Autor: Michael Würzelberger

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.

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.