Austria in aerial views

The new dataset from ÖNB Labs, titled “Österreich aus der Luft” (literal translation: Austria from the Air), offers insights into around 4,800 historical aerial photographs taken between 1930 and 1935. It includes not only the digitized images themselves but also metadata. As part of a crowdsourcing project, participants were able to contribute valuable additional information, including precise geographic coordinates of the photographed locations.

The open accessibility of this data enables a wide range of uses. One example is the interactive map below, which visualizes the coordinates from the metadata and provides direct access to the corresponding aerial images via map markers. Blue markers indicate coordinates manually added by users during the crowdsourcing process. Purple markers represent positions calculated using geocoding techniques. The integrated search function allows users to locate specific places and image signatures, which makes targeted research easier.

The approach used to supplement missing georeferencing is fully documented in the accompanying Jupyter Notebook. It serves as both a transparent reference for further analysis and an invitation to experiment with alternative methods or develop new research approaches based on the data.