Dr. Andreas Nierhaus – Curator for Architecture
Wien Museum
Karlsplatz
A-1040 Wien
phone +43 1 5058747
mail. andreas.nierhaus@wienmuseum.at
Around 1900, Vienna was a vibrant city, stimulating intellectual life, a dynamic capital of elites who did innovative work in many fields. Otto Wagner observed in 1905 that “despite unfavourable conditions, Vienna walks at the head of the cultural nations”. In a similar vein, international critics noted that Vienna was almost unrivalled in the sheer wealth of modern architecture that existed at that time.
Gustav Klimt and his members left the traditionalist brotherhood of artists in 1897 and founded their association (“Secession”). Josef Maria Olbrich built them a house which was a Gesamtkunstwerk in its own right. Otto Wagner influenced Viennese architecture, achieving a breakthrough for the new style with his Wienzeile houses and building Art Nouveau stations for the new underground railway. Reviews, including those of Hermann Bahr, soon came to the fore, attracted by the rapid success of the new style. This new movement, which had been joined by Otto Wagner and Josef Hoffmann and included Max Fabiani among its ranks, reduced the décor and preached the parsimonious use of geometric and disciplined ornaments while maintaining the claim for the creation of a Gesamtkunstwerk.
The main Vienna building of this period was Otto Wagner’s Postal and Savings Bank. But Adolf Loos was the most persevering in advancing towards Modernism: he rejected all ornaments and even turned against the concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk. Nevertheless, Modernism remained of minor importance in Viennese architecture in the following decades. A new style recognised as Heimatstil predominated, which took root during the Biedermeier period. Leopold Bauer, who succeeded Otto Wagner at the Academy of Fine Arts, was a major representative of this movement, which consciously returned to the past.
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