The history of the Kulturfabrik tract goes back to the Middle Ages.  The tract lay outside the town walls in those days, and was flooded again and again by the swollen waters of the Danube.  For centuries typical ship’s mills anchored here beside the banks of the Danube and were used to mill corn, but also as tobacco mills.

In 1724 a tobacco factory was founded in Hainburg and it was nationalized in 1784. Production increased so quickly over the following decades that in 1847 the largest and most important factory building was erected: the so-called “Danube building” – today’s Kulturfabrik Hainburg.

Cigars and cigarettes were made by hand up to the end of the 19th century, when the first machines slowly took over this manual work.  In 1905 the Imperial tobacco factory employed some 2,500 people, the highest number of employees ever. 

The Pressburg trams even had their own stop here, right beside the tobacco factory, which shows how important the tobacco factory once was.  This stop is still in use today, as a station for the S7.

In the Thirties plans for expansion were never carried out, and in 1964 production was halted – after 117 years.  In 1977 the “PTG - Produktion für die Tabakwarenindustrie Gesellschaft” breathed new life into this building full of tradition.  The building remained empty after the final cessation of production in 1992.

Following an initiative of the Province of Lower Austria, extensive redevelopment and adaptation of this industrial building as a public exhibition and event centre was begun in 2005.

The Kulturfabrik Hainburg was born – a symbol of the spirit of optimism in a new central European region.