Autor: Michael Würzelberger

The Roman Catholic Church of St. John in Unterlaa in the 10th district, right next to the Liesingbach stream, is considered one of the oldest churches in Vienna, as some of its components date back to the early 11th century. The location and alignment of the stone foundations in particular suggest a sacred building and adjoining estate from the time of Roman settlement, which were then probably also used as building material for the first small church.

Early Christian graves inside the church may also be attributed to the first priests. In the 13th century, the church was taken over by the Knights of St. John (now the Order of Malta), the landlords of the area at the time, and consecrated to St. John the Baptist. During the Second Turkish Siege of Vienna in 1683, the church, which was repeatedly extended and rebuilt, was destroyed and then rebuilt shortly afterwards.

On the grounds around the church there is also a Holy Sepulchre Chapel from 1700 and an archaeological showroom run by the Favoriten District Museum.

The “Memorial for the Victims of Spiegelgrund” on the Otto Wagner site in the 14th district commemorates the children and young people who were systematically tortured and murdered there during the National Socialist era with 772 light steles. The criminal doctors working there killed sick, disabled or, from their point of view, “uneducable” people as part of the so-called “Aktion T4” in the light of the National Socialist racial mania after categorizing them as “unfit for education” and “causing permanent costs”.

Transports from children’s homes and specially organized “selection trips” were used to send people to the “euthanasia institution”, which was trivialized after the war, usually without justification and without informing the parents. The agonizing deaths were carried out through malnutrition and hypothermia, usually followed by an overdose of sleeping pills.

In the background you can also see the Am Steinhof Theater in the Baroque Art Nouveau style by Franz Berger, which is due to reopen soon after extensive renovation.

The 50,000m2 Rabenhof in Vienna-Landstrasse on the site of the former Krimsky barracks is a housing project from the 1920s that has urban and cultural significance and is considered a prime example of the municipal buildings of “Red Vienna”. The building, designed by Arch. Heinrich Schmid and Hermann Aichinger with its clear, functional forms (superblock) now has around 1,140 apartments.

On the first floor of one of the blocks is the Rabenhof Theater, an important cabaret theater with around 300 seats. After being revived in the 1990s as the third venue of the Theater in der Josefstadt, it became an independent stage in 2000 and was taken over by author and director Thomas Grazer in 2003.

Since then, it has developed into one of the leading venues in the Viennese cultural scene with innovative, contemporary and socially critical, satirical plays.

The Julius Meinl house (Meinlhaus) in the inner city at Fleischmarkt 7 was built in 1899 as a trading house for Julius Meinl based on a design by Max Kropf. The building, with its plaster façade and neoclassical décor by Wilhelm Hejda, features stucco reliefs with the coats of arms of the cities of Hamburg, Trieste and London as well as an ornate grille with the inscription “Julius Meinl Kaffee Import” in reference to the coffee trade.

The career of Julius Meinl II (1869-1944) and his rise to become the largest food retailer in the monarchy also began here in his father’s store.

The memorial plaque for Billy Wilder at the entrance is also worth noting. The famous screenwriter, director and 6-time Oscar winner lived there during his school days (at the private Juranek grammar school in the 8th district). At times he was in the same class as the later film director Fred Zinnemann (5 Oscars), whom he met again in Hollywood and remained friends with for the rest of his life.

View of the Volksgarten (People’s Garden) from the roof of the Natural History Museum, with the Burgtheater in the background.

The Hufschmidhouse (blacksmith’s house) on the corner of Neuer Markt – Kupferschmiedgasse – Seilergasse in the 1st district, built in 1784, was rebuilt in 1967 by the Austrian Arch. Georg Lippert in 1967, the smooth façades with plain windows so typical of the Josephinian style have fortunately been preserved.

This style, also known as the Plattenstil or Josephine Baroque, exemplifies the transition to Classicism with its sober, austere structure and, in addition to replacing the Theresian late Baroque, also represents the new political conditions of enlightened absolutism under Emperor Joseph II.

From the end of the 19th century, the building housed a private hospital and since 1985 the first floor has been home to the city branch of the Oberlaa spa confectionery, which was founded around 10 years earlier on the occasion of the construction of the Oberlaa spa center with spa garden.

The almost 62,000m2 Wertheimsteingarden in Oberdöbling in the 19th district was created as early as 1835 by the Austrian textile manufacturer, art collector and patron Rudolf von Arthaber as a private garden with a country house, the Villa Wertheimstein. After his death, Leopold von Wertheimstein acquired the park and villa in 1867, and 50 years later his daughter Franziska bequeathed the estate to the City of Vienna. In 1967, the Döbling District Museum was established in the villa and a wine museum was set up in the adjoining “Nonnenstöckl”.

A number of statues in the park still commemorate the salon as a central meeting place for liberal personalities in Vienna, which was founded by her mother Josephine. In addition to the writers Ferdinand von Saar, Franz Keim and Eduard Bauernfeld, there is also a bust of the Austrian officer and politician Julius Schlegel, the “savior of the art treasures of Montecassino” from the Nazis.

The charming park, which slopes steeply down to the former Krottenbach valley and Danube Canal valley, is home to many old and exotic plants, a garden for the blind created in 1959 (only partially preserved) and, since 1992, a biotope for lizards.

Due to the great success of the specially tanned and dyed gloves, the production of the former imperial and royal glove factory J.E. Zacharias moved in 1886 to the three-storey factory building planned by Gustav Matthies from Mecklenburg in today’s 19th district near the Danube. Due to the high demand for water, the location of the elongated brick building, with the gables typical of the planner in the early Italian Renaissance style, in Nußdorf, which was still a suburb at the time, was ideal.

With the help of ultra-modern machines powered by steam and their own dynamos, around 300 employees produced up to 10,000 gloves per week, a large proportion of which were destined for export all over the world. After the death of the factory owner in 1904, the now listed building was used as an important print shop for lithographed posters and metal sheets until 1970 and then as a second-hand goods and antiques shop.

For more than 10 years now, the building has been used as “Haus Damaris”, a Caritas facility providing refugee accommodation and basic care for around 220 people. Volunteers and donations in kind are also sought via a dedicated FB group.

One of the highlights of a tour of the Prater Cottage in the 2nd district is the impressive clubhouse for the former “Cycling Club of State and Court Officials” in the Prater, designed by Austrian designer and Secession architect Joseph Maria Olbrich. The central wooden main front, designed as a wide portal niche, is a reminiscent of the entrances to the pavilions of the Vienna city railway stations by Otto Wagner.

Olbrich received the commission in spring 1898, one month after the start of construction of the important Viennese Secession building near the Ringstrasse, which he had planned in the Viennese Art Nouveau style.

Shortly after completion, the club expanded from cycling to tennis. The pavilion, which has remained relatively undamaged despite various adaptations, is still used for this purpose today by the same club – now “SV Schwarz-Blau”.

Interested in a tour of Vienna’s historic bourgeoisie? Just send me an e-mail.