Apollosaal (Vienna)

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The Apollo Hall (between 1839 and 1859)
Entrance hall of the great Apollo hall (between 1808 and 1812)
The Tanzhain around 1808

The Apollosaal was an entertainment establishment on Brilliantengrund in the former Viennese suburb of Schottenfeld , Zieglergasse 15 in what is now the 7th district of Vienna .

history

The doctor and mechanic Sigmund Wolfssohn (1767-1852), who founded a factory for surgical machines and bandages (mainly supplying the army) in 1795 , built an amusement facility in the area of ​​today's Apollogasse which, in the opinion of its well-traveled owner, earned Vienna's reputation as a cosmopolitan city and would only be open to the noble world : Sundays and Thursdays to the bourgeoisie, Tuesdays to the nobility. Opened on January 10, 1808, the entertainment complex consisted of three vestibules, five halls, 31 rooms, 13 “chambers” and chambers, three corridors, 13 kitchens, three cellars, two glass houses, etc. and could accommodate 6,000 guests. Each room was specially named and architecturally designed differently and decorated in a very romantic way. Mythological figures made of plaster, colossal paintings, angels with lighting fixtures, a waterfall, a grotto for lovers, avenues of spruce , chestnut and flowering fruit trees , flying eagles , formed the props. 70 waiters , divided into six classes and appropriately liveried, served in the dining rooms . Entry cost 5 guilders, and three orchestras with around 70 musicians each played in the rooms. The whole complex, the construction costs of which are quoted in the Augsburg newspapers as between 300,000 and 500,000 florins, was highly acclaimed, but already criticized after a short time:

“Mr. Wolfsohn's Apollo hall [sic] is constantly being heavily visited. If there aren't at least 5,000 people in it, it looks empty. The ballroom is in an extraordinarily long avenue of fir trees; from this one comes into an English garden with fragrant flowers, further into the so-called Allee Sufzerallee, which is illuminated with argantine lamps, etc. But just as nothing is without defects under the sun, so one also criticizes the Apollo Hall for the fact that here and there the lighting is too weak, and that because of the strong steam of the lights, the evaporation of the plants, and the very fresh building in this wonderful place of amusement one should not stay too long if one does not want to suffer a headache. "

The high point of business was the time around the Congress of Vienna (1814/15), after which things went downhill. Wolfssohn sold the Apollo Hall in 1819 and died impoverished, the owners changed. When cholera raged in Vienna in 1831 , an emergency hospital was set up in the numerous rooms. After the epidemic was gone , hardly any guest wanted to enter the reopened Apollo .

In 1839 the Apollo hall was sold to a soap boiler company, who ran the first Austrian soap boiler trade association “Apollo” there until the fire on January 27, 1876 .

In 1862 the Apollogasse in Vienna- Neubau (7th district) was named after the establishment.

A Singspiel with the title The Apollosaal was composed by Conradin Kreutzer in 1808 .

Web links

Commons : Apollosaal (Vienna)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Ludwig Moravius: We discover Vienna: Brillantengrund and Spittelberg . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna May 31, 1959, p. 9 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  2. ↑ Augspurgische Ordinari Postzeitung, Nro. 33, Monday, February 8th, Anno 1808, p. 1, as digitized version .
  3. ↑ Little Chronicle. (...) Fire at the Apollo candle factory. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Abendblatt, No. 4102/1876, January 27, 1876, p. 1, bottom right. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfpas well as
    the fire of the Apollo candle factory. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt, No. 4103/1876, January 28, 1876, p. 5 f. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp.

Coordinates: 48 ° 11 ′ 56 ″  N , 16 ° 20 ′ 40 ″  E