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. Read the rest of this entry »
From 1882 to 1917 natural ice was extracted from the Old Danube. The ice was the only cooling substance for restaurants and butchers. So called ice choppers extracted the ice out of the frozen Danube and rafted it to ice cellars and ice caverns. What a job! 
This summer the term allergy celebrates its 102nd birthday. Maybe the pollen don’t dance too madly that day because it is a sad day for them. Someone “saw” their side effects. A Viennese of course – who else. In Vienna of course – where else. Clemens von Pirquet (1874 – 1929), a paediatrician, founded together with a colleague the science of allergies. The term was coined by Pirquet. He brought together the Greek words different & action. Although there are other readings. In addition: different & function, changed & action. May there be name readings, an allergic reaction is an allergic reaction. Whom it conquers it doesn’t give time to muse about the name. She or he gets tortured by this overreaction to the immune system on normally “harmless” substances like pollen & co.
