Danielle Spera

Danielle Spera (born 10 August 1957 in Vienna) is an Austrian journalist, writer, and the current director of the Jewish Museum Vienna.

Spera studied English and French for two semesters at the University of Vienna, before changing to journalism and political science. In 1983 she completed her doctorate on the election campaigns of the Social Democratic Party in the interwar period, and from 1990 to 2002 she was a lecturer at the Department of Communication at the University of Vienna.

Spera started working at the Austrian broadcasting corporation ORF in 1978 while still at university. After two years on the foreign desk of the evening news show, Zeit im Bild 2, she changed to the Wochenschau program, later returning to the foreign desk. After assignments in Central America, Greece and Cyprus, she was appointed ORF correspondent in the USA in April 1978, shortly before the announcement that Austrian president Kurt Waldheim was put on the Watch List of persons banned from entering the United States over suspicions about his wartime record. In 1988 Spera returned to the ORF centre in Vienna, and took up the moderation of the main news program of the ORF, the Zeit im Bild 1. She held that position for over 4,000 shows until June 2010, becoming one of the most recognized faces in the Austrian media scene. Her moderation partners included Horst Friedrich Mayer (), Josef Broukal (), Martin Traxl and Tarek Leitner (). She also moderated the weekend magazine 'Brennpunkt.

Spera applied successfully for the post of director of the Jewish Museum of Vienna in 2009, and formally took over the job in July 2010. In interviews around the time of her appointment, she said she would put her name and celebrity at the service of the museum, which was at the time rather unknown to the general public. She also said she aimed to "open up" the museum to the public, to create a space where fears and prejudices were dispelled and non-Jews could experience both the traumatic past and the vibrant present of the Austrian Jewish community. Specific goals also included reaching out to young people with targeted projects for schools, and to tourists.

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