Schlagwort: 1010wien

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 Liberation of the Spring Fountain, one of six fountains in the Stadtpark in the 1st district dating from 1903, shows two giant male figures struggling to lift a boulder that is obstructing the flow of water from a spring. The water flows from a gap that has already formed into an oval water basin at a lower level; between the group of figures and the fountain basin is a sculpted „natural rock“.

The Leithakalk fountain, designed by Hagebund artist Josef Heu, is part of a staircase leading to the lower Vienna river promenade opposite the dairy in the 3rd district and was purchased by the City of Vienna on the occasion of the VIII. Spring Exhibition.

The monument to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, created by sculptor Viktor Tilgner and Arch. Carl König was unveiled on Albertinaplatz five days after Tilgner’s death on April 21, 1896. Soon after its unveiling, there were calls for a change of location, and after bomb damage during World War II, it was finally moved to the Burggarten in 1953.

The late historicist statue made of Lasa marble – a hard, durable and weather-resistant marble from South Tyrol – shows the composer with a music stand on a three-tiered pedestal with a keyboard-shaped upper edge and bronze instruments and a laurel wreath, flanked by angels playing music.

Below this, a bas-relief depicts the invitation and appearance of the Stone Guest from the opera „Don Giovanni“, a reference to the opening performance of the Vienna State Opera in 1869. On the reverse, the six-year-old composer is shown at the piano surrounded by his family with his father Leopold playing the violin and his sister Nannerl singing.

The equestrian statue of Emperor Joseph II from 1807 on Josefplatz in the 1st district was commissioned by his nephew Emperor Franz II/I from the sculptor Franz Anton Zauner and is modeled on the Roman statue of Marcus Aurelius on the Capitol in the Palace of the Conservators in Rome. In addition to the exemplary style of the model, the Roman emperor also plays a role in Vienna in terms of content, as he is said to have died near Vienna.

The bronze cast was made in the imperial canon foundry on Wieden and was considered the largest cast outside France at the time. The statue stands on a pedestal made of polished Mauthausen granite, which features reliefs and medallions with scenes of trade and agriculture.

A model of the statue from 1797 can be found in Schönbrunn Palace Park.

The Grillparzer monument by Carl Kundmann (figures), Rudolf Weyr (reliefs) and Carl Hasenauser (architecture) in the Volksgarten in the 1st district was unveiled in 1889, around 17 years after the 81-year-old’s death. It depicts the famous 19th century Austrian playwright together with scenes from his literary works (left: Die Ahnfrau, Der Traum ein Leben, König Ottokars Glück und Ende
Right: Sappho, Medea, Des Meeres und der Liebe Wellen).

Grillparzer was also employed as a civil servant from 1813-1856. Although it was customary at the time for a trainee to wait 12 years for his first salary, he was paid more quickly, receiving his first salary after just four years. As a minor civil servant in the Court Chamber, he celebrated his early literary successes; later in the Ministry of Finance, he was already a famous poet and became director of the Court Chamber Archives.

Grillparzer, like many other greats, constantly changed his lodgings. While in his youth he had to move from one poor dwelling to the next with his impoverished mother, who was widowed at an early age, later inner restlessness, imbalance and severe depression were the cause of many changes of location.

Around 25 years after the formation of a prominent committee, the Lessing monument on Judenplatz in the 1st district was unveiled for the first time on June 15, 1935. The Viennese sculptor Siegfried Charoux was responsible for the bronze sculpture on a cubic stone plinth, also known for the Suttner monument at the courtyard of the same name and other monuments, often in municipal buildings.

Just four years later, the monument to the famous playwright and representative of the German Enlightenment, which probably also commemorates his main work „Nathan the Wise“, was dismantled by the Nazis and melted down for armaments. In May 1968, a new sculpture was unveiled by the artist, who had returned home from emigration in the meantime, before it was unveiled again at its current location in October 1981.

The reminder of the Ring Parable with its appeal to the idea of tolerance, directly opposite the entrance to the Jewish Museum and the Holocaust Memorial, could not be more topical.

The Albertina Art Museum in the 1st district is one of the most important and extensive collections of graphic art in the world. Founded in 1776 by Duke Albert of Saxony-Teschen and his wife Archduchess Marie Christine, the collection was moved in 1792 to today’s Palais Erzherzog Albrecht, which was then also used as the family’s residence.

This was subsequently also the case for his adopted son Archduke Karl („Victor of Aspern“ against Napoleon), his son Archduke Albrecht (to whom the equestrian monument on the ramp was later dedicated) and his adopted son Archduke Karl Ferdinand, who lived in the palace until the end of the monarchy in 1918.

I would be happy to provide further information on the history of the palace and the collection during a guided tour of the state rooms, which were restored during a general renovation in 2003, and a visit to a current exhibition and the Batliner Collection, which has also been housed there since 2007.