The Theater Museum is part of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna and has been housed in the Palais Lobkowitz in Vienna since 1991.

In 1922, the theater collection was founded as an independent institution under Joseph Gregor and was significantly expanded in 1923 with the purchase of what was then the largest private theatrical collection from the castle actor and Burgtheater director Hugo Thimig. A significant part of the collection also comes from Stefan Zweig, who bequeathed his manuscripts to the museum before fleeing the National Socialists in 1938. With the estate of Hermann Bahr, the museum owns the most important estate of Viennese modern writers in Austria.

The theater collection should not be limited to literary and archival holdings, but should encompass theater in all its diversity. For decades, the plan to found a theater museum was closely linked to this. The Austrian Theater Museum, initially housed in the Hanuschhof next to the Vienna State Opera, was only founded in 1975 with the primary task of organizing exhibitions from the holdings of the Austrian National Library. Since there was soon no longer enough space for the collections, the Republic of Austria acquired the nearby Palais Lobkowitz, which finally opened on October 26, 1991 as the Austrian Theater Museum