From time to time, we share a random video clip to fuel your travel dreams. Join us today as we stroll along Vienna’s traffic-free streets and grab a quick herring sandwich for lunch.
Watch my complete TV episode about Vienna for free on our website.
From time to time we share a random video clip to fuel your travel dreams. Join us today at the Vienna State Opera house. Built in the 1860s, it is the pride of Vienna.
(Watch the complete “Vienna and the Danube” TV episode online for free.)
When I’m researching in Europe, the challenge is to stop my in-the-street work while there’s still enough time to input what I ‘ve learned, and then fine-tune the writing. From the first day of this trip, back in early July, I’ve been in a hole. I’m still digging out, as I’ve had so much fun traveling that it’s been impossible to completely keep up on the writing end of things.
With a hard-working crew of editors back home — and a publisher awaiting their work — I am but a happy cog in a wonderful guidebook-creating wheel. And if I miss a deadline, it’ll mess up a lot of people. With my Vienna text due this week, I’ve finally finished those chapters. Here are a few major new additions:
The Third Man: A Movie, a Museum, and a Cultlike Following
The Third Man is a classic film set in post-WWII Vienna. There’s a fascinating museum dedicated to the film and the story it tells (open only Saturday afternoons). The movie still plays regularly in Vienna — or you can see it before coming to town.
This is not just another movie. The British Film Institute voted The Third Man “the best British film ever produced.” It’s set in 1949 Vienna — when it was divided, like Berlin, between the four victorious Allies. (After the war, Austria was divided between the U.S., France, Britain, and Russia until 1955.) With a dramatic Vienna cemetery scene, coffeehouse culture surviving amid the rubble, and Orson Welles being chased through the sewers, this tale of a divided city rife with smuggling and under the threat of Soviet rule is an enjoyable, two-hour experience. The movie plays at Vienna’s Burg Kino (€8, in English; 3-4 showings weekly — usually Friday evening, Sunday afternoon, and Tuesday early evening; a block from the Opera at Opernring 19, burgkino.at).
The Third Man Museum is the life’s work of Karin and Gerhard Strassgschwandtner. They have lovingly collected a vast collection of artifacts about the film, Vienna in 1949, and the movie’s popularity around the world. (In 1999 Japan voted it the best foreign film of all time.)
Third Man fans will love the quirky movie relics, but even if you are just interested in Vienna at the start of the Cold War, this is worthwhile. Sections cover the 1930s when Austria was ripe for the Anschluss, the reality of 1.7 million “DPs” (displaced persons) in Austria after the war, the challenges of denazification after 1945, and candid interviews with soldiers. As a bonus, the museum also gives a fascinating look at moviemaking and marketing around 1950. Don’t be shy about asking for a personal tour from Gerhard or Karin (€7.50, Sat only 14:00-18:00, a long block south of Naschmarkt at Pressgasse 25, www.3mpc.net, Facebook: thirdmanmuseum).
Otto Wagner’s Postal Savings Bank
The Austrian Postal Savings Bank, built from 1904-1912, offers a fascinating look into the society as well as the architecture of that age. This was a bank for working-class people. The very concept of a postal savings bank makes storing your hard-earned income less intimidating for laborers than the palatial banks of the 19th century. The bank’s design makes the service it provides feel almost sacred. Wagner believed, “Necessity is the master of art.” He declared, “What is impractical can never be beautiful.” Everything about the design — so gray, white, and efficient — is practical. While it’s textbook “form follows function,” the form is beautiful nevertheless. A product of its age — so giddy with advancement — the building dignifies the technological and celebrates it as cultural.
Study the sleek, yet elegantly modern facade: Angles high above — made of an exciting new material, aluminum — seem to proclaim the modern age. The facade, with unadorned marble siding panels held on by aluminum-capped bolts, gives the impression that the entire building is a safety deposit box. The interior is similarly functionalist. The glass roof lets in light while the glass floor helps illuminate the basement. Fixtures, vents, and even the furniture fit right in — strong, geometrical, and modern. The main building is open to the public and still functions as a savings bank. In the back, a fine little museum is dedicated to the architect Wagner with a slideshow providing a visual review of his work (free entry to main building, museum-€6, Mon-Sat 9:00-17:00, just off the Ringstrasse near the Danube Canal at Georg-Coch-Platz 2, www.ottowagner.com).
The Museum of Military History
While much of the Habsburg’s empire was built on strategic marriages rather than war, a big part of Habsburg history is military. And the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, a.k.a. HGM — built in 1860 by Emperor Franz Josef as an arsenal — tells the story well with a thoughtful motto (apparently learned from the school of hard knocks): “War belongs to museums.” You’ll wander the wings of this vast museum practically all alone. On two floors you’ll see a rich collection of artifacts and historic treasures from Empress Maria Theresa to military genius Prince Eugene to Franz Josef. I found the 20th-century section particularly interesting. It includes an exhibit on Sarajevo in 1914 (with the car Archduke Franz Ferdinand was riding in — and the uniform he was wearing — when he was assassinated). For WWII buffs, there’s a look at Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss (and the pre-Hitler Austrian fascist party), the Anschluss when the Third Reich absorbed Austria, and the devastation of World War II (€5, includes audioguide, daily 9:00-17:00, located inconveniently outside the Ringstrasse, a 10-minute walk behind the Belvedere Palace near the new Central Station at Arsenal Objekt 1, www.hgm.or.at).
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Today I stood on Vienna’s Heroes Square where, in 1938, more than 200,000 tearfully happy Austrians gathered before Adolf Hitler. The Nazi dictator stood on the palace balcony and stated, “In front of German history, I declare my former homeland now a part of the Third Reich. One of the pearls of the Third Reich will be Vienna.” From that day on, Austrians were forbidden to say the word “Austria.”
Americans often wonder how Austria could so eagerly embrace Hitler and the Anschluss (the notion that Austria was meant to be unified with Germany anyway). Let me hazard an explanation: Imagine post-WWI Austria. One of the mightiest empires on earth started — and lost — a great war. In a few bloody years, it went from being a grand empire of 55 million people to a relatively insignificant landlocked state of six million that was required to be nonaligned. The capital, Vienna, was left with little to rule, and now its population comprised a third of the country’s. With the economic crisis we know as the Great Depression (which swept the Nazis to power in Germany in 1933), Austria also got a fascist government complete with a dictator named Engelbert Dollfuss. He was as right-wing and anti-Semitic as the tyrant ruling Germany, but he was pro-Roman Catholic Church, pro-Habsburg, and anti-Nazi. When an Austrian Nazi assassinated Dollfuss in 1934, it was easy for the German Nazis to take over four years later. By that point, the Austrian fascists had already put down the leftists. The German Nazis just took over their Austrian counterparts’ file cabinets. And, Hitler promised greatness again…and jobs — something that has driven voters to support crazy political notions to this day.
I’ve been in Vienna for 36 hours and, with all I’ve learned, I feel as excited as a kid sorting through his candy on the living room floor on Halloween.
I met a new guide named Gerhard Strassgschwandtner. I didn’t know you could have seven consonants in a row — that’s some kind of record. He runs Vienna’s “The Third Man” Museum, dedicated to a classic movie with a cult-like following that’s set in bombed-out, spy-ridden Vienna in 1945 (museum open Saturdays only, see www.3mpc.net).
Gerhard is passionate about history in all its marvelous complexity. Chatting with him, we imagined Vienna’s city wall back when the Austrian capital was the fifth largest city in the world. The core of the city was contained in a hulking, three-mile-long ring peppered with 2,200 cannons. The artillery was aimed across the 500-yard-wide “shooting fields,” as the stretch of land beyond the city wall was called in the 18th century. Napoleon destroyed much of the wall in 1809. It was replaced with only an iron fence — easy to shoot through but hard to shoot at. It seemed strong enough in the mid-19th century, as the greatest foe of “modern” governments was considered to be mobs of people in the streets.
It’s summertime, and the city’s museums are busy with students enjoying summer-camp-type activities. Austria provides a special kids’ summer pass — unlimited train travel anywhere in the country all summer long for young students for about €40 ($50).
As I update my Vienna guidebook, I’m discovering lots of sightseeing news. The Kunsthistorisches Museum, the city’s answer to the Prado and Louvre, is reopening its ground floor “Habsburg Kunstkammer” (or Chamber of Wonders) in 2013 to show off the lavish curiosities the emperors gathered to impress their friends. Also in 2013, Vienna will have a new Biedermeier exhibit in the City Palace of the Liechtenstein family.
For a rare bit of Prague-like ambience in Vienna, stroll through the charming Spittelberg district. Vienna’s population exploded from 1880 to 1910. Most of grand architecture and apartment flats that shape a visitor’s impression of the city date from this period. The Spittelberg district, just a 15-minute walk from the Hofburg in the city center, offers a rare enclave of pre-1880 Vienna.
Music lovers come to Vienna on a kind of pilgrimage to see the houses of composers who lived and worked here. The homes of Schubert, Brahms, Haydn, Beethoven, and Mozart all host museums — but they are small, forgettable, and pretty spread out. For the best music history experience, I like the Haus der Musik (www.hausdermusik.at) which honors the great Viennese composers with lots of actual historic artifacts on one fine floor. Vienna is still a thriving capital of classical music, with three local opera companies (including the world-famous Vienna State Opera putting on 300 performances a year). Its glorious music venues offer a total of 10,000 seats which are generally sold-out every night. (Even so, they run at a deficit — so they’re subsidized by a caring government, the general populace, and lineup of corporate sponsors.)
Stepping into St. Stephen’s Cathedral, I was invited into a new elevator to visit an attraction that just opened — the Cathedral Treasury (€4, daily 10:00-18:00, includes a fine audioguide). The substantial treasures of the cathedral were ignored in the nearby (and outmoded) cathedral museum. So they were moved into the church, filling an — until now — inaccessible space high above the nave on the west portal wall. The visit includes the “Portrait of Rudolf IV” (the earliest realistic portrait in German art), precious relics, and commanding views of the nave.
Next, I popped into the Augustinian Church, where each Sunday the 11:00 Mass is performed with a wonderful orchestra. There’s a Neoclassical memorial by Canova to Empress Maria Theresa’s favorite daughter, Maria Christina; next to it is a chapel dedicated to Charles I, the last Habsburg emperor, who ruled from 1916 to 1918. He’s on a dubious road to sainthood pushed by Habsburg royalists who worship here. His required miracle: The varicose veins of a Brazilian nun were healed after she prayed to the emperor.
Vienna is great for both art nouveau and early modern buildings by architect Otto Wagner, who played a big part in shaping the urban landscape. Wagner’s Postal Savings Bank (built 1904-1907) overlooks the Ringstrasse (a.k.a. the Ring) with a facade that looks as secure as a safety deposit box. Its slinky angels atop the roof proclaim a new age made with a new metal — aluminum. The plain, marble-sided panels with their aluminum bolts remind us of Wagner’s belief that, “What is impractical can never be beautiful.”
Stepping inside, you understand the value this bank had for the new working class. It offered workers an unintimidating way to save their earnings in a combination post office/bank, rather than in some palace for elites. Its form follows function everywhere, as “necessity is the master of art.” With white and gray efficiency, the aluminum fixtures are simple yet elegant. A glass roof lets in light, and the glass floor allows light into the basement. The strong, geometric elements dignify the technological — and celebrate it as cultural. Wagner — like his angels on the roof — was heralding a new age. Facing this masterpiece across the street is the Kriegsministerium (the former ministry of war building). Its style is Neo-Baroque Historicism; it’s actually a few years younger than Wagner’s building, but it’s way behind the times — fighting against modernity.
Many things in Vienna are named after Karl Lueger, the mayor of the city before World War I. A century later, his legacy is being reconsidered. While he did much to modernize Vienna, he’s now seen as an anti-Semite — a demagogue who was admired by a young student in Vienna named Adolf Hitler. Lueger, while being a strong leader, was also a right-wing fearmonger. The city has just decided that a stretch of Vienna’s elegant Ringstrasse named for Lueger will be renamed for the university instead.
The USA is hot this week. But as Americans swelter, we should remember we don’t swelter alone. The entire world is feeling what is delicately called “global climate change” in order not to offend the people who refuse to accept the reality of global warming. While the Dutch raise their dikes, the Viennese are also preparing for a warmer reality. As older people suffer most from the stifling heat, the city is providing more shady places with benches and public mist machines. And there are big, shiny, new water dispensers popping up with reminders to be sure to hydrate. It’s good advice for locals and tourists — young and old alike — as scorching summers become our new norm.
