Academy of Fine Arts (Schmelz)

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Design by Otto Wagner for the new academy building from 1898

In 1898 Otto Wagner began planning a new Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna on the Schmelz parade ground in Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus .

1. Draft

The Academy of Fine Arts established by Theophil von Hansen could no longer fulfill its various tasks. A study handed over by Wagner on November 9, 1898, was commissioned by the academic professors.

The fact that Otto Wagner planned in a dimension that would ensure the smooth teaching activities of the academy in the metropolis of the Habsburg Empire for a long time met with great approval in specialist circles.

The highlight of the planned facility was a centrally located hall of honor, which was supposed to enable the emperor to make ceremonial appearances . Numerous pavilions in a green area were planned for teaching .

As part of the second exhibition of the Vienna Secession , which opened on November 12, 1898, the artistically elaborate plans and the models made by the carpenter Hollmann were presented to the public.

2. Draft

Otto Wagner presented a second draft for the Academy of Fine Arts on the Schmelz in June 1910. In August of the same year he presented another design, which he had already expanded to include the planned and much discussed Vienna City Museum.

At this point in time, the acquisition of the Schmelz parade ground by the municipality of Vienna had already begun and the construction of a monument park in place of the former Schmelzer cemetery had been decided.

Wagner already used a city map as a basis for the academy's current draft, so that the space requirement becomes clearer. In the north-south direction, the area extended between Hütteldorfer Straße and Gablenzgasse, in the west-east direction between Bein- and Kirchstettengasse and Schweglerstraße. The main front of the Academy of Fine Arts would have been directly behind today's Wiener Stadthalle .

The professors of the academy spoke out in favor of realizing one of the projects at hand and, despite a unanimous initiative in the Reichsrat , neither of the two projects was implemented.

literature

  • Description of the study on the new building of the KK Academy of Fine Artists , in: Some sketches, projects and completed buildings, Otto Wagner, III. Volume, 1st issue, Vienna, 1901, Verlag Anton Schroll
  • The Unbuilt Vienna, Projects for the Metropolis 1800–2000 Catalog Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien, Vienna 1999