In the morning we walked along the graffiti clad walls of the Donaukanal; people can walk, run or cycle for miles along it's banks on both sides. The winos inhabited the bridge underpasses and a shirtless insane man shouted to himself while searching trash bins along the other bank, gladly a water's length away. We ascended the banks and crossed to Swedenplatz, a busy hub of activity for access to the city center. The Viennese cafes are famous and numerous throughout the city; the traditional cafe is decorated in wood and wicker with elegant fittings, cutlery and located in the grand old buildings of the city. These are not eating houses, nor the fast paced dispensaries of coffee to which we are accustomed these days, but they are thinking house, reading houses and visiting houses where one could feel pride in having bothered to dress well for the day, where one should smoke cigarettes, not cigars. Traditional Viennese cafes were a core element of social interaction of the city, but times have moved on. A new wave of cafes, like "Aide", have swept the city, introducing a 1950's pink and slightly Americana style and introducing pastries and desserts. We viewed the changing times of coffee from our seats on the terrace of the Starbucks along Rotenturm Strass.
We crossed Stephansplatz and the grand Stephan's Cathedral there, but kept on going to the Ring Strass towards Swartzenbergplatz. The city revealed it's history and pride in numerous statues along the way. Charles Philip, Prince of Schwarzenberg, is prominently mounted on a horse along a street named for him. He had an illustrious career in the military and was promoted to General of Cavalry after the battle of Wagram, which was lost to Napoleon and he spent years following battling the turbulent Napoleonic wars, often being beaten, but he eventually emerged triumphant in the capture of Paris and the overthrow of Napoleon. He was accorded many honors and died of a stroke a few years later while re-visiting the battle fields of Leipzig, where he had defeated Napoleon.
Nearby is a statue of Georg Rafael Donner in bronze; he was a famous 18th century sculptor has a number works on display in the city. The centerpiece of Swartzenplatz is the Hochstrahlbrunnen fountain, a circular pool with mounded rocks and a powerful series of water jets built in early 20th century. Behind the fountain is the Soviet war memorial to the 17,000 troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front who perished in the Vienna Offensive at the close of WWII when they succeeded in battling through German defenses, taking Vienna and progressing more easily through the lowlands of Austria. The Soviet move allowed the Austrian politician, Karl Renner to declare Austria's secession from The Third Reich of Germany. Within a month the allied troops arrived and the country was split among Soviet, British, French, and American troops. The country had a strange path through the war, having been annexed by Germany in 1938 well before the war, a prodigal son forcefully returned home, but the Austrians gladly accepted their faith and support Hitler in the war which broke out in 1941. By 1943, as Austrian resistance increased based on the progress in the war, the Allies issued the Moscow Declaration, which repositioned Austria as a victim rather than an integral part of the German empire. Under occupation for ten years after the war by four dominant countries, each got a reputation among the local population; "This plant is from Russland", was the standard refrain at Aderklaa when there were problems with the Gas Plant on which I worked, indicating the reputations of the Russians. Ironically, the plant was an American design!
The boys feet were dragging as we walked up the long Prince Eugene Strass looking for the entrance to the Belvedere gardens and mansions, a high wall on one side and a row of wealthy 19th century town houses on the other. An Iron Maiden poster was the the only break from our toil of walking; it was a sign I could easily have seen 15 years before when I lived in Vienna, or indeed 38 years ago when the originally started. I am supportive of longevity, but was wondering which Austrians were attending the Iron Maiden concert, the 1980's supporters just grown older, or some new generation.
At last we entered through a small gate and had to steady ourselves to adjust to the expanse and grandeur which opened up before us. A scrawny and weak man physically, Eugene of Savoy was a rejected for military service by the French court of Louis 14th, but we tenaciously sought the adventure of services and joined the Hapsburg court instead, distinguishing himself in the military. Real fame came after his performance against the Ottomans in the Battle of Zenta, Serbia at the close of the 18th century. He built the Belvedere complex and lower palace on the back of his Ottoman fame and the upper palace, near where we now stood, twenty years later. A relative inherited the property upon his death and sold it later to Marie Theresa, the famed and first female regent of the Hapsburgs. Her daughter, Marie Antoinette, was married off to the French line of Louis 16th where she eventually lost her head to the guillotine; her daughter Marie Therese Charlotte was returned unscath and housed at the lower Belvedere.
The lower Belvedere Palace was built first as it was located closer to the city on what was then a country estate on the outskirts. There is a gradual incline to the property which gives the upper an additional boost to it's grandeur. We were soon inside the upper palace viewing the Romantic period art on the top floor, which we scanned at a pretty fast clip. As interesting was the view from the upper floor windows over the gardens with the steeple of St Stephens visible in the distance. We descended floors and viewed Baroque, Realism and Impressionism and the art became more interesting. A large oval room which protrudes from the 1st through the 2nd floor and done in red marble with white trim is the masterpiece of the palace with it's view down to the lower Belvedere. An other small oval room on the corner had a display of sculpted heads in contorted positions by the 18th century
Franz Xavier Messerschmidt. The heads are striking in their realism of extreme facial expressions. Reading between the lines of his brief biography, he probably was a little odd himself and was turned away from his tenure at the Viennese sculpture academy, where he had already started producing the heads. He returned to native town in Germany and worked on more such pieces in his last years. There was a section on
Gustav Klimt which showed him move from impressionism to a personal style of collage with portraits of gold. The last section on the years between the wars was probably my favorite and was an introduction to some local Austrian painters with whom I was not familiar.
We sauntered the gardens down to the lower Belvedere under the watchful eye of the lion torsoed angels, the Belvedere Sphinx carved in white stone. A terraced fountain broke the gardens half way down and magnified the grandeur of the upper palace as we looked back. The interior of the lower palace is clad in marble to a grand scale and houses another art collection, including some of Messerschmidt's heads. Following through the pathways of the Orangery we found ourselves in a Japanese exhibit, a contrast from the art line of the Hapsburg patrons. I had not visited the palace when I had lived in Vienna, being too busy or prioritizing other things on free time, but we found ourselves visiting such venues on our few days and filling in the gaps.
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| A soggy wet departure from a washout weekend in NL - to a sunny Austria |
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| Alligator bags, Fur coats and old world luxuries linger in the old empire |
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| Rejecting the classical past |
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| Saint Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna |
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| Stephen Cathedral |
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| Charles Philip, Prince of Schwarzenberg |
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| Georg Rafael Donner, famous 18th century sculptor |
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| Soviet Memorial at the Hochstrahlbrunnen fountain |
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| Soviet WWII Vienna Offensive Memorial to 17,000 Ukrainian Division troops |
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| Hochstrahlbrunnen fountain looking towards City Center |
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| Street Art along Prince Eugene Strass |
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| Traditional 19th century Viennese entryway along Prinse Eugene Strass |
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| Heavy Metal always has a place in Austria, eve for these old bands! |
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| A Belvedere Sphinx eyeing her pray |
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| View mid gardens to the lower Belvedere and Vienna |
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| View of upper Belvedere |
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| Representation from the 19th century |
Emerging from the Belvedere closer to town at Swartzenburgplatz, we took the old red and white city Tram the Ring Strass to the Statopera; I recall arriving at the prestigious building in 2001 and parking underneath next to three Rolls Royce. We didn't have a nice car, but at least were dressed up in tuxedo and with good seats for La Boheme. The interior of the theater itself was worth our visit; we sat on the ground level in the front section, but the steepness of the surrounding balcony seats was impressive and it circled and towered above us. Tosca was playing the evening of our current visit, but the building was closed. I peered through the narrow glass to get a view of the mid 19th century decor and remembered drinking champagne there during the break. Don Giovanni by Mozart was the opening opera in 1869 attended by Franz Joseph and unusually also by his wife Empress Elizabeth. Although grand by today's views of 19th century architecture, the building was criticised in the day and there was a sad faith for the two architects; one committed suicide and the other died of a heart attack before completion of the project. Under Franz Joseph's rule the Opera developed and thrived in the city; Gustav Mahler, the great composer, was given the position of leading the opera and he excelled at developing the prickly art form to a leader of it's time. Frans Joseph ran a conservative court and kept a tight lease on his key court officials, military and the aristocracy, but one of the benefits was a free seat at the opera as long as they confirmed the booking by 11:00AM on any day. Before our current visit I went online to see if I could get come seats, at least in the peanut gallery, but to no avail.
We continued to the main shopping street if Vienna, Kamtner Strass, where we indulged in local delicacy; Bratwurst in a but with mustard on the street - not a food I eat regularly, but when in Vienna, one must eat like the Viennese. The little bratwurst stands are synonymous with the city and serve beer and wine also. I am not a shopper, but I do recall shopping on the main street at an expensive tie and under ware shop in 1996 to buy under ware, as my hotel had lost all I had brought with me when the laundry went missing. Our project secretary at the plant in Aderklaa, The Magista Wichtig as Herr Wegscheider used to call her, also worked in the haberdashery, so I visited one Saturday to spend as much as I could on replacements, The Mercure Hotel were to pick up the expense. The boys and I ate our bratwurst at a standing table as the Saturday shoppers hustled by and the dark skies threatened to rain. We talked with a German couple next to us who were visiting on a cycling tour and complained about the strong winds across the Marchfeld Plains. Austria's dark past was remembered nearby at the War and Fascism Monument, which recalls the zeal at which local National Socialists threw their Jewish neighbours under the bus when the Germans annexed the country in 1938. 70,000 Jews were rounded up in short order and detained, some of which were put on public displays of humiliation as they were forced to wash the streets; a bronze statue of a Jew scrubbing the ground was now installed in 1991 at Albertinaplatz to remember the consequences of fascism. Overhead towers two white marble statues representing the victims of Mauthausen concentration camp and the soldiers lost during the war. The Mauthausen camp was setup near Linz Austria in 1938 and it was a nasty place even by concentration camp standards; it was set up to work the more targeted political enemies of the 3rd Reich to death. Nationalism, ethnic pride and a yearning for authority in governance may seems like the normal traits for some in society, but they are the underpinning of fascism, which when not balanced by these who believe in a global identity and humanity as well as a healthy scepticism of authority lead to bad things happening; although there was an Austrian Resistance, the mainstream won out and largely supported the German position.
We entered the Albertina Museum across the street from the monument and viewed an exhibit on the Dutch artists; Hieronymus Bosch, Bruegel, Rubens and Rembrandt. On display were sketches for the most part tracing rustic scenes with biblical overtones. The permanent collection has a well stocked section on Monet to Picasso. As interesting is the museum itself is housed in an interesting building which was gifted to Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen, a son-in-law of Marie Theresa, who started the collection in the early 1800s. The building sits high above the street level and is very close to the back of The Hofburg palace of The Hapsburgs. At front stands a prominent statue of Albrecht, one of the owners on the property in the 19th century.
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| Wiener Stat Opera, |
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| Luxurious interior of the Opera House |
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| News paper sales by honor system; take paper put money in slot |
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| Boys at the Bratwurst Stand on Kamtner Strass |
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| The humiliation of the Viennese Jews of 1938 rendered in Bronze (1991) |
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| Monument against War and Fascism |
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| Dutch artists on exhibit at The Albertina |
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| E.L. Kirchner, Bahnhof Lobtau 1911 |
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| Marc Chagall, The Kite, 1926 |
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| Picasso, Naked woman with bird and flute player, 1967 |
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| Albrecht |
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| Vienna High Street finery |
Returning to town center we stumbled across the Imperial Crypt (Kaiser Gruft) under a plain looking Capuchin Church at Neuer Markt. The basement of the church has been the resting place of The Hapsburg dynasty since the early 1600s. During earlier times, the dead were encased in elaborately ornate coffins decorated with brass sculptures full of symbology; skulls, bones, crowns, swords, wreaths and scenes of the mourners adorn the coffins. Over a hundred metal coffins rest in the large basement. As the years went on the coffins became a little more plain, casting off the excessive symboligy of earlier years. The scene brought to mind Ajax; Dirge by James Shirly whose first
The glories of our blood and state
Are shadows, not substantial things;
There is no armor against fate;
Death lays his icy hand on kings.
Scepter and crown
Must tumble down
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade.
Buried there is Charles VI who ascended to the title and vast role of Holy Roman Emperor in 1711. He negotiated a pathway for his daughter Marie Theresa to gain right of succession over more distant male relatives. Buried there also is Archduke Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico; an ill faithed adventure which ended in his execution there by republicans after only three year reign, which itself was only partly recognized. In the last room of the complex lay the simple but elevated coffin of Emperor Franz Joseph along side his wife, Elizabeth and son Rudolph. According to Cannon law of the Catholic Church, burial in consecrated ground is forbidden in the case of preemptive suicide, but special dispensation was provided by the Vatican for the burial of Rudolph after his suicide in 1889. Rudolph murdered his mistress lover and then committed suicide, probably in reaction to the straight-jacket lifestyle constraints imposed on the heir to the throne. The unfortunate incident which occurred at the hunting lodge of Mayerling outside Vienna had bigger implications for the Austro Hungarian empire and indeed the world, as the right of succession then went to the truly unbalanced nephew of Emperor Franz Joseph, Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
The Archduke was assassinated while visiting Sarajevo in Bosnia & Herzegovina on June 28th 1914. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was described by a German historian, Michael Freund, as follows; "a man of uninspired energy, dark in appearance and emotion, who radiated an aura of strangeness and cast a shadow of violence and recklessness". The Emperor pretty much ignored his heir and had his court keep the
dark matter well at arms length. The Archduke was despised by many and one could even imagine his assassination being the work of internal politics, but it was a 19 year old member of The Black Hand seeking reclamation of Serbian lands from the Austro-Hungarian empire who murdered the Archduke and his wife. This was the fuse which ignited the wrath of World War I; Austria's internal politics took insult at the knowledge that the murder by The Black Hand was unofficially supported by Serbian authorities and decided to provoke a war to get the Serbians back in line. The Austrians issued ten demands, knowing Serbia could not meet them all and the proceed to declare war on July 28th a month after the assassination. The domino effect went into motion and the powers polarized into position. The coffin of Franz Ferdinand is conspicuously missing from the crypt; he is buried at his Castle of Artstetten at his request as recorded in his last will and testament. Had he wished to be burred with the rest of The Hapsburgs at Kaisergruft, he would not have been allowed, for his marriage was not sanctioned by the Emperor. Two years later Franz Joseph died of natural causes and with his son and nephew gone, his grand nephew became the last Hapsburg Emperor Karl I.
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| Charles VI |
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| Emperor Franz Joseph with Elizabeth (left) and son Rudolf (right) |
We emerged above ground to the bright way relieved of the weight of darkness and history in the crypt. One of the masterworks of the sculptor Georg Rafael Donner sits in the center of Neuer Markt plaza, a fountain adorned with bronze figures and art called the Donnerbrunner. We made our way through the busy afternoon streets to Stephansplatz which was by then a buzz with activities. There were craft stalls setup in the open and a kids amusement park in front of grand Saint Stephen's Cathedral. An "Oompah" band (
listen)(
listen 2) played on the street; the shear jolly niceness of the music and lack of any sign of discord is fascinating to me. I recall driving in the Austrian countryside and listening on the radio with amazement to the traditional music of the country with it's "Ompa-pa, ompa-pa, weedle-de, weedle-da....". Accept, the heavy metal band used such an introduction to the song, Fast as a Shark; "Hi-dee hi-do hi-da, Hi-dee hi-do hi-da.....", then a scratch and change over to the sinister heavy metal, emphasizing the contrast in music. Three frauleins dressed in country gear served beer to the guests who listened to the band. High above the innocent music, the sinister gargoyles of Stephen's Cathedral kept watch for stray souls. We entered the grand main chamber of the Cathedral to view the afternoon sun paint stained colors throughout the candle-smoke medieval artwork. The crowds were a little too thick, with three million visitors to the city annually, probably most of them visit the Cathedral which makes Saturday afternoon a busy time. The building was mainly erected between the 12th and 14th centuries and is a master feat of engineering for the period.
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| Donnerbrunner Fountain |
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| Stephensplatz |
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| Traditional Austrian Dress |
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| Traditional Austrian "Oompah" band |
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| "I feel sorry for the dead guy, what's his name again?" |
We returned to the hotel Saturday afternoon and took the Fiat 500 out for a jaunt in the countryside. We we rounded the Praterstern and memorial column to Admiral Tegetthoff, we detoured down Franzenbrucken Strass to the Hotel Cristall, my home in 1996. I worked long hours at the time and was usually greeted by the night attendant at reception as I returned to the hotel in the evening. He seemed to me like a relic of an old world Vienna, his thinning hair combed over and his puffy sagging cheeks held a somewhat elegant air of nobility, along with a roman nose and the drooping eyelids of Oscar Wilde. Always dressed in a full suit and standing tall and grand behind the wooden counter, he greeted me warmly each evening. He was a large tall man with a body which expanded rapidly from his narrow shoulders to a rotund heft at the waste and then, just as rapidly narrowed towards his feet. His suit was tailored to fit, with pant legs like funnels. The air of elegance dulled just slightly when he opened his mouth and his teeth emerged, a third missing and a third in gold, which was also explained by the bags of chocolate and sweets he kept under the lip of the counter. I was usually up by 4:45am for an early start at the Gasplant in Aderklaa, so I was the first guest to greet him on my way out at 5:00 or 5:15am, by which time he was usually well tipsy, having been sipping from a bottle of sweet liquors or the keg all night long. He was an institution in himself and gave the Hotel character and fond memories of my stay there.
We continued on our way across the Danube river to the island of Donau Ccity which is home to the United Nations offices, across from which I also stayed briefly at the Park Inn. The Christall was perfect for me, but no-one else would stay there, so I moved late in my stay to accommodate visitors to the plant. Overworked by the end of my stay, I fell very ill and recall not being able to get out of bed one way at The Park Inn. I had the hotel call a doctor, a Viennese man who came and said nice words, but had no explanation; you're over worked he told me, which I already knew and he gave me some tablets. Soon we were on the old familiar drive out to the little town of Aderklaa where we visited the gas plant. The flare lit up as we arrived, as if to welcome us and a plume of Sulfur trioxide emerged from the stack, indicating poor performance of the treating system, but otherwise the plant seemed in good order. I recall my first day touring the plant and was surprised to find empty beer cans strewn around the decks of the equipment; alcohol is strictly prohibited in most industrial facilities, but not at the time in Austria. In defence of their position one of the operators explained to me that the British drank too many drinks at a sitting and drank to get drunk, but the Austrians drank in moderation, never getting drunk; a drink at 9:00am break, at lunch time, at 3:00pm and maybe two drinks in the evening. The OMV company who owned the plant had a company hotel up in the mountains where I spent a few weeks training operators; it was luxury by today's standards and sequestered up in the resort, the trainees routinely drank at the breaks between class.
The only time in my life when I put on weight was my time in Austria, as the Guesthouse food was excellent, but very heavy; wiener snitzel, knobloccremesuppe, erdapfel salat, palatschinken, schweinsbraten. That was for lunch and the same again for dinner all washed down with beer or wine. Gruner Veltliner is a local grape which grows on the hills within the city limits, not a champion of wines, but good to drink locally. Aderklaa was just a village, but we would often go for lunch to the a traditional gasthaus in Deutsch Wagram just 2 KM away for a hefty lunch; the gasthaus closed soon after I left and was replaced by an Irish bar. The second town gasthaus which we used to visit has since been turned into an Italian pizza restaurant. We visited Deutsch Wagram to find local traditional food that evening, but times had changed and the locals sought after new eating houses. There was one last joint I knew would not have changed over the years; The
Marchfelderhof, established 1843 is an old and special restaurant at the edge of town and has seen many famous guests over the years, including Franz Joseph ion 1901. We visited that evening just to view the building, and decided to find an outdoor gasthaus at which to relax instead. Marchfeld means parade ground, as it was traditionally used by the military for training. The fields around Aderklaa and Deutsch Wagram were high with corn in July 5th 1809 when the Austrian army lined up to take on Napoleon in the hope to reclaim Austrian lands and put an end to Napoleon's dominance; however, Napoleon won a decisive victory. The plains offered little protection for the 300,000 troops who suffered heavy casualties. The only indication of the battle today is a small plaque and canon ball mounted on a small rise on the plains. Today the crops continue to yield rich summer harvests and more recently the steady summer winds are also harvested for energy, something unseen during my stay in the 1990's.
Returning toward Vienna we stopped at Dorfheuriger Breitenlee for dinner. It was very busy with Saturday evening guests as well as a large party underway. It was asparagus (spargel) season and every restaurant advertised dishes with the local white variety. We ordered asparagus soup along with wiener schnitzel (deep fried breaded veal); an absolute feast. Just before departing Vienna in the 1990's I was invited to a Wine Keller of one of the operators from the gasplant. The plant was steady income, but many kept their family farms and enjoyed nothing better than a Sunday afternoon at their Wine Keller on the farm with family and friends. Although recovering from illness, I could not miss such a great opportunity, so I drove across the Marchfeld Plains to the fields of a family farm where we sat outdoors near the cool stone cellar which stored the family wine. Austrian food was full on; fried pigs feet, rinds, fat and all sorts of things we are warned all our lives not to eat. Bread was served with a jar of lard for spread. Ill as I was, I toughed up and ate all on offer. The plains are not grape growing area, so they buy the grapes and make their wine. They also make schnapps and fortified fruit liquors. During the fermentation of the summer grape harvest, there is a period of only a few days when the liquor from the fermentation contains alcohol, sugars, carbon dioxide and biomass. The Austrians drink this liquid, also called Sturm or Federweisser. It is not sold is shops, but typically by farmers by the road side. had a change to taste some during that period (autumn time frame) and recall it's fizzy sweet and nutritious flavor. We were fully fed at Dorfheuriger Breitenlee and made our way back to the hotel to relax for the evening. The boys played Fuzz Ball and I smoked with the travellers outside.
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| Worker's symbols of a new era entering the 20th century |
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| Naval Admiral Tegetthoff |
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| Hotel Cristall, my home in 1996 |
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| I stayed at this In near Donner Centrum for a while in 1997 |
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| Memorial on the plains of Wagram |
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| The Marchfeld Plains |
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| Gas-station Aderklaa |
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| Wind harvest |
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| Harvest of wheat and wind on Marchfeld Plains |
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| The Marchfelderhof Restaurant, 1843 |
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| Napoleon defeated the Austrians at The Battle of Wagram |
Sunday morning we took the tram into Swedenplatz for coffee at Starbucks. Conor walked into a clear glass door at full speed thinking it was open and put a goose egg bump on his head. Our first visit of the day was a few stops on the tram to the house of the famous architect,
Friedensreich Hundertwasser (born Stowasser). I was impressed by the first words I read on entering the house which was a statement of his naturalistic view of the human being, art and natural earth without reference to religion. Born a Jew, his political views were shaped by the Nazi years and he rejected the European Union due to a concern that the institution with remove the individuality not unlike the aims of the Nazis. He was a true artist unrestricted by medium, working on paintings, sculpture, mosaics and writing manifestos. Although not an architect, he is probably best known for his architectural imprint on the landscape including the Müllverbrennungsanlage Spittelau, or Vienna garbage incinerator, which was built for complete destruction without air quality impacts and also produced power and heat. The building was developed in an artistic form designed by Hundertwasser and is an iconic landmark when driving east along the Danube. The man, his philosophies, way of life, art and architecture are inspiring, and reflect that of a truly original artist. He brought in an architect named Pelikan to transpose his ideas for a building of his own in Vienna, the now famous Hundertwasser house; a prior architect who had failed the task successfully sued him later to gain credit as co-architect. He drafted a new national flag for Australia and New Zealand, his later home and final resting place, both of which are much better that the unimaginative current versions. Nature was important and he worked trees into his architecture, even on the upper floors of his house and the curves and branches of nature show up over industrial designs. He died in 2000 on the Queen Elizabeth 2.
We took the tram back to the Urania building of 1910, another iconic building of Vienna along the Danube Canal. It was built in an art nouveau oval shape as an educational institute and space observatory. We continued one stop along Ring Strass to the
MAK, a series of museum around the city which focus on applied art in design and architecture. We visited Vienna 1900, a collection of Viennese designed items from 1890-1938, including furniture, glassware, metal items and posters which showed a movement from an art nouveau through 20th century modernism.
As we departed The MAK to walk toward city center, we crossed Dr Karl Lueger Platz, a successful local politicial of the who was mayor of Vienna 1897-1910. With guidance from a local Jewish doctor and politician, Lueger entered politics championing the little people and eventually won a seat in Vienna under the liberal banner; however, he figured out that real power over his constituency was better done by manipulation of a fear of Jew and foreigners and he consolidated his power base on this public message, eventually co-founding the Christian Social Party. He was elected mayor in 1895, but Emperor Franz Joseph was disgusted with the man and rejected his claim three times before the Vatican stepped in and he was affirmed two years later. Lueger was still mayor when Hitler move to Vienna in February 1908. Hitler was already an unbalanced individual as reported by his friend and room mate for a time, August Kubizek, and also from a man named Hanish, who had put the homeless Hitler up for a while, but they fell put and the grudge re-emerged thirty years later, when Hitler had Hanish killed on capturing Austria in the Anchluss of 1938. Hitler was rejected by the art institute he wished to attend in Vienna due to the poor quality of his drawings, but he turned to politics and was particularly taken by Dr Karl Lueger because he could really get a crowd going with his anti-Semitic rantings and also knew how to use the power of the Catholic Church. Hitler of the Vienna years was a strange case; untalented as an artist, but with bursts of creativity which he could not sustain, he was lazy, manic depressive, read much and wandered homeless, would not take on regular employment, walked the city analyzing society and discussed his observations in the evenings with anyone who would listen, he went ballistic if anyone disagreed with or contradicted him, he was not interested in women, believing in the Catholic dogma of chastity before marriage. His education was undisciplined, so he grabbed snippets of philosophy from the books he read and threw them all together. To top it off, Hitler demonstrated a lack of empathy for his fellow human beings from the early days. He had known Germanized Jews in Linz, but here in Vienna he experienced the traditional Jewish culture in conservative black dress and hat. In Lueger he could see a pathway for a sickening wreck like himself to gain power; manipulate the fears of large groups and do it forcefully. Leaders like Hitler and Pol Pot are constantly among us, they love everywhere like a virus; it is the weakening of the main society which allows them to emerge like sleepers.
It surprised me that there was still such a prominent monument to Lueger in Vienna; there was also a street named after him. Upon receiving the Nobel prize in 2000, Erik Kandel, an Austrian born Jewish-American scientist made a statement that it was not an Austrian Nobel, in reference to his having to depart Austria in 1938 after the Anchluss. President Klestil of Austria called Kandel to ask how they could make it right; firstly remove the name Lueger from the main ring street in front of the University, was the response, a change which has already been implemented.
Next stop was a more inspiring visit to one of the placed inhabited by Mozart during his Vienna years. I had visited in earlier years and there is really not much to see, other than the shell of the house, but it is still inspiring and contains information on his life during those years; he only lived in the house for 3 years and moved much while living in Vienna. Mozart himself was a prodigy, playing for Marie Theresa at the court when he was six years old. His professional position started in Saltzburg when he was 17 years old, but on a visit to Vienna later he was relieved of his commission, so he stayed on in the capital city of the empire. Well known at court and able to gain good money for his commissioned pieces he gained significant wealth, enough to move into the most expensive quarters on Domgasse near Stephenplatz. Along with his rapidly gaining wealth came significant spending habits; in fact it is hard to understand how his spending could keep up to the point that he was in continual financial difficulty, often borrowing money. The current theory is that he was a hefty gambler, as the figures don''t add up on lavish spending alone. Regardless, he was an artist and in need of the inspirations of his trade and lived life to the full, with his wife Constantine and six children.
Mozart's symphonies are expectational in the world of classical music, crisp and mathematical in their form, but it is his Requiem with which I am most enamoured. For me the Requiem echoes through my mind as I tour the grand old streets and alleyways around Vienna and through the halls of the cathedral and palaces. His last years were his most productive and he was racing to finish the Requiem, which was an anonymous commission; he even worked on it the day he died, but it remained unfinished. Constantine was keen to get paid, so she had Franz Xaver Süssmayr complete the work for submission to the anonymous patron (Franz von Walsegg and had commissioned the piece for his wife who has just passed). Mozart's name is as famous in the city today by the confectionery product; The Mozard Kugel, made of chocolate, nougat and marzipan and originally produced in Mozart's early home, Salzburg, in 1890.
We continued through Stephensplatz and the Pestsäule through the grand ancient city streets to the Hofburg Palace, the seat of The Hapsburgs and a seat of governance since the 13th century. It was the seat of the Holy Roman Empire for many centuries and later the Austrian and Austro-Hungarian Empires. The facade is robust and powerful, adorned with giant statues of scenes of wreath. We not tour the palace, nor the famous Spanish riding school which resides there as it was a busy Sunday afternoon. The riding school was developed as a result of the need to install discipline in the cavalry in the mind 19th century. Broad gardens open up at Heldenplatz in front of the main Hofburg. Across the ring strass are the grand building of the Museum Quarter which we would visit next.
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| Curvy tile floor reflects Hundertwasser's fascination with nature |
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| He was one to work in eclectic parts into his work, nothing to be wasted |
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| Main entrance to Hundertwasser House (trees grow from alcoves and roof) |
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| Dreamy tile work |
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| George Coch Platz & Post office bank in background |
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| Inlaid table at the MAK |
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| Interior of The MAK |
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| Early 20th century modern desk |
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| Glass work of early 20th century, The MAK |
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| Kniende Figure Wien 1927 |
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| Design skecthes of The MAK |
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| Stained glass windows of the main stairwell, The MAK |
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| Monument to Dr. Karl Lueger, an inspiration to Hitler 1908-1910 |
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| View out windows of Mozart's house, with traditional double window arrangement for insulation |
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| Stephenplatz |
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| Add Pestsäulecaption |
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| The Hofburg Palace |
We visited the Natural History Museum, which is housed in a grand late 19th century building dedicated to it's purpose from the start. The museum has the traditional layout which I prefer, all the exhibits are there in cases and rows for one to observe, rather than being over-interpreted. An amazing array of minerals were on display and collected over a century and a half. Meteorites are on display along with a good explanation of the entry process in the atmosphere. The dinosaur exhibit is impressive and brings to mind the abundance of the earth during the Mesozoic Era, where nature supported these huge land beasts and more impressive the the air power of giant pterodactyls.
We walked back to the hotel via the ring strass and the parliament building with it's statue of Palace Athena and then the Rathhause (City Hall), which regularly hosts outdoor concerts during the summer time and which I used to attend I lived in the city. This street was renamed Universitätsring from Dr Karl Lueger Strass after Kandel's 2000 Nobel protest. In a park along the street was a statue to Karl Renner, the politician who declares session from the 3rd Reich in 1945. On the walk home we passed a stenciled sign warning to "beware of the fascism next door", and I wondered about the dark side of Austrian history. The German's took it on the chin after the war, there was no escape for the most part, they had to confront the atrocities which they had perpetrated; however, I get a sense the Austrian's, having been annexed, have a more nuanced and complicated relationship to the atrocities which were perpetrated in the country under the Anchluss, positioning themselves as victims first and only as incidental oppressors. Certainly this was the politics of Jorge Heider (who incidentally not a homosexual under punishment of Euro 100,000 fine by rule of the Austrian courts!), although Austria continues to come under international pressure to take account for it's role in the holocaust, something it would be wiser to do and move on, rather than skate the issue. I recall in 1996 viewing from my room on the old wing of the Mercure, that two police guards constantly on duty in the he square below and only later realized that they were guarding the street entrance to the Jewish Synagogue, which made me wonder of the latent anti-semitic tensions in society of modern times.
Further along Rembrant Strass was the discrete window sign of
Julia's Sex World, an intriguingly low key advertisement of services when compared with that I am used to seeing in Amsterdam, where ladies parade themselves half naked behind glass doors, like beer at a convenience store. Brothels are prominent throughout Vienna and it was explained to me during my stay there in the 1990's that society does not shun such services, but accept them as long as they are displayed modestly. The Viennese brothels seem to display a good standard of control and transparency and don't show signs of the usual pimp controlled human traffic infested prostitution of other cities (including Amsterdam, even though they try hard to keep order). Julia for example, at least from her website, comes across as a competent small business owner, well able to keep order in her service and the authorities are always close by.
As the boys relaxed at the hotel before our evening visit to the playgrounds of The Prater, I briefly visited the Augarten, the largest park and green space near our hotel. I was attracted also by a large ugly concrete tower which dominated the skyline and needed exploring. Originally a hunting lodge in the 17th century, but destroyed by the Turks, it was redeveloped by Charles VI, but later destroyed in the floods of 1830. The Danube was engineered to
control flooding mid 19th century, which removed the Augarten from the flood plain and allowed the gardens be redeveloped and opened to the public. In 1944 the large ugly towers were built as defenses against allied bombing of the city. Visible from the park also is the artistic stack of the city waste incinerator and power plant designed by Hundertwasser.
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| Sulfur and colorful minerals |
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| Large Chrystal |
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| Natural Gold |
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| Mineral cases |
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| Meteorite of iron, cut to a shine |
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| Bones of the Charismatic Mega fauna of Mesozoic period |
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| Kunsthistory Museum (sister building of the Natural History Museum) |
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| Palace Athena before Parliament |
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| Karl Renner, declared session from 3rd Reich 1945 after the Soviet Offensive pushed the Germans back |
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| Rathhaus |
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| City trams of Vienna |
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| Sculpture in Sigmund Freud Park |
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| Sculpture in Sigmund Freud Park |
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| A libherr crane balances carefully near Sigmund Freud's house |
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| A stencil sign along Rembrandt Strass of our hotel |
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| Julia's sexworld along Rembrandt Strass |
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| Augarten Park & WWII Tower for Ariel Bombing defence |
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| Hundertwasser's artistic powerplant design |
The Riesenrad was built in 1897 for the Golden Jubilee of Franz Joseph and is the earliest Ferris wheel which dominated The Prater Park, although it is now surrounded with a whole array of modern amusements. When the Danube ran naturally, it's flood plain covered the lands of The Prater and they were fertile hunting grounds, but not good for settled farming. In 1766 the Emperor allowed the development of the Wurstelprater with coffee houses and amusements. After the taming of the Danube the World's Exhibition was held a The Prater in 1873, after which it continued to be developed as an amusement and recreation park. We rented a four wheeled dual peddle bicycle and drove the Hauptalee. The line for the Reisenrod was too long, but we did take a ride on the bumper cars instead and of course dined on Bratwurst and the open air benches. We walked back to the hotel along the waterfront of the Danube Canal observing the quite advanced graffiti.
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| Riesenrad built 1897in Pater park |
Monday was our last day, so we packed our gear in the car and drive too Swedenplatz for coffee. It was very quiet and I only then realized that it was also Pentecost holiday in Catholic Austria. That morning we drove out to the Schonbrunn Palace and gardens about 6KM west of the city. The skies threatened to rain as we approached the sprawling complex already busy with tourists. We got tickets for the audiotour of the interior apartments and were soon at the entrance too the room of Emperor Franz Joseph. He spent summer and his later years more in the Schonbrunn palace over the city Hofburg. Franz Joseph's 68 year reign are now iconic years for the empire, but he started young and awkward and faced significant challenges over the almost seven decades. His ultimate legacy is the ultimately governance of the decline of the Hapsburg and Austrian empire, which was inevitable for whoever took the reigns of power at the time, but he is respected for the way he transitioned the country from the old monarchic days to the modern world, although himself always stuck in the old world. During that transition, Vienna in particular also went through many landmark positive changes and developments under the rule of Frans Joseph. There was an assassination attempt on the Emperor in 1853 by a Hungarian nationalist, as he walked at court alongside an Irish Count, O'Donnell. O'Donnell attached the assassin with his saber and the Emperor was wounded mildly. O'Donnell was assigned a title under the Hapsburg line for his support.
What impressed me on exploring the daily life of Franz Joseph was his dedication and hard work; arising at 3:30 or 4:00AM, he worked relentlessly on the affairs of state until the evening, seeing himself more of a servant of state than an Emperor. He instilled the strict protocol of an Emperor though and governed through strong chancellors including the German aristocrat Hohenlohe who transformed the court from a stodgy inefficient bureaucracy into a well oiled machine. Assigning a German was controversial, as Austria had been kicked out of the German league, with the influence of Hohenlohe's own brother, but his loyalty to the Emperor was clear.
Franz Joseph was only 18 when his uncle abdicated, placing him on the throne of a court which was almost bankrupt; His uncle did not transfer his personal wealth to his successor, so getting control of finances was critical, which he achieved through his tough chancellors. He would see many defeats in war and his personal life; he loved his wife, but she needed freedom and it was an estranged relationship. His son committed suicide and he had little time for the heir to his throne, who was assassinated, triggering World War I. We stood long and silent listening to the life at court under Franz Joseph and imagining the key events of sate which evolved in these very rooms. Franz Joseph's bedroom and study were adjacent to each other, which helped accommodate his long working hours. Further around the wing of the 2nd floor of the palace were the rooms of Elizabeth and the children, a boy and three girls.
We departed the family section and entered the main formal rooms of the palace; the Hall of Mirrors where grand receptions would have been held. A small oval room to the side allowed consultation with key advisers. Kennedy met Khrushchev in the Hall of Mirrors in 1961 and one can imagine the weight of history felt by the leaders as they entered the palace. We visited the gardens briefly, but the weather was not cooperating, so instead we proceed to the technical museum nearby the palace.
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| Front courtyard at Schonbrunn |
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| Gardens of Schonbrunn |
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| Schonbrunn view over Neptune Fountain up to the Glorietta |
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| Fountain at entrance the Schonbrunn |
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| Street entertainment in old world costume |
Near the Schonbrunne Palace we came across the
Vienna Technical Museum which was a nice surprise and the boys were intent on a visit. Their early transport section is quite interesting.
Fascinating examples of and early steam driven car and an early electric car were on display. Also an early front wheel drive car, where they overcame the flexible drive joint needed to allow steering, but which was abandoned for decades to back wheeled axels instead. On display is the flourishing of so many new alternatives to early car transport which competed and consolidated on the winner which emerged as the standard in the auto industry; petrol internal combustion front engine, rear axel drive, three speed manual of the early 20th century.
A 1936 Styre 50 was on display; designed by Karl Jenschke with independent suspension, water cooled and 4 speed transmission, it was small but tough for the Austrian Alps. He propose the name Volkswagen, but it was rejected by his marketing department. A year later the name was adopted by the Nazi trade union group for their people's car.
Large electric generators were on display and the electron started to revolutionise industry, but it was not until alternating current that the scale of electric driven industry really took off. Vienna museum shows many early stationary steam engines, which reflect the advanced industry of the empire of the late 19th century. On display is the brute force of mechanical success in engineering which allowed major gains in transportation, but were still limited in the finer points of miniature technologies which were required to take advancement forward beyond the mid 20th century. An early attempt at such developments is a mechanical writing machine, where the machine tries to write like a human; it took advancement of electronics, circuit boards and the semiconductor to advance miniature control systems to the level of performance which supports today's robotics. There was a specific exhibit showing the advancement of robotics over the last century and a half.
I am a romantic when it comes to appreciating old world engineering and the Vienna Technical Museum has a beautiful collection of the steel machinery which powered the end of the empire and the transition to a modern world.
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| Vienna Technical Museum (near Schonbrunn) |
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| 1936 Styre 50 (original Volkswagen) |
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| Early front wheel drive, abandoned for decades for rear wheel drive |
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| An early steam car; lost out to petrol engines |
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| An early electric car |
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| Water jacket aero engine cylinder |
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| Radial aero engine |
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| An early direct current motor |
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| Steam jet eductors allowed better movement of flue gases from boilers |
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| 19th century bicycle |
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| The old Penny Farthing bicycle |
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| Gears and chain drive of city clock |
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| Mechanics of an automated writing machine. |
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| An automated writing machine |
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| Flash Gordon era of human robotic interface |
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| Robotic car manufacture |
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| Stationary engines |
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| Locomotive drive shafts |
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| Gearage which powered the state of industry late 19th century |
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| Stationary Steam Engine late 19th century |
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| A high pressure steam jet drives a bucket turbine |
We drove back to town and stopped at the Sigmund Freud house and Museum. As a doctor of late 19th century he specialized in psychopathology and adopted hypnosis as a method of analysis. He found hypnosis difficult to administer and realized greater success in relieving symptoms by encouraging patients to freely express memories. He evolved further a method using free association to methodically analyze a patients dreams and psychoanalysis was born. There was very little science available in the workings on the mind and, although considerably more is understood today, it is still a fast developing area of scientific understanding. Sigmund Freud, and next the generation Swiss Carl Jung, were in early days of exploration of the mind using communicative techniques via the senses from which they aimed to develop theories of the mind. Although he moved the field ahead a step and demonstrating better results that hypnosis, I think that Freud's theories seem to overstep the bounds of evidence in places; he placed significant emphasis on a theory that neurosis as a result of anxiety developed during early sexual development, which maybe some do, but he seems to push the theory beyond the evidence. For example, Freud coined the phrase "Anal Retentive" to describe someone who pays above average attention to detail and sets a lower bar for being annoyed of things which don't go perfect; his theory being that they had some trauma or disturbance during the anal sexual development stage, i.e learning to retain feces. True an anal retentive person may be more traumatized by the lack of anal control as a child, but I think there is more evidence that the trait is inherited than developed. In many areas though, he had powerful insights to the mind; The Freudian Slip, which he ascribed to the balance between the conscious and the unconscious. His junior protege for a time, the Swiss Carl Jung, moved ahead with what I see as a more balanced view of dreams and the inconspicuous as a neutral, rather than negative force of the mind and less dependence on the theory of disruption during sexual development; Freud and he fell out as the junior challenged the core of senior's unproven theories with alternate solutions. Freud is responsible for many of the terms of reference which we use today in regard to personality traits.
His office and consulting rooms are open to view today on Bergasse. What most impressed my about the pictures of his original office and library was the extent of the ornaments, figures and statuettes he had collected from around the world and I was reassured about my own office which tends to be more on the busy side with objects of interest; not a minute for the mind to be bored! The Nazi's we already burning his books in 1933 being a Jew, but he held on in Vienna until after the German occupation, finally moving to England in 1938 where he passed away a year later.
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| Waiting room for psychoanalysis patients of Freud |
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| Not sure what this machine was meant to do! |
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| Statuary collected by Freud |
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| Freud's office |
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| Sigmund Freud |
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| The reception area of his clinic on Berggasse when he lived there |
We ascended on Swedenplatz for our last bratwurst on the plaza and the boys had the classic gelato from an old Italian joint nearby. Enjoying the sunny afternoon we wandered through the old streets of Vienna for a last view of the old city center. We walked by the old street and Restaurant zum Basilisk, in which I recall Annette and I spent an afternoon gorging ourselves and enjoying fine wine and liquors. The fine old interior was a gem, but I recall even then that the waitresses were only so accommodating, which was out of order of the price; reading recent reviews it seems to have gone downhill since then. Departing town we visited the city gas tanks built in 1986 to 1899 for storage of the town gas, a toxic mixture of Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide, which was stored at low pressure in these 90,000m3 tanks to balance the daily demand fluctuations with the steady gas production process. The tanks were in service through 1984, although they had been switched to Natural Gas (Methane) in the 1960's. The tanks were decommissioned and converted to apartments in late 1990's, using mainly the decorative exterior walls and rebuilding free standing structured on the interior. In just three days we had an amazing visit to the city, partly a trip back memory lane, but also many new sites were visited.
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| In business almost a century on Swedenplatz |
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| Wine by the flagon along with bratwurst on the street |
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| Narrow Griechengasse of old Vienna near Griechen Beisell Restaurant |
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| Greek Church near Griechengasse |
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| Restaurant zum Basilisk; Annette & I spent afternoon there 2001 |
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| Jesuit University Church Vienna |
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| Urania Observatory |
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| 19th century city Gas Tanks converted to apartments |
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| OMV Schwechat Refinery outskirts Vienna |
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| Our pink Fiat 500 |
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| Danube, Prater and Vienna |
Copyright Patrick McGillycuddy 2013
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