Viennese History – Viennese Stories

Not only two female singers and two male singers survived the horrible fire in the Viennese Ringtheater in December 1881 but columns were under the survivors too. These theatre columns were still usable and cheap. That’s why they were included into the building of the church Kaisermühlenkirche at the Schüttauplatz. A place from where one easily can walk to the ”coldest part of Vienna”. Where a special track commemorates the ice extraction out of the Old Danube and the name reminds us of the discovery of the „Franz Josefs Lands“ in the Northern Arctic Sea.

Two clocks “survived” the fire of the Viennese Ringtheater too. They can be seen in the Clock Museum of the Wien Museum. As is the famous watch and clock collection of Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach.

Friedrich Freiherr von Schmidt – A Man from Württemberg lets Viennes Stones Talk

Some architecture alumni from Stuttgart colleges and universities built important buildings in Vienna. As part-time Stuttgart citizen and part-time Viennese I enjoy this fact. And I will write about it from time to time. Today – the builder of the Viennese town hall.

In the middle of the 19th century the number of Viennese inhabitants jumped from 50,000 people up to more than 430.000. The old town hall didn’t had space enough to manage Vienna. What followed where years of metropolitan discussions much like the discussions about the hygienic needs. 23 places for a new town hall were discussed. And then finally a tender for the new building was finalized. 65 Austrian and foreign architects handed in their proposals. Members of the selection committee were among others the famous architects Ferstel and Semper. Project XIV with the title „Saxa loguntur“ (the stones talk) won. In a ceremony the sealed envelope with the architects’ name was opened and the winner was: Friedrich Schmidt (1825 – 1891), a German Viennese. Second till fifth places went to Parisian and Berlin architects only from place six onwards native architects were awarded. 1873 they started with the foundation stone; ten years later an area of 19,592 square metres had been covered and the cap stone could be set. Again ten years later the German Viennese became a honorary citizen of Vienna. 1886 he became a baron.
Humbly he steps back behind his work – 1896 the memorial for Schmidt had been uncurtained behind the town hall – photo.

Wilhelm Beetz – To satisfy Viennese needs

That nightmare: You need to go to the toilet urgently. Searching, running, asking – nothing helps. Nowhere a toilette. Depending on your personality the dream may continue in different fatal ways. What if a man or a women would appear, covered in a wide coat that covers a wooden bucket too. The bucket to sit on – the coat to cover you. Would you dare to end your problem for just two kreutzers?

These Buttenmänner and Buttenweiber (wooden bucket men, wooden bucket women) did exist really in Vienna at the beginning 19th century and this already meant some hygienic improvement. Because the situation in Vienna was upsetting: “heavy-weight air”, “harmful evaporations”, “like in fog”, a higher mortality rate than in Paris and London.

Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky (Part 2) – Kitchen Closed

”I am always described as a kitchen architect, although I have built many housing estates and kindergarten. What is a kitchen compared to my other work?” 1998, Schütte-Lihotzky (1897 – 2000)

I finished my first portrait of M. Schütte-Lihotzky with: When Lihotzky together with her husband went to Moscow in 1930, she does not want to do anything on kitchens any longer. It is interesting to check her impressive CV on what more she did than kitchens.
Even more interesting than reading her CV is to visit an exhibition these days: “Ich bin keine Küche. Gegenwartsgeschichten aus dem Nachlass von Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky.” (I am no kitchen. Contemporary stories from the estate of Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky.)

17 prospective curators of the course “exhibition and cultural management” of the Viennese University of Applied Arts cooked and produced a three-course menu: first course “Mythos Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky”(Myth Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky), second course “Paradigmen der Moderne” (Paradigms of modernity), third course “Demokratisches Design“ (Democratic design). In the exhibition centre Heiligenkreuzer Hof. This beautiful old building (documented first in 1201) combined with “contemporary stories” in an unusual exhibition design (Ivar chairs from IKEA) is worth a visit.

No-Kitchen-Sources:
Exhibition-Website (website and exhibition in German only, but nevertheless worth a visit)

Exhibition centre „Heiligenkreuzerhof“ by Dr. Heinz Adamek (in German)

Family Artaria – Paradise Vienna

Visitors and people who moved to Vienna love Vienna; Viennese love Vienna less.
The Italian family Artaria founded a firm in Vienna in 1770 and led love lead to actions. From 1779 onwards they published the famous “Sammlung von Aussichten der Residenzstadt Wien” (Collection of Views of the Residential Town Vienna). Views of Vienna in 57 coloured outline etchings. They do not only show buildings but also people and their life in the town. Among others the park “Augarten” then opened for the public – today my favourite jogging area. The park now still looks in some parts like on the four “Augarten” pages of the collection.
Not only did they produce a sheet of pictures of the city – it even grew with the development of the town because the pages were updated: Again not only the buildings but also the fashion of the inhabitants. But not all changes of the social life from Josephinism to Biedermeier, from the times of “reforms in law, administration, education, culture and the catholic church” to the times of “disappointments after the Restauration of 1815 and the nearly complete renunciation of public-political life” got visualised. Perhaps the idealised town sold better to “tourists”.