The House of Austrian History (hdgö) offers several digital exhibitions (web modules) on Austria-specific topics at subdomains of the domain https://hdgoe.at. These are publicly available and free of charge, and can be supplemented by users on a voluntary and unpaid basis (without reimbursement) with their own photographic materials. The aim of these virtual exhibitions is to use the web as an exhibition space and to enable visitors themselves to contribute to the exhibitions at the House of Austrian History.

The administrator of this web portal is the Austrian National Library as the legal entity of the House of Austrian History (hdgö). The following conditions of use (incl. data protection information) apply to the web platform www.hdgoe.at and all subpages including web exhibitions: [[https://bilder.hdgoe.at/][https://urlaubskulisse.hdgoe.at][https://diktaturen.hdgoe.at/][https://postkarten.hdgoe.at/][https://bauen.hdgoe.at/] [https://ferien.hdgoe.at/][https://mitschreiben.hdgoe.at][https://heldenplatz.hdgoe.at][https://mitreden.hdgoe.at] and [https://1989.hdgoe.at/]].

Please note that the uploading of images requires use of a real name and a minimum age of 14 years.

1. Your User Data

1.1 In order to upload materials, an email address and a name are required. Please note that your name will be publicly visible and each of your submissions, with your name and the information you provided (image category, title, author/photographer, uploaded/submitted by, location, description, license, language of contribution, display image) will be published following approval by the curatorial team. You usually cannot change this data yourself after uploading a file or saving a recording. If you would like to amend data, please contact us at web@hdgoe.at.

As part of any submission at https://mitreden.hdgoe.at (and the sub-pages contained therein), your recordings (audio and/or video) will be processed with the aid of artificial intelligence (AI): for transcription, the model “turbo” from “openAI Whisper” will be used, and for translation the model “argos-translate“ from “LibreTranslate” will be used. In both cases, no data will be sent to servers abroad. All data will be processed exclusively on servers of the Austrian National Library (ÖNB), which is based in Austria. Further information on the responsible use of artificial intelligence at the Austrian National Library can be found at https://www.onb.ac.at/en/more/about-us/policy-artificial-intelligence.

Recordings not confirmed by you, including all data submitted, will be permanently deleted after 30 days.

You can delete your own published clips at https://mitreden.hdgoe.at at any time. There is a link to do this in the authorisation email.

2. Liability and Conduct of Conduct

2.1 Your personal data will be handled as strictly confidential by the Austrian National Library and the hdgö. Information on the processing of personal data by the Austrian National Library and your protection rights are available here. Please also respect the privacy of others and do not publish any private or personal data, incl. images of other people without their consent. This applies in particular to people who are identified and identifiable in the photographic materials provided by you.

2.2. If you submit or upload images, audio files or films, we assume that that the use and licensing (see point 3 below) of your submissions do not infringe or violate third party rights, in particular copyright exploitation and personal rights or data protection rights. In the event of alleged infringement on third party rights as a result of your submission, we reserve the right to mitigate damages and prosecute, including notifying third parties of your personal information.

2.3 The hdgö web portal is based on respect for other people and tolerance. Insults, slander, threats, personal attacks, inflammatory statements as well as discrimination of people based on their origin, religion, nationality, physical condition, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender-expression or age will not be tolerated on our portals.

2.4 A friendly tone and a fair dialogue are indispensable for a functioning community. Please describe your photographic material as you yourself would have liked it to be described: respectfully, informatively, responsibly.

2.5 Please refrain from spamming. Likewise, advertising commercially and offering products and services are prohibited. Only a reasonable number of contributions by the same person on similar topics will be published.

2.6 Due to the high volume of submissions, neither the hdgö nor the Austrian National Library can guarantee a comprehensive quality control of all submissions. Should you attain knowledge of unlawful or problematic content, please contact us at web@hdgoe.at. In the spirit of respectful cooperation, we reserve the right to shorten, edit or remove submissions, as well as exclude authors from further use of the portal for violations of this respectful cooperation.

3. Licencing of Material

3.1 You may provide material in two different ways (= licenced): Either

1. in the form of a licence, which only requires mention of the copyright holder for any use of the material, but otherwise does not impose conditions, or

2. in the form of a consent to use that allows usage only in the context of hdgö exhibitions and, optionally, advertising for the same.

The first variant corresponds to a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Austria licence. It ensures that your materials can be reused by the general public for any purpose – even for commercial purposes – so long as the name of the copyright holder is correctly indicated by the respective user.

In the second variant – use for exhibitions of the hdgö incl. their applications – any additional use of the material which goes beyond use in an hdgö exhibition or its application must be individually coordinated with and approved by you in advance.

You cannot actively participate without your consent to a licensing of the file  you have submitted as defined by one of these two variants.

4. Notifications

We only use the contact details provided in order to contact you for clarification of any queries that may come up about the photographic materials you have contributed. Should you have interest in the hdgö institution, we invite you to register for the hdgö newsletter. Email addresses will be used when we have questions about your material or to inform you about how the material can be viewed.

5. Legal Disclaimer

5.1 The information on our websites is generated to the best of our knowledge and belief. Despite due diligence, the accuracy, topicality and veracity of the information offered here cannot be guaranteed. If we become aware of any errors or fallacies, we will make an effort to correct them. All submissions reflect the personal opinions of the authors – the Austrian National Library shall not be liable for these submissions unless it has actual knowledge of unlawful content and is aware of any facts or circumstances concerning claims of compensation which render illegal activity or information obvious.

5.2 The same applies to all content and links posted by us or by users. The Austrian National Library or hdgö has no influence on the configuration and content of linked sites. We therefore expressly distance ourselves from the content of these linked sites and do not adopt them. This applies to the content of all external websites that can be reached via our websites.

6. Termination

Users are not entitled to the permanent accessibility of our web platform. User-generated files photographic material are not accepted into the collection holdings of the Austrian National Library or hdgö, and are therefore not recognised or inventoried as such. The Austrian National Library or hdgö is at any time at liberty to temporarily or permanently shut down the web platform, as well as to delete, modify or supplement the contents stored there.

7. Miscellaneous

In principle, Austrian law applies as agreed. Vienna is the jurisdiction for all disputes. Should one of the conditions of these terms of use be invalid or void, this shall not affect the remaining conditions.  
We reserve the right to change these conditions of use.

Last Update: January 2, 2025