ÖBL) was incorporated into the newly founded Institute of Modern and Contemporary History and on 1 January 2020 it became part of the Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage.

The Austrian Biographical Dictionary is the only encyclopaedic work in Europe to record the life courses and career paths of prominent personalities in the entire territory of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy as well as in the First and Second Republics. In selecting the entries, we are committed to taking individuals into account who do not hold a prominent place in public consciousness.

The print edition of the lexicon comprises 16 volumes (a total of 73 print instalments). The most recent was published in December 2022. Almost 20.000 biographies have been published to date. An overview of the published volumes is available here. With the publishing of volume 16 the print edition is now complete.

The construction of an online edition began in 2004. Since July 2009, this open access version has been accessible on the Internet. In addition to full text search, it also offers in-depth search options as well as supplementary image material and further links.

The long-term ÖBL project (print and online) was discontinued at the end of 2023.

Contact: biolex(at)oeaw.ac.at