The Institute of Musicology at the University of Vienna began its operations in the 1898/99 academic year as part of the Faculty of Philosophy. It was founded by its long-time professor Guido Adler (1855–1941).
The spacious Neo-Renaissance building was opened in 1884. The Institute’s Polish graduates included Konrad Zawiłowski from Kraków (in 1902) and Zdzisław Jachimecki from Lwów (in 1906).
Józef Koffler, originally (for three semesters) a student at the Faculty of Law (1914–16), started his contact with the Institute with harmony and counterpoint classes taught by Hermann Grädener (attended in the summer semester of 1914/15 and the winter semester of 1915/16). From the summer semester of 1915/16, after enrolling at the Faculty of Philosophy, Koffler began his musicology studies, interrupted in 1916 due to army service, and continued from the winter semester of 1920/21 until the summer semester of 1922/23. Altogether he completed seven semesters of musicological studies. His teachers included Guido Adler, Egon Wellesz, Wilhelm Fischer, and Robert Lach, as well as (outside musicology): Alfred F. Pribram (history), Karl Bühler (psychology), and Robert Reininger (philosophy).
Altogether, Koffler studied in that building for more than five years.