Bärenmühle (Vienna)
Bärenmühle is the name of a residential building in Vienna - Wieden , which was planned by the architects Heinrich Schmid and Hermann Aichinger in 1937/38 and built in place of a historical building of the same name at Rechten Wienzeile 1–1A.
legend
A legend is associated with the name and the building, according to which a miller is said to have been attacked by a bear at this point. The miller's servant heard the man's cries for help and jumped out of the window without thinking to hurry to his master's aid. He landed on the back of the bear, with which he wrestled until people came over and killed the bear. This servant would have bought an inn next to the mill, called the Gasthaus zum Bärenhäuter , and since then the mill would have been called the Bärenmühle . This story is said to have taken place in the 17th century, a plaque on the current building relocates the event specifically to the year 1660.
history
In truth, the name of the current house goes back to a mill on the Wien River operated from 1705 to 1794 , which stood on the adjacent site of the current building, i.e. roughly at number 3 on the right Wienzeile. The widespread version, according to which the bear mill used to be called Heiliggeistmühle, is incorrect insofar as it only belonged to the farm buildings of the Knights of the Holy Spirit and the right to operate a mill was transferred from the Heiliggeistmühle to the bear mill. As a building, however, it is not identical to this one.
It has been historically proven that bears lost their way into the urban landscape up to that time . The old bear mill got its name not because of the events described in the legend, but because the Gasthaus Zum Schwarzen Bären existed next to the mill .
After the mill was moved to the property next to it in 1794, it existed at the new location until 1856. Then the Mühlbach was filled in. The poet Ignaz Franz Castelli, who died in 1862, lived in the mill .
In 1913 the city administration established a new zoning plan for the area of the Freihaus in this area . In the course of the demolition of the Freihaus, it was decided to create Bärenmühlgasse as an extension of the Resselgasse, which opens into Operngasse, as a connection to the right Wienzeile and the then new location of the Naschmarkt .
The demolition of the Freihaus did not take place until 1930 because of the First World War that began in 1914 and its subsequent problems; then new buildings could be erected. This is how today's wedge-shaped building between Rechter Wienzeile and Operngasse on the edge of Karlsplatz was created . However, the planned Bärenmühlgasse has now become the Bärenmühl passageway, a connecting route for pedestrians between Operngasse and Rechter Wienzeile, which leads through the ground floor of today's “Bärenmühle”.
A relief plaque on the house reminds of the former bear mill and depicts the legend of the bear attack.
literature
- Felix Czeike (Ed.): Bear mill. In: Historisches Lexikon Wien . Volume 1, Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-218-00543-4 , pp. 253-254 ( digitized version ).
Web links
- wien.at | Historic buildings in the 4th district - The Bear Mill
- say.at | The Bear Mill on the Vienna
Coordinates: 48 ° 11 '58 " N , 16 ° 21' 58" E