The Research Centre for the History of Minorities is a non-profit organisation, concerned with issues of migration and their historical background. As a research institution, it also maintains archives and library facilities. Researchers, educational institutions and cultural initiatives with an interest in questions of ethnic minorities and their integration - both from historical and current perspectives - are offered a platform for discussion and networking.

The history of the Czech and Slovak minorities

The main task of the Research Centre is to set up a study and documentation centre focussing on the history of Czech and Slovak minorities, above all in Vienna. The history of these ethnic groups is a unique example of thorough integration into existing social, political and cultural structures. In the middle of the 19th century mass migration to Vienna set in, with migrants above all from Moravia, who had to overcome language barriers but found a cultural climate very similar to their former home. Around 1900 Vienna was listed as the second largest Czech town. The minorities settling here organised a wide range of political and cultural associations, many of which have survived until today.

The Research Centre is to safeguard valuable library collections and archival records of the Czech and Slovak minorities, thus supplying an interested  public with a comprehensive fonds for research and educational purposes.