Mariahilf stories - the Theater an der Wien # 2024

The Naschmarkt and Karlsplatz are now top-class addresses that reveal little of the hustle and bustle that once reigned here. The Vienna River used to flow openly here, but later it was arched over for hygienic reasons and the market was built above it. The Freihausviertel, which was built on a still-existing island in the Vienna River, formed its own economic and social cosmos. The residential complex built there burned down several times and was gradually expanded at the same time. The new building in the mid-18th century contained apartments for up to a thousand residents, making it the largest apartment building in the city and its suburbs. There were markets, workshops, wine taverns, orchards and a horse stable. As petty-bourgeois as life in the Freihausviertel was, it was just as poor on the other side of the Vienna Valley in Mariahilf. Here, in the so-called "Ratzenstadel", bitter poverty prevailed in partially run-down houses. Emanuel Schikaneder's business partner acquired a plot of land on the Vienna River to build a successor theater to the Freihaustheater, which opened in 1801. On the occasion of the reopening of the restored Theater an der Wien, designer Martin Vogg tells the story of this neighborhood and this theater house.