Chapter 1. Vienna in the mid-nineteenth century
Sometime during the late summer months of 1859, we do not know precisely when, a fatherless,
19-year-old youth from Biała-Biritz on the Galician-Sedesian border set off for Vienna
with a Maturitätszeugnis from Krakow Gymnasium in his luggage and perhaps a letter of recommendation
from a teacher or relative as well.
The Maturität Stolknis is a certificate awarded in Austria, Switzerland and some parts of Germany, indicating that a student has passed qualifying exams required to begin university studies.
The gymnasium is roughly the equivalent to high school in the United States, but with a more rigorous academic agenda.
Agenda. It was one of many from the so-called Crown Lands, pouring into the incessantly
growing Royal Imperial capital and residential city of Vienna. The terms Royal Imperial,
Kaiser Königreich, abbreviated KK, and Royal and Imperial, Kaiser und Königreich, abbreviated
KUK, emblematised the dual monarchy in the Austro-Hungarian Empire after 1867. The western
The Eastern part, Cislitanian, was an empire. The Eastern part, Translitanian, mainly with Hungary and Croatia-Slavonia, was a kingdom.
Common institutions bore the denomination KUK, Institutions of Cislitanian, just KAKA.
From 1820 to 1830, the share of inhabitants not born in Vienna had already grown from 9.5% to 30.5%.
In 1856, that portion had grown to 44%. One-fifth of the immigrants originated from Bohemia and Moravia, another-fifth from Lower Austria, and 11.5% from the Alpine countries.
Whereas immigrants had been mainly German-speaking up to mid-century, the wave of immigrants now increasingly consisted of Czech-speakers.
In 1857, in one of the first censuses in Europe, 476,222 people were registered in Vienna and its suburbs. In 1869, there were 607,507, and in 1888, as many as 1.3 million.
During the 19th century the population grew sevenfold. Vienna became a metropolis, the fourth largest city in the world after London, Paris and New York.
It was not until 1871 that Berlin edged ahead, leaving Vienna to occupy fifth place for a long time.
To our traveller, Carl Menger von Wolfengrün, 1840-1921, the subsequent founder of the Austrian School of Economics,
The cityscape still appeared as that of old Vienna, enclosed on three sides by a city wall and moat, and naturally confined by an arm of the Danube on its eastern side.
The city outskirts, the Glacis, had never been built upon for military reasons.
Partly lined with avenues of trees, it served the inhabitants as an esplanade with plots for market stalls, coffee tents, playgrounds and junk dealers, and offered artisans and traders open storage and work areas.
Within the city walls, the number of houses, 1200, households, 10,600, and inhabitants, about 50,000, had remained virtually constant for decades. Immigrants settled in the outer boroughs and suburbs.
What struck young people from the provinces as particularly pleasant, a fellow student
of Carl Menger remembered, was the hospitality of the local people most of all. The same
was later even registered in a well-known encyclopedia. The main characteristics of
the Viennese are mirth and bonhomie. The archetypal Viennese has an open heart and feels most
content when he can be gentle and good, no matter how uproarious. Public amusements are
are always harmless and jovial, in no large city will one feel more at home than in Vienna
and the stranger receives easy access into society.
The Raising of the City Walls, commissioned in 1857 by Emperor Franz Josef I, was already
underway at the time of Menger's arrival.
Soon to be apparent changes and upcoming plans, still to be realized, resulted in animated
discussions, even heated arguments.
Every week brought a new surprise, first here and then there, some favorite spot of the
old Viennese vanished. The columns of daily newspapers were filled with cries of anguish.
In contrast, the younger generation of citizens inspired by the belief in progress and filled
with confidence saw the dawn of a new beginning in the demolition of the stronghold ring.
Johann Strauss the Younger, 1825-1899, lent the events of the time lively expression in
and his rhythmically jocund de molier polka, which means demolition men's polka, and his
martial explosions polka, which means explosion polka. In any case, the enjoyment of theatre
life and the desire for sensation that permeated public life appeared satisfied.
The goings-on in front of and behind the scenes provided fodder for conversation in all circles.
The few daily papers published in Vienna fed the reader with gossip from the theatre. As
As a culmination of this constructional redevelopment, the Ringstrasse, a circular road surrounding
the inner-city district of Vienna and magnificent boulevard of more than three miles, would
at least be ceremoniously opened on May 1st, 1865.
But the Theater-Merry facade could hardly cover up the fact that the general economic
situation as a result of the ruined state-of-government finances was difficult.
The 163 million guilders needed for constructing public buildings and grounds were financed
by the partial selling of the newly available building areas to private companies, entrepreneurs
and investors.
A positive economic climate was created only after two exceptionally good harvests and
upon the added stimulation, albeit illusory and superficial, of the 1866 war against Prussia's
being financed by an increase in the money supply.
The size of the railway network, a reliable economic indicator of the time, almost doubled
between 1866 and 1873. And between 1867 and 1873, no less than 104 construction companies
were newly licensed in Vienna alone. The city quickly turned into a gigantic construction
site. In place of two-storey houses, approximately 500 private and public buildings, as well
as well as 90 new roads and squares were constructed in a matter of a few years. Added to that
were the Viennese mountain spring water main, the Danube flood control, three railway stations
and a considerable number of buildings in the surrounding towns and suburbs built in
order to accommodate the enormous influx of immigrants, at least in part.
The monumental architecture of the Ringstrasse was a strong expression of the citizens'
and New Self-Confidence Among the eligible voters of Vienna, hardly
making up more than 4% of the inhabitants, in 1870 it was 26,069 people, a liberal attitude
became the predominant political trend. This mindset came through expression in the December
Constitution of 1867 in which the relationship of citizen and state was codified and a catalogue
When Emperor Franz Josef lobbied by the business and society elites authorized the holding of
On the eve of a world exhibition in 1873, already excessive economic expectations were further fired up.
The Viennese, who are hoping for the jingle of golden rain, everyone is counting on, everyone is speculating on the world exhibition,
wrote economist August Onken, 1844-1911, who was then appointed to the faculty of Universität für Bodenkultur,
literally University of Soil Culture and today University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences.
Another contemporary also made plain the euphoric mood. Around the year 1870 we were living rather
in dulce jubilee. To be sure, one shook one's head at the audaciousness of the project,
but one thought the boom would last and one plunged right into it. On an area larger than 16 hectares,
200 exhibition halls, for more than 50,000 exhibits were built, three new bridges were
were erected across the Danube canal and the first luxury hotels of Vienna were constructed
for an expected 20 million visitors. In expectation of brisk business, the prices for rent and
food increased enormously. A total of 1,005 companies with a combined capital worth 4
billion guilders were founded between 1867 and 1873. The number of banks grew from 12
The number of share titles on the Viennese stock exchange multiplied from 169 to 605.
The overheated economy, stoking already rampant speculation, blossomed wondrously. Individuals
who had only shortly before had to content themselves with some modest job, suddenly,
on account of some successful venture, came into a fortune and also took pains to make
this change in their position as conspicuous as possible. The whole of social life of the
old imperial city was turned upside down. The previous humble coziness was replaced
with a sometimes quite pompous and imposing extravagance. The fact that seasoned bankers
had long since recognized the dangers and had gradually withdrawn from activities on
the stock exchange did not make much difference. Experts and economists warned emphatically
in public speeches against the stock market swindle and the corruption of the press.
But it was virtually impossible to put a stop to the unchecked gambling and speculating
according to the motto, Es stirbt der Fuchs, so gilt der Balk, a German proverb which approximates
the meaning of the English, What can you get out of a cat but her skin?
Johann Strauss de Younger aptly reflected this precarious mood in his Operette des Fledermaus,
1874.
Inclusion makes us happy.
In the end, the opening of the world exhibition on May 1st 1873 became the overture to the
inevitable admission of complete failure. The exhibition halls were not yet completed,
the weather was changeable, and the number of visitors remained below expectations. Many
business aspirations shattered abruptly against reality. A little over a week later the Viennese
This stock exchange recorded 110 insolvencies. And on the next day, Black Friday, the Great
Crash ensued with 120 additional companies collapsing. By the end of the year, 48 banks,
8 insurance companies, 2 railroad companies and 59 industrial firms had gone into liquidation
or had even gone bankrupt. On the stock exchange, 1.5 billion guilders, 4 times to complete
The great crash, whose devastating effects would live on in the memory of the Viennese
citizens for a very long time, resulted in a kind of watershed in the general mentality.
In the years that followed, liberalism increasingly lost political support. Pursuing security
became the new guiding light, risk aversion, a rent-seeking mentality and a guilds and
small trades way of thinking became long lamented basic components.
The immediate effects were the re-nationalisation of the railroad industries, protectionism
and restrictions of economic freedom. The Austrian tendency toward bureaucratic paternalism
and the desire on the part of economic interest groups to be shielded and protected acted
in Concert and Close Agreement. The Great Crash was thus the birth of the public welfare
apparatus, in which the old Josephinian spirit of the authoritarian state again raised its
head. From 1870 to 1914, the number of public servants in Sizlaitania grew from 80,000 to
400,000. In Vienna, the number of municipal servants increased between 1873 and 1900 from
from 2000 to 30,000. The political and intellectual climate in 20th century Austria, ranging from
a conservative Catholic tradition to an Austro-revolutionary attitude, be it socialist, communist or national
socialist, would have preferred to have let it be forgotten that the short phase of liberalism
had created lasting material and spiritual values, an economic catching up process and
and modernizing boost, an urbanity with cultural openness as well as principles for a constitutional
state with modern basic and individual rights. Ultimately, the development of individuality
in the liberal era created precisely that tension-filled polarity of tradition and avant-garde,
faith in progress and pessimism and love of life and yearning for death that was to become
From Fertile Soil for Viennese Art, Literature, Music and Science at the End of the 19th Century