Founded by Austrian government in 1955, Austrian Cultural Forum (OKF) in Tehran was the only cultural institution who was not shut down during the revolution of Iran. The mission of this institute is to promote cross cultural cooperation with Iranian government. During this 58 years, this institute has focused on offering German Language classes to Iranian. In addition to its language learning classes, Austrian Cultural Forum established a choir and Orchestra 2006 in order to deliver Austrian musical culture into Iran and also help the cultural exchange between Iranian and Austrian musicians. In a 7 year course, Austrian Iranian Symphonic Orchestra and Choir (AISOC) has become one the most famous orchestras in Tehran. As a result of this success nowadays, this institute offers musical master classes, where Austrian musicians come regularly to Iran to train new generation of classical music players.
This institute is located in one the most expensive parts of Tehran. OKF is placed a large building with over 13 rooms, a kitchen, Library, music hall and a music library. The building is built around 30 years ago and used to be a house with a small garden and old fashioned. However, the interior design is modern with white clean walls, big leather sofa, parquet, security cameras and halogen lamps. 3 rooms out of its 13 rooms are for offices, which are against each other to make the contact more easier for the workers. Music hall has a large piano and musicians can practice there. Upstairs is for library which is very quiet and full of bookshelves. Most of the people who come to OKF are young and most of them are girls because since it is counted as Austrian territory, women can cross over Iran laws and can be more free. Women can sing in OKF and it makes more sense when we know that singing for women in banned in Iran.
In recent years, OKF has started a theater group as well.