The Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies at the Institute for Languages, Cultures, and Societies, University of London, is delighted to announce the launch of an online exhibition about the Laterndl Theatre at the Austrian Centre.

Founded in 1939 in London, The Austrian Centre provided a vital social, cultural and political hub during the dark war years for the thousands of Austrian political and/or racial refugees from National Socialism fleeing persecution. The Laterndl (The Little Latern) had clear aims: it wanted to give the wider refugee community hope and belief in the future, contribute to the fight for a free and independent Austria, and enable them to reach out and share stories with the wider British society. Just as important perhaps, was an unspoken hope that theatre would bring a sense of agency and purpose to life in exile.

Inevitably, for a small wartime refugee theatre, only a few precious documents from the Laterndl remain. The Martin Miller and Hannah Norbert-Miller Archive, from which most of the material for the exhibition is taken, contains perhaps the most complete set of records of the Laterndl's history in existence. The exhibition pieces together fragments of the records and supplements the story with other sources to weave together the unique story of a remarkable theatre.