Monat: März 2023

The Theater Ronacher of 1872 was originally planned by Ferdinand Fellner & Sohn for the German theater director Heinrich Laube. After 20 years of successful management of the Burgtheater, Laube was rudely replaced and, together with the publisher of the „Neue Wiener Presse“ Max Friedländer, decided to build a privately financed rival theater to the Burg. This developed into a legendary duel between the houses, which was abruptly interrupted by a fire 12 years later.

The theater entrepreneur Anton Ronacher had the ruins rebuilt by the theater architects Fellner and Helmer in 1888 as the „Konzert- und Ballhaus Ronacher“. The building, which was repeatedly adapted, was used after WWII as an alternative stage for the castle, then later for TV productions and, after 10 years of vacancy, was expanded by the Vereinigen Bühnen Wien as a musical stage with more than 1,000 seats.

After a general renovation, in the 2000s there was still a controversial roof extension of the on 3 sides free-standing theater building in historicism with temple facade by Arch. Günter Domenig.

The 1940 born Austrian Pop Art painter Prof. Christian Ludwig Attersee, who was also active as an author, musician, stage designer and formerly also as a sailor, is responsible for one of the most striking facades on the largest Viennese shopping mile, the Mariahilfer Street in the district of the same name. Completed in 1996, the glass mosaic „Wetterhändler“ on the exterior of an int. textile chain is considered the largest in Europe with its 210sqm and was made by the mosaic artist Elio Macoritto.

Already early picture cycles from the 1960s called „Weather Pictures“ and „Rainbow Anomaly“, his closeness to Viennese Actionism or his „object inventions“ with fantasy names such as „Speisekugel“ or „Attersteck“ show the diversity of the multi-awarded international artist, who is also considered a co-founder of the „New Austrian Painting“.

The Emperor Franz Monument in the Burggarten in classicist forms depicts Franz I Stephen of Lorraine, husband of Maria Theresa and as Franz I Roman-German Emperor from 1745-1765 on horseback. Vienna’s first equestrian statue was begun by Balthasar Ferdinand Moll during the emperor’s lifetime and completed in 1781 in cast lead.

However, the court did not purchase the monument and the sculptor left it to his family. In 1797 it was placed in the Paradeisgartel on the Bastei and in 1819 it was transferred to the former „Kaisergarten“. Moll, who came from Tyrol, is still known today, especially for the production of the 20 or so magnificent coffins in the Capuchin crypt.

Franz Stephan was a financial genius; in 1763 he was entrusted with the supreme management of finances and the reorganization of the national debt. Open to all modern trends (and to women) he invested in industrial settlements and mining), he devoted himself to collecting for his natural history cabinet (which became the Natural History Museum) and to acquiring a large private fortune.

Near the Henikstein Villa in Obersteinergassse in Oberdöbling on the so-called Hirschenbergl, there are 2 monuments commemorating the „greatest Hungarian“ Count István Széchenyi, who died there on April 8, 1860. Széchenyi skilfully represented Hungary’s interests in the Habsburg Monarchy and, as an entrepreneur and highly influential member of the Imperial Diet, initiated a number of economic reforms.

Accordingly, his image not only adorns the 5000 forint banknote, but a number of institutions and buildings throughout Hungary also bear his name. He also contributed his collection to the National Museum in Budapest, which was founded in the 19th century as a reflection of Hungarian nationality.

The palatial country house with surrounding park, which has housed the Döbling District Court since 1991, commemorates the banker, wholesaler and music lover Adam Ritter von Henikstein, who had a private villa built there at the end of the 18th century. From 1830 a private psychiatric clinic was established there under the direction of Bruno Görgen.

One of the best-known buildings on the WU campus in Leopoldstadt in the Prater is WU’s central administration building (D3 AD) by Arch. Peter Cook & CRAB Studio of London, also known in Austria as the designers of the Kunsthaus in Graz.

The organically shaped, colorful building, graded with horizontal stripes, is especially notable for its rough wooden slats for shading. These probably represent a reference to the surrounding Prater with its wooded area. And the color and structure of the facade, which changes over time, probably represents the liveliness of the educational campus.

The idea of student life and thus Peter Cook’s program is also significant: „University has to be jolly good fun“.