August 24, 2023: Awesome Austria: Vienna

 Subtitle: Art and a Most Unpopular Artist

“Vienna is a handsome, lively city, and pleases me exceedingly.” – Frederic Chopin

Ah, Vienna! So much see and do, and on a Viking cruise, so little time to see or do. Regrettably. But we will get a second chance when we strike out on our own after the cruise.

Vienna, the capital of Austria is bursting with music, architecture, history, and art. The city has played host to a huge number of famous faces over the centuries, from Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Franz Joseph to Johann Strauss and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sigmund Freud and a long list of composers,  actors, authors, social and hard scientists, Olympians, politicians and even a future Emperor of Mexico -- many of whom still influence the vibrant city today. The wikipedia list of "famous people from Vienna" is well over 100 people long. Admittedly, I never heard of the world renowned fencing champion, Otto Herschmann, but I generally try to give Wikipedia the benefit of the doubt. (Apologies to Mr. Herschmann's mama, if she's still out there, whom he no doubt did proud.)  

So when you enter the city of Vienna for one day, it immediately places you in a quandary. With so many amazing activities to choose from, we had a hard time knowing where to begin. For Paul and I, the solution is just start walking. You will either end up somewhere or nowhere, and either is okay.

A former Hapsburg palace, the Albertina Museum now houses both permanent and rotating collections of art. 

We ended up at the Albertina Museum which is currently hosting in addition to its permanent collection of art and recreation of Hapsburg era rooms,  works by Picasso and Monet. To balance the impressionist collection, they also are currently displaying expressionist art of Georg Baselitz, works of Ofer Lellouche and multimedia avante garde by Valie Export. We have heard of Baselitz but have never seen much of his work and Valie Export was entirely new to us. 

This is a portrait of Baselitz wife, Elke Kretzschmar whom he met in art school and often painted. 

He said, "I had never painted a portrait of my wife or any other woman until 1969. It was only when I began turning things upside down that I thought I could paint her, because it made everything more neutral. When you paint someone upside down, it's difficult to give them a conventional expression. The result is something unpredictable."  The exhibit is filled with many paintings upside down, but also right side up! Both Georg and his wife, Elke are still alive and living happily in Germany. We saw paintings that he made as late as 2021. We particularly liked his interpretation of upside down trees.

Upside down trees and to show you he was talented enough to paint "right side up" here is another example of Baselitz favorite topics---cowboy boots with spurs. 

Paul and I had never heard of Valie Export. She may have been a bit too "out there' and exhibitionistic for American museums to risk the letters to the board of directors, but she was very well-known in Vienna where she worked after art school in 1960. She worked in several media, including performance art. She was considered a proponent of Viennese Actionism which challenged the traditional interpretations of art. She is also considered a feminist artist and had numerous works that explored the female body. Some of them might not be considered PG rated :)  This particular work is a cardboard of her naked body with three televisions of a loop of barking German sheperds surrounding her. 

In one of her less nude exhibits (and she did work in so many different media), she has a series of illuminated light bulbs dipping themselves automatically in either water, milk or oil.  Of course, the bulbs themselves are naked...

This photo is a frame of a film in which she lead a willing fellow artist about town in Vienna on all fours with a leash. It was really amusing to look at the facial expressions of onlookers.  Ms Export is still alive and kicking and in her hometown of Linz, Austria. I didn't see any evidence that she is still active in performance art. 

Valie Export in one of her many photos about the body in which she conforms to the shapes of man-made objects such as sidewalks, curves in the road and concrete abutments.

I am sorry to say we did not have time to fully explore the works of Ofer Lellouche but wanted to include at least an example of the work that we were merely able to walk past. 

There is also an Albertina Modern Museum which we did not get a chance to go to on this "one day exploration" of Vienna. We left the museum because we had a tour scheduled  with a Viennese history professor that chronicalled the time Adolph Hitler spent in Vienna. But first, we have to prevent "hangry" so...

Paul Parris pleased by pizza. The waiter was less than enthusiastic or prompt and this wasn't the pizza we ordered, but it still tasted good. Hard to make bad pizza!

We were met near the Albertina by Siggy, a local history professor who took us on a tour of the tourist district of Vienna and told us about Adolph Hitler's time in Vienna. He was a native of a smaller village near Linz (stupid me. I thought he was a German) and came to Vienna in his late teens after doing poorly in school. He wanted to be an artist. He did in fact make the cut on his first try to advance to further rounds of selection for the Art Institute of Vienna. 

Examples of paintings by Adolph Hitler

During his intial stay in Vienna, his mother passed away and he went back to his hometown for a while and when he returned, his further work was deemed of "no artistic value" and he was not able to be accepted to the Art Institute. One wonders if things might have gone differently for the world and young Adolph had his talents been slightly better or his critics less exacting.  From here, he left Vienna due to World War I. He did not want to be in the Austrian army due to the ethnic diversity in Austria and decided to go to Germany and join the German forces. 

Adolph Hitler as a WWI German soldier. He wasn't drafted. He volunteered to fight. 

At the start of the First World War, Adolf Hitler volunteered for the German army with enthusiasm. He was assigned to the ground troops on the Western Front. As a courier, he conveyed messages from the leadership to the front. The work was dangerous, but much less so than that of the soldiers at the front. In December 1914, Hitler received the Iron Cross, second class, for his bravery. In a letter to his old landlord, he wrote: ‘It was the happiest day of my life.’ On 5 October 1916, he was wounded by shrapnel. Five months later, he was back on the Western Front. Half of Hitler's regiment was wounded or killed during attacks in April 1918, but he was not. Hitler received his second decoration, the Iron Cross, first class - possibly through the intercession of a Jewish officer.  When Germany lost the war in November 1918, Hitler was in a military hospital. His eyes had been hurt in a poison gas attack. The news of the German surrender plunged him into a deep crisis. Hitler's war experiences had a great influence on his life and thinking. In the aftermath of the war, he became radicalised and became a member of the Nazi party.  When Nazi attempted to seize power in Munich in 1924, Hitler was in the thick of it, charged and convicted with treason.

This is not Hitler at Oktoberfest. This is his prison days at Landsberg prison.

Further research has revealed that this was sort of like federal prison in the USA. Not fun, but hardly a work camp either. Hitler is seen by modern Viennese historians as having something of a holiday. 

It was noted that nearly 40 people were allowed to visit the prisoner to celebrate his 35th birthday on April 20, 1924. Between 300 and 400 additional cards indicate that various dignitaries called upon Hitler at Landsberg. Among them was World War I hero General Erich Ludendorff, who visited several times and spent lengthy periods with Hitler. According to the AP, Otto Leybold, the Landsberg warden, complimented the Nazi leader on his good behavior in a memorandum dated September 18,1924. Leybold wrote that Hitler was “sensible, modest, humble and polite to everyone—especially the officers of the facility.” He was released after spending only 9 months of his five year sentence at Landsberg. 

The Imperial Hotel, Vienna, still a luxury accomodation, was Hitler pied-a-terre in Vienna. Numerous visiting political dignitaries and entertainment stars have stayed here and have their pictures on the walls. Hitler is wisely omitted.

Hitler advanced quickly in the Nazi party after his release and held a leadership position in only two years. He was advanced by his colleagues predominantly because he was a powerful orator and commanded his audience.  Hitler returned to Vienna in 1938 after Anschluss---the annexation of Austria by Germany. (Sounds rather like a foreign dictator we are now all familiar with, doesn't it? :(  He stayed at the Imperial Hotel which we were able to walk past and gave a speech at the Heldenplatz balcony. All workers and schools were released to go hear the speech and the crowds below were impressive in number. 

Hitler addresses his new subjects at Heldenplatz in 1938 after annexing them to Germany. 

By annexing Austria, the Nazis violated the Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of Saint-Germain. These treaties expressly forbade the unification of Austria and Germany. The Anschluss demonstrated Nazi disdain for the post-World War I European order. It was the first act of territorial expansion committed by Nazi Germany. The other European powers did not punish the Nazis for violating international treaties allowing Adolf Hitler to continue his expansionary policies unchecked. 

The Anschluss transformed Austria. Almost overnight, the country of Austria ceased to exist. In the days, weeks, and months that followed, Austrian and German Nazis carried out the Nazification of all aspects of Austrian life to the best of their ability to do so.  Jews were placed in ghettos and/or deported to "work camps" such as Dachau and Mathusen (which is in Austria.) Our last visit for this tour was to the only synagogue that remained after WWII, Stadtempel. The building, unlike the Budapest synagogue, blends into the surrounding buildings and is still an active house of worship today. I asked if it was orthodox and the historian said, "Yes, but not very orthodox. They had a very orthodox rabbi once and he only lasted three months. "

The building on the right is the synagogue. 

Thus ended our tour of Hitler in Austria and how his experiences in Vienna shaped his future both as a young and older man. Some of this I already knew, but learned very much from our excellent guide, Siggy.

Afterwards, we hung out in the Jewish quarter and sought out local beers before returning to our boat. That was about as much Vienna as we could cover in 9 hours of skulking about. 

Ah yes. A house draft and a dunkel on a 90 degree Viennese day. Most welcome. There was also a gelato a bit before...

This is the craft brewery we stopped at. 

Then we were back to the Viking longship which sponsored a "Heuregin evening." This is a celebration of the new wines of a winery. We went to the Wolff Winery, which has an open air restaurant with grapes as a ceiling! The winery has been continuously operated by a single family since 1609. We were treated or in some cases subjected to musicians playing violin and accordion. Edelweiss and Austrian folk songs were really nice as was the wine: sparkling, reisling, gruner veitleiner, chardonnay, white and red blends and pinot noir. The renditions of Sweet Caroline and Yesterday...not what I was expecting, but okay! 

The Wolff restaurant, winery and vineyards are all within Vienna city limits. Note the ceiling is a grape arbor. 

Our merry musicians. They weren't too proud to Yogi for tips :)

That was about as much tourism as two 60+ Knoxvillians could take in a day, so we were back to the boat and further down the Danube around 11pm.

“And I'll dance with you in Vienna,
I'll be wearing a river's disguise.
The hyacinth wild on my shoulder
my mouth on the dew of your thighs.
And I'll bury my soul in a scrapbook,
with the photographs there and the moss.
And I'll yield to the flood of your beauty,
my cheap violin and my cross.”

― Leonard Cohen, Stranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs

Paul's Ponderings:  First trip to Vienna for me, so everything was new.   We barely scratched the surface of course.    One thing is it is EXTREMELY WARM here right now.....and we are used to that back home, but we're usually not walking about at 2 pm under a blazing sun.   That aside, being a fairly big WWII buff, the history tour was pretty interesting.    We did not have as much time at the art museum as we would have liked, but we did a long walk from our ship into town to get there, taking about an hour to do so.    We'll be back in a few days on our own, so should have some more time to see and do more.   Austria as a whole is quite beautiful and the city is a real jewel.    Next up, we head to Krems for the day.