Tenure of Alexander Conze, the first professor to organise the dedicated study of Classical Archaeology in Vienna. Conze’s vision remained influential for many decades, promoting the idea of "big archaeology" which sought to understand the full breadth of cultural production, including entire cities and cultural landscapes. This broad view encompassing all ancient artefacts, not simply ‘art objects’, led Conze to become an early promoter of provincial Roman archaeology. His two archaeological expeditions to Samothrace (1873 and 1875) played an important role in the establishment of excavation as a core practice in what was emerging as the Vienna School of Classical Archaeology. Conze was also interested in the latest scientific developments of his time, as demonstrated by the fact that he deployed the new technology of photography on his archaeological expeditions. He was also responsible for the establishment of the Archaeological Teaching Collection, which later became the  Archaeological Collection. In 1877, Conze was appointed Director of the Sculpture Museum in Berlin, where his career culminated in the exploration of Pergamon and in the General Secretariat of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI).

Otto Benndorf, Conze's successor, continued the development of classical archaeology in Vienna. Benndorf had a large number of students (e.g. Rudolf Heberdey, Emanuel Löwy, Paolo Orsi, Emil Reisch, Alois Riegl and Franz Studniczka); some of whom – e.g. Löwy and Orsi - became influential in the field beyond the borders of the German-speaking world. The focus of Benndorf's work was Asia Minor. Two expeditions in 1881 and 1882 took him to Lycia and the heroon of Gjölbaschi-Trysa, whose sculped relief panels he eventually acquired for the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, and casts of which are now a crucial part of our own Archaeological Collection. In 1895, Benndorf began the excavations in Ephesus (together with Rudolf Heberdey), the rapid expansion of which led him to push for the establishment of a dedicated "excavation institute". This vision was realised in 1898 with the establishment of the Austrian Archaeological Institute (ÖAI). Benndorf became its first director and resigned his professorship at the university in the same year.

Benndorf's successor was his pupil Emil Reisch, whose tenure saw the emergence of the "Viennese School" of art history led by Franz Wickhoff and Alois Riegl. Their new approaches to the understanding of Roman and late Roman art had an impact far beyond Vienna and also influenced the "structural research" of Guido Kaschnitz von Weinberg, a student of Emil Reisch. After the death of Robert von Schneider (director of the ÖAI from 1907 to 1909), Reisch also took over the directorship of the Austrian Archaeological Institute in 1910. His talent for organisation and his skill in dealing with people led Reisch to further promotion within the University, of which he became Rector in 1916/17.

Emanuel Löwy, who had resigned his professorship in Rome in April 1915 after the outbreak of the First World War, now returned to Austria and was appointed to an Associate Professorship in Vienna in autumn 1918, a post which he held until 1928. Löwy, who died in 1938, became well known beyond the discipline of Classical Archaeology through his friendship with and influence on Sigmund Freud.

Camillo Praschniker, who had already been a University Assistant from 1910 to 1912 and had held the so-called ‘Second Professorship’ from 1930 to 1933, now took over the full Professorship of Classical Archaeology in 1934. Between 1935 and 1945, he also assumed honorary management of the ÖAI together with Rudolf Egger, as it became affiliated to the university in 1935. One of Prasniker's first tasks was to reorganise and expand the collection of plaster casts at the Institute, which had been curated by Hedwig Kenner since 1936. Prasniker was particularly interested in the Parthenon, and his studies on the Parthenon metopes and the reconstruction of Athena Parthenos are well known. After the war, the Institute's research focussed on continuing the archaeological work begun by Reisch in Austria, particularly in Carinthia. The resumption of excavations on the Magdalensberg in 1948 was led by Camillo Praschniker.

After a two-year hiatus, the Chair of Classical Archaeology was once more filled by Otto Walter, a student of Reisch. Walter had worked for a long time at the ÖAI in Athens (1908-1938, with an interruption from 1916 to 1921) and directed the excavations in Elis and Aigeira.

Fritz Eichler took over the Chair of Classical Archaeology after retiring as head of the antiquities collection at the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Despite his advanced age, Eichler simultaneously took over the directorship of the ÖAI, and in 1954 initiated renewed excavations in Ephesus, which were initially led by Franz Miltner but from 1959 by himself.

Hedwig Kenner, a student of Camillo Praschniker and Assistant in the Institute's Archaeological Collection since 1936, was appointed as the first female Professor of Classical Archaeology in Vienna. Kenner was not only one of the pioneers of the discipline in Austria, but was also one of the few women of her time in position of academic leadership. Teaching was at the centre of her interests, ranging from comprehensive lecture courses on ancient art to the supervision of more than 70 doctoral theses. Her scholarly work shows several focal points, one of which was undoubtedly the study of Greek art and Greek theatre. Equally important is her work in the field of provincial Roman archaeology, where she had participated in the excavations on the Magdalensberg since 1948.

In 1969, a second Professorship for Classical Archaeology was created at the University of Vienna with special emphasis on “field archaeology and antiquity". The position was filled by Hermann Vetters, who simultaneously took over the management of the ÖAI and the excavations in Ephesus. He was influenced by his geologist father, by his teacher Rudolf Egger, but also by his first excavation experiences in 1935 and 1938 on the Ulrichsberg in Carinthia and in 1936-37 in Bulgaria with Gerhard Bersu and Ivan Velkov. Vetters set new standards for the development of excavation techniques in Austria, but also did pioneering work in the field of medieval archaeology with his excavations in Salzburg Cathedral (1956-1958 and 1966). He was also one of the first to advocate the active integration of archaeometry.

With the tenure of Jürgen Borchhardt, the region of Lycia once more became a key research focus in the Institute. In organisational terms, Borchhardt advocated the establishment of an independent Institute of Classical Archaeology, a vision that was realised on 15 May 1984 following the dissolution of the old Institute of Ancient History, Archaeology and Epigraphy. In 1988, the Institute moved to the first floor of the newly created "Archaeology Centre" in Währinger Park, while the Archaeological Collection moved to several rooms in the basement and cellar of the extension.

https://klass-archaeologie.univie.ac.at/ueber-uns/mitarbeiterinnen/ehemalige-mitarbeiterinnen/emeriti-professoren-i-r/juergen-borchhardt/

With the appointment of Fritz Krinzinger as successor to Hermann Vetters, the Institute gained a new research area in the central Mediterranean. Krinzinger also established excavations at two new sites, Velia in Southern Italy and Altheim in Upper Austria. In addition to his Professorship, Krinzinger also took over the management of the ÖAI from 1995-2006.

Renate Pillinger, an Assistant at the Institute of Ancient History and Classical Archaeology since 1976, founded the "Early Christian Archaeology" section of the Institute of Classical Archaeology in 1991. She also made a significant contribution to the development of this subject in Vienna by founding the "Mitteilungen zur Christlichen Archäologie". She was appointed University Professor in 1999. She has been involved in various research excavations in Austria (Teurnia), Bulgaria (Sandanski) and Turkey (Ephesus).

The research interests of Andreas Schmidt-Colinet, who held a contract professorship, focussed on Hellenistic-Roman art and architecture in the Near East and on Nabataean rock-cut architecture. He brought the excavations in Palmyra to Vienna, which he had led on behalf of the DAI since 1980, and from where he carried out several projects on the urbanisation of the city of Palmyra and its quarries.

With the appointment of Marion Meyer, the Institute saw increased focus on the topic of visual culture in Greek archaeology, as well as on the study of the art and cultural history of Athens.