Vienna Calling






in progress……

Maria Theresia

Charles VI, the father of Maria Theresia has became no son but he through the pragmatic sanction he could secure the unity of his empire. But he left it as a big challange for his young dougther as he died 1740. Three years ago Maria Theresia married  Franz Stephan von Lothringen at the age of 17.

Of course the other of europes monarchs thought it might be easy now to cut down a piece of Austria. It was the prelude of the austrian succession war that last for seven years.

The first step made the young King Friedrich from Prussia. He stept with his army over the border to Silesia. Maria Theresia and Franz Stephan have had a weak army running. But Friedrich was not the only enemy. They faced also France, Spain and Bavaria.

The only way to survife was to build a coalition withe other Contries. They found them in England, the Netherland, Sardina and Russia.

Metropol and Ronacher

Querin Mairhofer a master baker from Würzburg relocated 1828 to vienna. He bought a a backery,  a vinefactory a vineyard and stables. Before 1860 Mairhofer initiated a modification of the stables into a eventhall.

The Metropol is connected to austrian artists like Georg Danzer and Wolfgang Ambros. The small group of artists know each quiet good and some of them are good friends. But also small Musical-productions are part of the programm.

The Theatre is a lovely  eventhall for about 500 visitors. It has a special flair and the artist can be experienced colse.

The Ronacher is one of viennas traditonal theaters and is resided in the 1st district. Right after the event you can visit one of numerous eateries.

old-ronacher Original house

The theater was built 1871 and 1872 from the architects Ferdinand Fellner and Ferdinand Fellner Jr.  for the private AG of Max Friedländer. It was opend on 15. September 1872 with Schillers „Demetrius“. In the year 1884 the theater is burnt down. 1886 Anton Ronacher bougth the ruin and again Ferdinand Fellner father and son rebuilt it. In April 1888 it opend again as a ballroom. At the theater a hotel and a wintergarden were affiliated. The hous could use allready use electric light.  The house was not a traditional playhouse. The visitors could eat and trink there.

Because of the bad economic climate in the 1890 the house had to be reduced. Artist performed there and attracted the simple pepole from the suburb. Later operettas, danc and singevents took place.

After the 2nd world war the unharmed ronacher was used instead of the bombed Burg-theater. Today the house is used as musicalhouse. A truly  wonderful historical house.


Greek quarter

In the 18th century greek merchants settled in the area around todays Griechengasse, Fleischmarkt, Rotenturmgasse. In that area pepole from many different countries have their home there .  In the middle of the 19th century some of the rich greeks went away from the greek quater.  Nikolaus Dumba was one of them. The Palais Dumba at the Parkring 4 is named after him. In 1865 he gave the order to build the Palais. Dumba was an indastrual and a patron of arts.

A famous Restaurant is the Griechenbeisl at Fleischmarkt 11. It is one of viennas oldest Restaurant and named the first time in 1447 as restaurant „yellow eagle“. In the 18th century the famous ballad monger Max Augustin (the lovely Augustin) performed there. The Griechenbeisl can count a some  famous people to their guests like Johnny Cash, Phil Collins, Johann Strauß, W. A. Mozart, L v Beethoven, Ferdinand Graf v. Zeppelin, Richard Wagner, Mark Twain and others.

Verry nice is the Hafnersteig, a small historical lane between the Fleischmarkt and the Schwedenplatz. On the opposit side is a buddhist temple.

In the 19th century the  Georgschurch and the greek-church holy trinity were build in the quater. The greek church at the Fleischmarkt is one of most beautyful churches in Vienna.

220px-Griechenkirche_Fleischmarkt_Wien Greek Church


Love goes through the stomage

This is a fact. Love goes through the stomage. Vienna has so much love to give!  We have so much good food in vienna and in Austria.

Today we have here in Vienna many international Restaurants. We like our food diversified. italian, japanese, chinese or other asian food, spanish, mexican. You can find everything what your heart desires. But our traditional food is not to hide. In Vienna many Restaurants serve traditional viennese dishes. But not just Restaurants. Typical are also the „Wiener Würstelstand“ where typical sausages where sold, like Käsekrainer, Burenwurst or Waldviertler.  A visit is wothwile.

But was is typical viennese food? It is grown over the centuries.  Strudel, Knödel und Schmarrn the people eat also in the 18th century. Typical maindishes was stews, cabbage and beet-dishes, fish. Sometimes Meet like mutton and pork. In that time is was not so expensive to go to a lunchhouse. And you could eat many differnt dishes for one price. If you where a burgess you had a special time where the dishes were served for you. As  peer you had an other time. So it was sure that the different classes didnt mix up during their lunch or dinner.

Through the colonization the menu changed. Potatoes, Tomatos and so on enriched the dishes. Without that we couldn`t eat our Schnitzel with fries. How sad would be this?

Today the simple restaurants are called Beisl. Simple doesnt mean that the food isn`t delicious. They mainly serve typical viennese or austrian food. In the last years they declined.

If you like sweets you are right in vienna. We have a rich tradition. Famous are of course the Sacher cake and the Imperial cake. But this are just two. In the 17 century people liked the milk-cream Strudel or the Apple-Strudel. Dishes you still can find in each Restaurant. The Konditorei are specialiced for Sweets and cakes and Coffee. And their are of cours the viennese Cafe` houses. Since the 18th century they are not to miss. Intellectual and artists like write writers and musicas liked to visit coffeehouses. The traditional viennese coffeehouse are culturegoods.  Here you can make a timetravell into the past.

Enlightment and vampires

In the 18th century stories about Vimpires which strike terror made the round in Austria. It was the time when Maria Theresia ruled over the austrian empire.

Pepole in that time were superstitious. If they couldn`t explain something it must  be something weird. 1745 the medical doctor Gerad van Swieten went to vienna to become the personal doctor of Maria Theresia. He started the reforme the austrian health care and the medical tertiary education. He obtain to be the founder of the elder viennese medical scool.

The frightening storries about the vampires spread more and more fear over the austrian population. Maria Theresia had to act and she sent 1755 her best man  into the field. Van Swieten had to go to Morawa to proof the storries. As doctor and scientist he was not easy to frighten. He proofed the facts and wrote a statement about the reasons for this inexplicably facts. And he brought light into the darkness of the superstition.

Van Swieten was an important representative of the Enlightment. Maria Theresia supported this movement. Her Son Josef II supportet also the enlightment. He broke the power of the catholic church and the pope and suspended many monasteries and fraternaties like the Jesuits. Josef II had a strong will to reform the country and supportet artists like Mozart.




The name Nussdorf leads himself from the nuttrees off which growed there when the village was established in the medivial. Until the 19th century allys stood in the village.

The village was first time named in the highmiddleage. It was called first time in document in 1082. Before their were shurely the romans and used the optimal location to build their harbour.  We know that in the backyard around Vindobona also estates located were. It were next to the limes road to western towns like cetium (St. Pölten) or Lentia (Linz) and so on.

Nussdorf was a streetvillage and whrer located in todays Kahlenbergstraße, the Greiner and the Hackhofgasse. Through the todays Hammerschmidtgasse Nussdorf was connected with the village of Heiligenstadt. We can imagine mainly simple houses. The people woodworker, fisherman or winegrower. They all have to pay tribute to the liege. In that area the church was the owner of wide areas.  The village Nussdorf had its own owners.

In the 14th century the Masters of Nussdorf was ducal forest intendants. In that time the village was famous for its good wine. The village belongs to the parish of Heiligenstadt.

Trough to his close  position to the danube river. Their were harbour facilities. This fact brought many times harm to the people of Nussdorf when enemies came the always went their to destroy the village. If we think about that time it may come fearful thoughts when we see in front of our spiritual eyes soldiers in full armament ride through the small village of Nussdorf.
One time the hungarians, two times came the Osmans, later the French to mention some cases.  One building which surwived all the good and bad times was the Neudeckerhof. Since the early 16 th century the building stood. Legend afflicetd, it alleged that  the building in 1462  the Münsterberger Lord Viktorin (which was a son of King Georg von Podibrand) as headquarter of the relif force for the emporer Friedrich III served . The Emporer were sieged from the viennese citizens.

Nussdorf developed through the time into a lovely place where many musical Stars  their tents encamped. Beethoven spent some time of his live their. 1802 he lived in a flat in the Probusgasse 6. In that time sufferd allready under nearly deafness. In the hous are a exhibition which showes closer inside in his life.

But Beethoven was not the only musican which appreciated Nußdorfs nice surroundings. Franz Lehar, lived and worked between 1932 and 1944 in todays Hackhofergasse 18 in the so-called Leharschlössl. Their he wrote Giuditta his last stage performance. In the same building stood between 1802 and 1812 Emanuel Schikaneder the famous autor and lyricist (Mozarts magic flute) . 1737 Joachim Georg Schwandner bought the building and  gave him todays appearance.

the vienna coffee shop

The Legend that Kolschitzky foundet the first viennese coffee shop stood until today. But now we know it better. It was the armenian trader Johannes Theodat which found the first cofe shop in Vienna. Kolschitzky established later a cofe shop.

The cofe shop became quickley an institution in Vienna where the people met each other and exchanged news and had a talk. Coffee bekam quickley a verry popular drink for all classes. Especially intellectual, writers and musicans visited often the Cofe` Shop`s.

1788 Martin Diegand founded the first concert-cofe shop and it was a famous success. Soon people flowed into the concert-cofe shops. Mozart and Beethoven came their to listen to their or others music.  The string quartet from Josef Lanner and Johann Strauß sen. where successful like modern popstars and made concert tours in european music-cofe shops.

Graham Green wrote his famous book „the thrid man“ in the Cofe Shop „Mozart“. Others like the writers Leo Perutz, Oskar Kokoschka, Hermann Bahr, Alfred Polgar or the architect Otto Wagner  were regular guests in the Cafe` Museum and in the Cafe` Central.

The connection cofe shop and literature have also a long tradition. 1891 the literature group „Jung Wien“ were found in Vienna. mebers were under others Peter Altenberg, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Stefan Zweig,  Karl Kraus, and Arthur Schnitzler.  There meetingpoint were the Café Griensteidl also known as „Cafe` megalomania“. In the time were „Jung Wien“ met their it was on the Michaeler Platz in the 1st district. 1897 it were demolished because the square was rebuilded.  In the evening before the building were destroyed the group and other loyal guests met their to celebrate a furneral feast for the Cafe`.  Karl Kraus used the decline of the Cafe` Griensteidl to bill with the Jung Wien members in a essey under the title „the demolished literature“.  On the 25. january were in the Illustrated Viennese special edition to read. „The taithful guest of the Cafe` Griensteidl celebreted the decline with a excellent furneral feast… after midnight the food and the drinks were exhausted and just slap of ears were served. Elsewise the atmosphere were famous.“ The slap Kraus recived from Felix Salten for passage in his essey. Arthur Schnitzler noticed in his diary about that „yesterday evening Salten slaped the small Kraus ear was everybody gladly appreciated“
After the demolition many of the writers relocated to the Cafe` Central.

Until today people love the viennese Cofe` Shops. Here some of the traditional:

Café Hawelka (Dorotheergasse 6 1010 Wien
Café Central (Herrengasse 14 1010 Wien)
Café Griensteidl (Michaeler Platz 1010 Wien)
Café Landtmann (Universitätsring 4 1010 Wien)
Café Museum (Operngasse 7 1010 Wien)
Café Mozart (Albertinaplatz 1010 Wien)
Café Prückel (Stubenring 1010 Wien)
Cafe` Hofburg (Innerer Burghof 1 1010 Wien)
Cafe` Raimund (Museumstraße 6 1010 Wien)
Cafe` Sacher ( Philharmonikerstraße – Im  Hotel Sacher 1010 Wien)
Café Hummel (Josefstädter Straße 66 1080 Wien)
Café Ritter (Mariahilferstraße  73 1060 Wien)
Cafe`Kafka (Capistrangasse 8 1060 Wien)
Café Restaurant Residenz (in the castle Schönbrunn 1130 Wien)
Café Sperl (Gumpendorferstraße Corner Lehargasse 1060 Wien)
Café Wunderer (near Kennedybrücke 1140 Wien)
Café Weimar (Währinger Straße 68 1090 Wien)
Cafe` Rüdigerhof  (Hamburgerstraße 20 1050 Wien)
Café Zartl (Rasumofskygasse  7 1030 Wien)
Cafe` Weidinger (Lerchenfelder Gürtel 1 1160 Wien)
Cafe` Sperlhof (Große Sperlgasse 41 1020 Wien)


Fabulous places

Viennas citizens in the middle age was superstitious and religious. What were reflected in the  peoples legends. They were connected to places in Vieanna. In many cases people fought against dark forces. Simple heros stood against demons and devils.  In some cases they told storys about the dangerous situations vienna faced like the otoman siege in the legend „zum Heidenschuss“ or the catastrophes like the black death, the storry of “ Augustin in the pesthole“ was about that. About the musician Augustin three legends were written. Also worldhistory went into the legends of vienna, the Englisch King Richard better known as Lionheart were discovered in a small village named  viniculture village Erdberg and imprisoned from Leopold V in Vienna a brought later to the castle of Dürrenstein. Some mounth ago Leopold had a disput with Richard Lionheart in the conquered city of Acre. Lionheart affronted Leopold, the legend told that Lionheart thrown Leopolds banner down from a tower into the mud because Leopold claimed some of the prize. Leopold left after that szene Acre and went back to vienna. Of course he did not forget that when he met Richard again in Vienna.
Other legends are about human weakness like greed discribed in the legend of the Schustermichelglocke (cobblermichlbell) or vanity in the legend „the devil in the mirror“.
But also goodness like patience and belive went into viennese legends like in the story of „the spinnerin am Kreuz“ (the spinister on the cross).

I want to mention some of the legendary places in Vienna

1. district
The stick in the iron – Stock im Eisen Platz
Heidenschuss  – Heidenschuss
The basilisk house – Schönlaterngasse
The elysian usher  –  Himmelpfortgasse

2. district
The golden fountain – Taborstraße

4. district
The bear mill – Naschmarkt

6. district
The cobbler-Michl-bell – Mariahilfer church  (Mariahilferstraße)

7. district
The house of the golden snake – St. Ulrich (part of the 7. district)
Augustin in the pest hole – Augustinplatz (7)

8. district
The spicachrist – Alser church – Alser Straße

9. distict
The wondercross – Rossau (part of the 9. district next to the danubechannel)

11. district
The lionbride – castle Neugebäude

There are around 400 legends written about vienna here are some of the most known:
The stick in the iron
The funny Augustin
The stack in the heaven
The fist elephant in vienna
The wonderman Paracelsus