Monat: September 2022

Tour guide in action – this time in front of the Hohe Warte stadium in Vienna Döbling. The stadium construction was preceded by the founding of the First Vienna FC on 22.8.1894 in the nearby inn „Zur schönen Aussicht“ by Nathaniel Rothschild and the general manager of the their bank. With the registration in the club register, the Vienna was the first and thus oldest soccer club in Austria. The first games took place in the former Rothschild gardens.

In 1921, the Naturarena was opened as the largest and most modern stadium on the continent with the match Vienna vs. Hakoah (2:1). Later, until the opening of the Prater Stadium in 1931, international matches were also held. Even before 1914 there were up to 10,000 spectators, after WWI soccer became a mass phenomenon. Legendary was the match Austria – Italy in 1923 with 85,000 spectators – it ended 0:0. In parallel, the stadium was also used for opera performances and boxing matches.

Between 1931-1955 Vienna was 6x Austrian soccer champion, 1931 there was also a victory in the Mitropa Cup (precursor Champions League). Hand in hand with the lack of success of Vienna from the 1960s, the stadium also fell into disrepair, after urgent renovations, it now has about 5,500 seats.

In the approximately 6000m2 large Ostarrichipark at Otto-Wagner-Platz in the 9th district, the „Memorial for the Jewish Children, Women and Men from Austria Murdered in the Shoah“ was opened in Nov. 2021 for the approximately 65,000 Jewish Austrians who were murdered in the course of the Shoah.

The memorial, initiated about 20 years earlier by the Austrian-Canadian artist Kurt Yakov Tutter, displays lists of names of the victims on 180 light-colored granite slabs, which were provided by the Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance. Tutter’s parents were murdered by the Nazi regime in the Auschwitz concentration camp; he himself was able to escape to Canada via Belgium as a child.

The square was created after the demolition of the Alser Barracks, which were located there until 1912, and was built on in a reduced form in 1925 with the neoclassical monumental building, today the seat of the Austrian National Bank. The park name refers to the oldest surviving form of the name in Austria, Ostarrichi.

The interior of the St. Stephen Cathedral in Vienna does not follow the classical style of a Gothic cathedral, the 3-nave hall gets by without a transept and is oriented towards the choir room. Duke Rudolf IV initiated the hall choir (with the laying of the foundation stone in 1359), whereby the previously existing Albertine choir was rebuilt in the form of a shell and thus church services could continue to be held during the almost 100 years of construction work.

Each of the naves is iconographically related to a theme, documented by the columned saints: the central nave with altar refers to Jesus Christ and St. Stephen, the southern aisle (pictured right) to the apostles, and the northern aisle to the Mother of God. The background of the slight bend in the central choir to the north, possibly caused by the easting, is unclear.

The Gregor Mendel House and main building of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), founded in 1872 in the 18th and 19th district, was then opened about 25 years later – built in the historistic neo-Renaissance style according to plans by Alois Koch. The 4 allegorical figures above the portal of the building, which was renovated in the 2010s and later connected to the Liebig wing, thematize the focus on soil culture.

The BOKU location Türkenschanze near the park of the same name today comprises a total of 10 buildings, further facilities are located in the Muthgasse, in Tulln and in various outposts in Vienna and Lower Austria and accommodate 15 so-called departments of different fields of study for about 11,000 students. The opposite Linnéplatz with its park and sculptures also commemorates historically important natural scientists.

The construction of the lavishly designed Art Nouveau toilet on Graben in the 1st district of 1905 was preceded by controversial discussions about the location, but finally the public toilet was approved at the Josefsbrunnen, which was also renovated at the same time.

The underground structure, which is a listed building, is characterized by its high-quality choice of materials (teak and oak wood, brass fittings, marble, cut glass, etc.) and was built by the contractor Wilhelm Beetz, who specialized in such facilities. To date, there are more than 30 toilet blocks and urinals in the city from his production.

Currently, there are about 175 public toilets in Vienna (managed by MA 48) and about 40 more in and at stations of the Wiener Linien. The Viennese, by the way, often refer to the toilet as „Heisl“ or „Häusl“, derived from the wooden hut that used to be common in the countryside.