Autor: Michael Würzelberger

The Wittgenstein House, built according to plans by Paul Engelmann and Ludwig Wittgenstein, was commissioned by Ludwig’s sister Margaret Stonborough-Wittgenstein and completed in 1928. It has been home to the Bulgarian Cultural Institute since 1975.

Although the villa is now quite dilapidated and the surrounding garden has been significantly reduced in size, the detached, purist building, constructed from cubic blocks, remains fascinating to this day.

The radically functionalist design, the conflict-ridden (and expensive) history of its creation for the client and her brother, and the unusual location in Kundmanngasse in the 3rd district give the building a distinctive appearance, both inside and out.

The new Schrammel monument in Schrammel Park in Dornbach in Vienna’s 17th district, created by Viennese sculptor Eduard Robitschko, was unveiled in November 1967 as a replacement for the Alszauberbrunnen fountain and depicts the typical musical instruments of the Schrammel quartet: contraguitar, G clarinet and violins.

The most famous Viennese folk music group is named after Johann and Josef Schrammel, who came from a family of musicians and also enjoyed a thorough musical education at the conservatory.

Together with their father and a relative, they performed for the first time in 1861 (at the ages of 11 and 9) in a tavern in Austria’s northernmost town, L:itschau, where they also grew up. However, both musicians died young, at the age of 43.

The eventful history of Palais Auersperg in the 8th district begins in 1710 with the opening of the residence planned by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt for Hieronymus Capece de Rofrano. He was Postmaster General and a member of the Spanish Council under Emperor Charles VI, the highest authority for territories in Naples, Milan and Sardinia.

However, he did not live to see its final completion. This was reserved for his son Peter, who, as a well-known young man of society life, is also said to be the model for Octavian Rofrano in the opera “Der Rosenkavalier” by Richard Strauss and libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. After his early death, Johann Adam Prince Auersperg – a confidant of Maria Theresa – took over the baroque palace in 1777.

Despite a number of subsequent changes of ownership, the palace is still used today as a venue for a variety of parties and events. In 1954, the palace was also extended by the Austrian arch. Oswald Haerdtl.

The bronze bust of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by sculptor Johann Baptist Feßler from 1849, which impresses with its realistic depiction, was commissioned by art patron and wholesaler Pietro di Galvagni for a memorial in the new building in Rauhensteingasse – the Mozarthof, which had been completed a year earlier.

A memorial plaque on the plinth reminds us that Mozart died in 1791 in the predecessor building next door, in a corner wing rented there. It was the last of his 12 different residences in Vienna; at the beginning, before his marriage, Mozart was still a subtenant.

Today, the bust is located in the entrance area of “Mythos Mozart”, a multimedia presentation of Mozart’s time led by the compositions “The Magic Flute” and the Requiem, which were also composed there.

The neo-Gothic mausoleum of Moritz and Wilhelmine von Montléart in the palace park on Gallitzinberg in the 16th district commemorates the French aristocratic Montléart family, who settled in Vienna at the beginning of the 19th century. The starting point was Jules Maximilien Thibaut, Prince de Montléart, Marquis de Rumont, who had acquired a castle (predecessor building) located there in 1824. After his death, the estate passed to his son Moritz, who was married to the philanthropist Wilhelmine, née Fitzgerald, from Ireland.

Wilhelmine took over the estate, had the burial chapel built and, despite her secluded life, the name “Wilhelminenberg”, which is still in use today, became established. After a generous donation of 300K crowns for the construction of a hospital, the “Wilhelminenspital” (since 2020 Klinik Ottakring) was named after her.

Incidentally, the family’s legal advisor for decades was the lawyer Dr. Cajetan Felder, who recorded many details about the Montléarts in his memoirs and, as Mayor of Vienna from 1868, provided important impetus for the city of Vienna.

The Tegetthoff Monument at the Praterstern in the 2nd district from 1886 by Carl Kundmann and Carl von Hasenauer with the 3.5m high figure of Wilhelm von Tegetthoff on a 16m high “honorary column” made of marble on a 5m high pedestal commemorates the victories of the vice-admiral and commander of the Austrian navy in the naval battles of Lissa and off Helgoland.

The three hulls with the goddess of victory Nike as a figurehead and horse-drawn combat vehicles on the base, later disparaged as the “clothes rack”, are references to the admiral, who had already entered the naval cadet school in 1840 at the age of 13 and was destined for a stellar career as a naval officer, particularly as a result of the 1848 revolution. Tegetthoff became a naval hero when he defeated the Italian fleet at Lissa in 1866.

In addition to his innovations and reforms – often in the face of resistance from the general staff – he also became famous and honored for bringing Emperor Maximilian home after his execution in Mexico with the legendary Novara. Tegetthoff died of pneumonia at the age of 43 and is now buried in Graz-St. Leonhard.

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.