Höhere Graphische Bundes-Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt

The Höhere Graphische Bundes-Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt (HGBLuVA) ("Higher Federal Institution for Graphic Education and Research"), now commonly known as "die Graphische",[1] founded in 1888 in Vienna, is a vocational college for professions in visual communication and media technology in Austria.

The k. k. Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt für Photographie und Reproductionsverfahren, founded and directed (1888–1923) by Josef Maria Eder, previously of the Technologische Gewerbemuseum (Museum of Applied Technology), for which he established a Section for Photography and Reproduction Techniques,[4] and the Vienna State Trade School where, recently qualified as a university lecturer, he began teaching chemistry and physics in 1881.

The aim of the institute was the “training of specialist photographers, retouchers, collotype printers, photolithographers, etc., the instruction of artists, scholars and technicians who want to learn photography as an auxiliary science, furthermore the testing of equipment, chemicals and the implementation of independent scientific investigations in the areas of Photochemistry and Related Subjects”.

In 1908 the graphic arts department was set up on the top floor of the neighbouring house at Westbahnstraße 27 connected by a spiral staircase still in existence in the courtyard at the current location on Leyserstraße.

[7] Due to changes and new requirements in the job description, the proportion of women continued to grow, so that in some classes it exceeded two thirds.

The "annexation of Austria by Germany" resulted in organisational restructuring: semesters were introduced and the GLV was made a subordinate level of a university of the graphic arts administered in Leipzig.

On May 22, 1963, the foundation stone of the new campus was laid in the 14th district in the Breitenseer Strasse, Leyserstrasse and Spallartgasse area (Kommandogebäude Theodor Körner).

Due to renovation work on the building in Leyserstraße, the management and the photography, multimedia and graphics departments moved to an alternative location in Vienna's first district at Schellinggasse 13.