Otto Wagner, the perennial Viennese architect, writes in his book “Modern Architecture” in 1902 about the Parliament in Vienna:
“In the Parliament building, eclecticism revels in an orgy. Here again, the main entrance, the approach and driveway, the acoustics, the structural development, and the workmanship of the material, among many things, are sacrified to eclecticism, therefore to style-architecture.” This critique is also an indirect critique against the system, as the whole planning and construction of the Ringstrasse, including the Burgtheater (the Royal Theatre), the Royal Opera, the University and Academies, the Stock Exchange, the Votiv church and the Parliament, are commissioned by the Monarchy.
Wagner is a modern advocate for functionality when he says that “Something impractical cannot be beautiful”. Ruptures between what is deemed to be accepted by the establishment of the time and the viewpoints of the “modern” architect become visible when Wagner criticizes the Votiv church, a neo-gothic building:
“As with all the church buildings of this time, the designing architect gave no consideration to functional and technical factors. This architect and other church builders were completely indifferent, for example, to solving such problems as these: Do all the visitors to the church see the high altar and pulpit? Is the church hygienic (its holy water fonts, spittoons)? How are its acoustics, its light? Can it be kept clean? Are the structural members that span the space the simplest and most economical? “
The Votiv church, build in neo-gothic style from 1855 to 1879, was designed by Heinrich von Ferstel and commissioned by Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian and Cardinal Joseph Othmar von Rauscher.
Wagner is a modernist in his conviction that the outward appearance, the image, must be consistent with each period’s artistic viewpoints, with the “essence” of time: “Even a slight gift of observation must awaken in us the conviction that outward appearance – man’s clothing in form, colour, and accessories – is fully consistent with each period’s artistic viewpoints and creations and cannot be imagined otherwise (…) How completely different it is today! A hodgepodge of styles, with everything copied, even given a patina – is this supposed to accord with our outward appearance? It is not necessary to be an artist to answer this question with a forceful “No!”
Wagner is certain that every historical period has it’s own style, and thus is against the spread of neo-classical buildings which during his lifetime are built all over Vienna, most prominently in the Emperor’s project, the Ringstrasse.
The Emperor’s Ringstrasse is significant as it is a product of a turbulent history which itself attempts to rewrite history. The Ringstrasse project, designed to give Vienna, the capital of the Monarchy, a planned grandeur, is started in 1858, the short time of neo-absolutism in Austria, 10 years after the failure of the revolution of 1848. Before 1848, Metternich´s state management had created discontent with farmers, students, the liberal bourgeoisie and the Austrian provinces from Italy to Poland. Metternich had to leave office after the 1848 March revolution, where students and printers demanded the participation of the public in the government, self-administration of municipalities, removal of censorship, freedom of press and universities, and the suspension of the tributary state of farmers. After a year of upheaval, the revolution failed, and the absolutist system was reinstated. It did not stay for long: Between 1860 and 1867, the feudal system was abandoned.
The Ringstrasse, replacing the medieval city walls, encircles the city with history made of neo-gothic, neo-renaissance and neo-roman buildings. It reconstructs -and redesigns- Vienna by using architectural styles of previous periods. The show is so convincing that most tourists today assume that the Votiv church or the Major’s house are indeed from Medieval times.
Viennese neo-classicism was following an early market segmentation idea, arranged according to the planned use of a building. Wagner writes: “Churches and city halls could be build only in Gothic, parliaments and museums only in Greek, apartment buildings only in Renaissance style, etc.”
Neo-classicism is already industrial in the application of “faux” historical decorations on buildings, which are mass-produced in plaster and can be selected from large volumes of pattern-books. While the imperial opera or theatre are posh and elaborate, the apartment buildings on Ringstrasse, planned for the money elite, are relatively low-key in appearance and are consequently not properly accepted by the target group. The dichotomy of the elaborate and the low-key reflects an underlying intention to have the plush reserved for the state; The Ringstrasse design divides state and private, class and income. Today, neo-classicism is more than a century old and itself part of history; In hindsight, it was the style and expression of its century, and Wagner’s critique expressed a mood which had a lasting effect only for the next century. Wagner himself only became a “modernist” after 1890. Before, also his own work was classicistic.
History, its very motiv, worked in favor of the Ringstrasse. Long after its partly political, partly sentimental aims, the Ringstrasse does indeed show its quality. It is a fabulous street, elegant and generous, yet in a very human scale.
At the turn of the century, Vienna was one of quickest growing cities in the world, and it experimented not only with the past, but also with the future. Soon after the completion of the Ringstrasse and its buildings, an ominous preview into the future appears in Vienna: The entertainment Park “Venice in Vienna” opens its doors.
Venetian canals, bridges and palazzos are re-built in the area of the Vienna k.u.k (kaiserlich und koeniglich - imperial and royal) Prater park. On 50.000 square meters, architect Oskar Marmorek copies several famous Venetian buildings and fills the rest with houses in Venetian style. The buildings are not only facades, they are constructed in brick and mortar, housing shops, restaurants and exhibition halls. The Canale Grande, in its original a meandering canal, becomes a straight street, the “Viale Principale”, and the famous Piazza San Marco becomes a “Campo Dopo San Marco”.
“Venice in Vienna” is a simulation-Venice for commerce and entertainment; The facades are even made to look as old and crumbling as in real Venice. The image, the appearance and façade, is disconnected from its original, rationalized and re-used for commerce.
Venice is chosen for being a tourist icon - with Venice comes the image of romance, culture and mystery. In 1786, Goethe writes about the „ precious collection of castings of the best antiques“ in the Farsetti house in Venice:
“These are works on which the world can be delighted and educated for thousands of years without the value of the artist being depleted by thoughts (sic!). Many grand busts transfer me to the old, glorious times.“
In Venice, Goethe found replica, and now Venice itself becomes a replica, in Vienna. It is the first simulation-city and entertainment park in Europe.
"Venice in Vienna" is however short-lived and soon replaced with another built prophecy: “The International City”. In 1901, all Venetian buildings are cleared away and replaced with a potpourri of streets and buildings imitated after Japanese, Egyptian, Spanish and numerous other antetypes - Vienna's own forecast of globalisation. The simulation of Venice is outdone by the simulation of even more exotic places, leaving constrictions of place, time and context behind. Only a year later, the “International City” is replaced by the “Flower city” and 1903 by the “Electric City”. The village is redesigned in a frantic pace, reflecting the hectic changes happening at the turn of the century. In the “Electric City”, the “Auto-Phonograph”, a predecessor of the gramophone, and the “Kinematograph” of the Lumiere brothers are presented in two theatres. Later, both apparatus are put together in one theatre and called “The Living and Singing Photography”. Simulation cities, globalisation, and the movies: It all appeared in Vienna - over 100 years ago.
