Zentralbad (Vienna)

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Kaiserbründl sauna in the central pool
Predecessor building Alter Ramhof in Weihburggasse (top left behind the tower of the Franciscan Church )
Weihburggasse 18-20

The Wiener Zentralbad (formerly also Centralbad or Central-Bad ), located in a late-historic apartment building at Weihburggasse 18-20, was an exclusive bathing establishment in the center of Vienna from its opening in 1889 until the 1970s . However, the central pool never had the function of a swimming pool or even a sports pool, but was conceived from the start as a kind of wellness institution that was always looked after by qualified doctors. The Kaiserbründl men's sauna has been housed in a part of the pool area since the 1980s .

prehistory

The Zentralbad is one of the oldest and most distinguished bathing establishments in Vienna that still exists today. It is located between St. Stephen's Cathedral and the city ​​park , in close proximity to the original city ​​fortifications , the Weihenburg (which is now called Weihburggasse ) and the Palais Coburg . The house well, which is still on the area today, is said to have been used for the bridgehead castellas already in Roman times. It is very productive and used to meet the demand for water with a daily output of around 200,000 liters of fresh water.

The Alte Ramhof (a center of the textile industry) has been on this property since the Middle Ages (first documented mention in 1369) and until it was demolished around 1880 . The bath can be seen as the successor to a number of nearby baths from the Middle Ages and early modern times. The following baths were in the vicinity of Franziskanerplatz :

Epidemics such as the plague and syphilis led to a decline in Viennese bathing culture in the 15th and 16th centuries . Since bathing opportunities for Viennese citizens mainly existed in front of the city gates in modern times (in Leopoldstadt in Dianabad and on Landstrasse in Sofienbad ), it was also important to rebuild a bathing establishment in the inner city.

Building and interior design

Adolf Endl (1847–1887), who had taken over the management of the construction company Honus & Lang around 1885, decided to build a representative bathroom in the residential and commercial building at Weihburggasse 18–20. Cartouche "Built by Endl & Honus". This building project became one of his most important, which he designed in the style of late historicism customary at the time. Here he planned a spacious bathing establishment in the mezzanine , on the ground floor and in the basement, the later Centralbad (initially announced as the Vienna General Bath ). Since Endl died in 1887 (in the same year in which he acquired the property and drafted the first plans), the project was continued by his partners (again Honus & Lang), whereby the neighbors objected, especially the friars of the Franciscan monastery - there were significant delays in completion. Albert Constantin Swoboda (1853–1941) was entrusted with the further interior design planning . After studying at the Technical University and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Swoboda had gained experience in the oriental-moorish style in Odessa and in the Russian Empire. He was subsequently responsible for the detailed planning (especially the interior design) of the Viennese baths. The electrical equipment was carried out by Siemens & Halske . The opening for May 26th, 1889 was announced in a large advertisement in the New Free Press . However, only a part of the architectural designs for the oriental furnishings that are still preserved today come from Swoboda.

A floor plan and elevation of the original bathroom from 1889 is printed in the article by Anton Honus:

Plans as a supplement to Anton Honus' essay: Das Wiener Zentralbad
Milton ceramics (below)

The former ladies' steam bath - which was only set up in 1894 by the Czada brothers in the previous boiler room and whose furnishings, like the Turkish bath of Albrechtsberg Palace in Dresden (1855), was designed in the Moorish style based on the lion court of the Alhambra in Granada - shows still today a small water basin. The walls of the bath are still adorned with ceramics from the Milton company from Stoke-on-Trent .

The uses envisaged in the bath included steam , sulfur and mud baths ; there were also frigidariums and calariums (heat radiation from the floor and ovens of approx. 45–60 ° C).

Mentions and judgments about the bathroom in literature and in the headlines of the press

Central Bad advertisement around 1900
Cold basin in the basement (1889)

Simon Baruch , the famous pioneer in the field of hydrotherapy and founder of the public bathing industry in New York , described the bathing institution advised by the medical capacities Josef Hertzka (bath doctor in Bad Ischl ) and Wilhelm Sperber as “the most substantial, elegant and complete bath in the world ”. Around 1900 it was part of the upper class to visit the Vienna Centralbad, and it is also recommended in travel guides. A few weeks after the opening of the baths, Nāser ad-Din , Shah of Persia, visited it on the last day of his stay in Vienna, August 25, 1889, about which the Neue Freie Presse reported every detail. Another prominent regular guest of the establishment was - according to information from Princess Nora Fugger - around 1900 and up to a scandal in 1904, for example, the younger brother of the Emperor Archduke Ludwig Viktor and, in the 1920s, Eduard, Prince of Wales (later Duke of Windsor).

Entrance to the women's department
Pool in the ladies' steam bath (1894)
Zeus kidnaps Ganymede

The popularity in high circles is also evident from literary accounts in which visits to the bath are mentioned. Well-known artists were hired for poster advertising, including Hermann Grom-Rottmayer , who in 1904 initially presented a draft that was censored. In a revised version it was used after all. The suicide of the "General Secretary-Deputy" of the Northern Railway, Friedrich Kunewalder, who "evacuated himself with a revolver" in the "Centralbad" on February 17, 1896, caused a stir. The reputation of the bath remained clearly positive in the first 20 years of its existence: "In fact, we have succeeded in creating a top-class hygienic model facility with the Zentralbad," wrote the newspaper Der Tourismus in 1911 . A little later, however, when the bath belonged to Moscode Majo, a regular guest complained about the outrageous exploitation of the bathing staff, who, despite having been employed under "slave" conditions for decades, had no social security. During the First World War, the daughter of a court councilor tried to take her own life in 1916 after she was involved in "wild orgies" by "den Lolo" (a lesbian): "The girl was seduced by Mrs. Puttkammer and a group of lesbian women in the Zentralbad and then threatened to obey them. " In 1922, when the bathroom - which employed 50 pool attendants and belonged to an English company (under the responsibility of the lawyer Oskar Brecher) - was reported that the establishment was "threatened with closure", as it had a deficit of 2 million. The employees' works council was able to save the bathroom, but it was still threatened with being converted into a "pleasure bar". 36 years has been the life annuities corns -Operateur the Emperor Franz Fabrizi, in Zentralbad active. In 1926 "corpulent people" in the Zentralbad "were given the opportunity" to practice degreasing cures under medical supervision "through their unique American method, and the baths had also been" thoroughly renovated "under the heading" All Negroes are allowed to bathe in Vienna " even shortly before the corporate state and the Nazi era, the openness of the institution was highlighted:

“In the central bath, the director informed us that this bath was visited very often by members of the colored race. This can be explained by the fact that the Ronacher Varieté is in the immediate vicinity, where colored artists often perform. He explained that, in accordance with the bathing regulations, only those bathers who were afflicted with nauseating skin diseases or ailments that might arouse the disgust of the other bathers can be excluded from visiting the bath. There is therefore no way of excluding a Negro or other member of the colored race. If you don't like it, you can leave the bathroom. "

The Austrian writer Karl Kraus mentions the Centralbad several times in spicy contexts. His brief allusions clearly show the importance and appreciation of the bathroom in public perception around 1900: In the torch of November 8, 1905 (7th year, no. 187), Kraus expresses himself under the title Die Kinderfreunde about a process against Theodor Beer in passing about the special comfort of the (usually) warm showers in the Centralbad. In his "Selected Writings" on morality and crime (1908), Karl Kraus comments on the "request for the repeal of Section 129b, which the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee in Berlin addressed to the Austrian Minister of Justice on the occasion of the reform of the criminal law". So he is responding to Magnus Hirschfeld's initiative to repeal the paragraph against homosexuality in criminal law in Austria as well. And finally, in his monumental drama The Last Days of Mankind (1915/1922) , Kraus had a “subscriber” of the press and a “patriot” ponder whether the residents of 10 Downing Street or Schönbrunn Palace regularly bathed. The patriot believes he knows that there is no bathroom built in either here or there, and also doubts (rightly) that this is why “the emperor [...] goes to the central bath”.

Renovation and adaptations as a café and sauna in the 1970s

Pool in the ladies' steam bath (2009)
Moorish style detail (2009)

After the Second World War, the pool was partially used as a club sauna until the 1970s, with separate women's and men's sections. Then Johann Merkader, Peter Jansky and Gottfried Gindl took over the bathroom as tenants and renovated it, partly with funds from the City of Vienna, in accordance with historical aspects (supervision of the work: architect Josef Freisling). Jansky ran a café on the ground floor between 1978 and 1981. a. was visited by Friederike Mayröcker , but then moved with this institution to his opera café Hartauer . The bathing operation for women has been discontinued since the reopening, but initially only the parts of the former ladies' steam bath remained open to the male guests. On the occasion of the rededication of the establishment since the beginning of the 1980s - when the bath was continued under the name Kaiserbründl as a men's sauna - a number of historically remarkable or even quite spectacular occurrences in Viennese baths were incorporated into the institutional history of the Zentralbad. The borrowing of the name "Kaiserbründl" from the source of the Wien River (Kaiserbrünndl) , which was visited by Empress Sisi on April 23, 1882, was used to prove that this bathing establishment was connected to the actual origins of Vienna should.

A group of activists, called Societas Conspiranti Heliogabali , alludes to the “Dombauhütte” of St. Stephen's Cathedral in relation to their plans and activities, on the one hand, and the expansion of the baths on the other . This society aims - according to its own information on the homepage - to transform the "Kaiserbründl" into the underground sun temple of the Syrian Hemesa , "in order to complete the Divinatio Heliogabali after an interruption of 1777 years". One invokes a special form of the youth cult on the late Roman youth emperor Heliogabalus . During his short reign, which he celebrated between the ages of 14 and 18, he worshiped the ancient god Elagabal in lavish parties and orgies . This cult became the state religion in Rome at the time and indulged in various sexual vices such as homosexuality , transsexuality , ritual (sacred) prostitution , androgyny and even castration in the eyes of Roman traditionalists .

Historic cabin

Current position as Kaiserbründl

Since the renovation in the 1990s, the rooms of the bathroom have had revealing wall and ceiling paintings by the artist and set designer Stefan Riedl . Some of them are inspired by famous paintings or well-known myths (such as Zeus and Ganymede ), such as the “Roman Grotto” (with Lararium and Nymphaeum ) designed by him. The ceiling of the hall of the former Cold Basin in the Herrenbad , which has now been transformed into a temple and which has only been accessible again since 1999, shows features of Art Nouveau . The water basin that was used there until the 1970s is still there, but has been covered.

The establishment is only accessible to women on rare occasions, for club events or presentations. However, it served as the setting for a number of film shoots, including Comedian Harmonists , Tatort, and an episode of Commissioner Rex . Well-known actors such as Klaus-Maria Brandauer or Hollywood star Mickey Rourke ( 9½ weeks in Paris , 1997) shot here, and George Michael was a guest.

The institution also received national media reports from the missing person of the American UNIDO employee Aeryn Gillern , who is said to have been in Zentralbad-Kaiserbründl immediately before his disappearance on October 29, 2007. As once by the "Wachler" (Austrian) Gillern, there are still infusions with natural essential oils in the Finnish sauna , which are performed by ambitious visitors and musical performers.

On June 10, 2017 ( Life Ball ), a whole series of newly adapted rooms were opened next to the temple . Since 2018 there have been regular parties in Adam's costume or in soap foam.

The establishment's current audience includes members of all walks of life (and of various ages between 18 and around 80 years of age), including artists, the nobility, clergy and diplomats from all over the world.

See also

literature

  • The modern apartment building architecture. In:  Wiener Bauindustrie-Zeitung / Österreichische Bauzeitung , year 1888, p. 48 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wbz
  • A new bathing establishment in Vienna. In:  Wiener Bauindustrie-Zeitung / Österreichische Bauzeitung , year 1888, p. 69 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wbz
  • Anonymous: Wiener Central-Bad, I. Bez., Weihburggasse 18 u. 20 . In: Der Bautechniker 9 (1889), p. 379ff.
  • Anton Honus: The Vienna Central Bath . In: Weekly of the Austrian engineer u. Architects' Association 1890, No. 1, pp. 1–3.
  • Anonymous: Wiener Zentralbad . In: Health engineer: Journal for the entire urban hygiene , Volume 13, No. 11, R. Oldenbourg, 1890, p. 371.
  • Victor Höfert:  The new facilities in the “Wiener Centralbad”. In:  Wiener Bauindustrie-Zeitung / Österreichische Bauzeitung , year 1894, p. 613 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wbz
  • Architectural details of modern Vienna residential and commercial buildings, villas, etc. Vienna 1896, p. 22.
  • Paul Kortz: Vienna at the beginning of the XX. Century. Vienna 1905–1906, Vol. 2, p. 279.
  • Gunther Martin: The steam bath from 1001 nights . In: Wien Aktuell 6, 1976, pp. 27ff. (Here also color images of today's “temple” with water basin and the neo-baroque original men's dressing room.)

Web links

Commons : Zentralbad Wien  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. This is the name of the establishment on its own homepage and on the Facebook profile.
  2. “When the Centralbad was built in Weihburggasse, the original plan was to use spring water for the baths; In the end, however, it was decided to dig a well. ”Cf. The water supply of Vienna, according to the official protocol of the KK Society of Physicians in Vienna: meetings of April 1st, 8th, 29th and May 6th, 1892 . Hölder, 1892, p. 76.
  3. In a novel by Adolf Bäuerle the building and its condition around 1855 are mentioned as follows: Frau Anna says there: "Come on, Hanns; we want to go to my son's old" Ramhof "." She went there with her companion. Ladislaus Kukielwski lived here like a prince. As ugly and hideous as the old Ramhof looks now and may induce its owners to have a new and stately house built on this spacious place soon - for example a passage à Bazar after Himmelpfortgasse - this building was not one of those sixty years ago worst of Vienna and an elegant tenant could live in it. So were z. B. the rooms on the first floor after Weihburggasse are not so bad at all; they were tastefully decorated and looked very good. In: Adolf Bäuerle : The Lady with the Death's Head in Vienna , Roman, Volume 1, Hartleben, 1855, p. 21.
  4. Until the 18th century it was located a good 100 m away (to the right of the Palais des Prinzen Eugen ) on the side of the street not facing Weihburggasse, i.e., despite its name, not on the actual area of ​​the Bürgerspital .
  5. The last bathing room in this area that was accessible in the Middle Ages was located at Wollzeile 11, at the corner of Essiggasse 1 (today the Morawa bookstore is there ). The so-called “first Viennese steam bath” was located in Wollzeile no. 24 from 1818–1898. Cf. Felix Czeike : Historisches Lexikon Wien , 2004, vol. 5, p. 676.
  6. A list of the most important baths of the Middle Ages and the early modern period in Vienna can be found in Leopold Senfelder in the article Public Health Care and Medicine. In: Anton Mayer (Ed.): History of the City of Vienna, From the exit of the Middle Ages to the accession of Empress Maria Theresa . Vienna 1918, pp. 242–249.
  7. The Viennese bath houses were temporarily closed in 1521, 1554, 1562 and 1691 due to the risk of epidemics.
  8. Josef Honus (* around 1850, † 1913) was a city architect; Endl's stepson Anton Lang (1860–1940) was the father of the famous film director Fritz Lang ( M - A city seeks a murderer ).
  9. ↑ The fact that the Persian ambassador Sam Ir Cha Kek suggested a new building in the mid-1880s and given it to his son-in-law is one of the legends that have grown up around the establishment for decades.
  10. Anton Honus reported in a lecture on December 7, 1889 that the original plan was to commission the Fellner & Helmer team of architects to convert the previous medieval building (Alter Ramhof) and that the idea arose here, due to the "extremely favorable water conditions" to set up a bathing establishment, especially since there was none in the center of Vienna at the end of the 19th century. A. Honus: The Vienna Central Bath . In: Weekly of the Austrian engineer u. Architects' Association 1890, No. 1, p. 1.
  11. Wiener Bauindustrie-Zeitung 1888, p. 69.
  12. The most elegant bathroom in Vienna. The Vienna Central-Bad, Stadt, Weihburggasse No. 20, will be open on Sunday 26th of December. M. opened .. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt, May 25, 1889, p. 14 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp
  13. As a specialist in bathing facilities, Swoboda then set up other facilities of this type and a. in (now Slovenian) Marburg and in Pressburg . However, all of these facilities - with the exception of the Wiener Bad - have been demolished over time.
  14. Ladies steam bath (1894).
  15. The designs came from Franz Czada (1872–1903) . His older brother , who is the builder Edmund Czada (1861–1920), also the father of Maria Ley-Piscator , carried out the plans structurally.
  16. Report of May 17, 1894 in the Wiener Bauindustrie-Zeitung , No. 33, vol. 11, 1894 [1] From June 14, 1894, the bath advertised the opening of the new women's department daily [2] in the new free press .
  17. Ladies steam bath (2012).
  18. Cf. F. Czeike: Historisches Lexikon Wien, 2004, Vol. 5, p. 696.
  19. birthplace of the Titanic -Kapitäns Edward Smith and Robbie Williams
  20. Patricia Spain Ward: Simon Baruch: rebel in the ranks of medicine, 1840-1921. University of Alabama Press, 1994, p. 168.
  21. Here it is said that the bath is “splendidly furnished in the style of the Roman bath [1912, p. 43: 'very elegant'], electrically lit in all rooms, offers the greatest luxury and contains steam, tub and therapeutic baths for women and men. Bathing time from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., on public holidays the ticket office closes at 2 p.m., closed on Sundays. ” Vienna and the surrounding area. Griebens travel guide , 68 (1907, p. 27). About the Roman bath it says there “undisputedly one of the most beautiful baths” and is “elegant, comfortable and cheap”. In 1941, however, there is no longer any mention of the Zentralbad. Between 1937 and 1940, the tenants of the pool and the inn located in it also changed: First it was a GmbH, Martha Hernried and Auguste Jurak ( Jb. Wiener Gastwirte , 1937, p. 31), then Maria Steininger (1940, P. 24).
  22. "The visit to the parliament building, the town hall and the university was omitted because the Shah visited the Centralbad to take a steam bath there." First of all, the chamberlain and the Shah's "little favorite", Aziz Sultan, and other Persians went to the bath on a trial basis. Finally the "King of Kings" himself came: "After spending an hour in the bath [...] he came back into the foyer, where he said to the bath doctors and the builders of the house: Très-agréable! Ces bains sont bons . Er took a short tour of the building and said very appreciative of the bathroom furnishings. " NFP , Aug. 26, 1889, p. 3
  23. “But now the incident, which is mentioned again and again and is often completely wrongly described, occurred in the Zentralbad in Weihburggasse, an institution that has remained a meeting place for homosexuals to this day, but was not only visited by people of the same sex at that time. There are many variations of what happens. In a nutshell, the situation could be described as follows: Ludwig Victor tried to establish closer contact with an attractive young man and received a slap in the face. The scandal could no longer be covered up and quickly became widely known. Allegedly, Ludwig Victor, who, as we know, did not make a major state secret out of his disposition, is said to have driven 'his court carriage plus lackeys' several times a week to the Zentralbad. [...] Homoerotic excursions as a state act, so to speak. It would be to be expected of him. Perhaps he also had some of his famous watches with him as gifts of love for his nice young 'friends'. ” Helmut Neuhold : The other Habsburg: Homoeroticism in the Austrian imperial family. Tectum, Marburg 2008, p. 158 or dating of the scandal with 1904 p. 164.
  24. Richard von Schaukal's protagonist Heinrich Dietmann (synonym for Schaukal himself in his novel Intérieurs from the life of a twenty year old, Leipzig 1901, pp. 94f.), Visits the Centralbad out of boredom.
  25. Hermann Grom-Rottmayer: Centralbad poster (lithographic design 1904)
  26. ^ Hermann Grom-Rottmayer: Centralbad poster (censored version 1912)
  27. ^ Neue Freie Presse , February 18, 1896, p. 7.
  28. Tourism , May 28, 1911, No. 22.
  29. Arbeiter-Zeitung , October 3, 1913, p. 5.
  30. Illustrierte Kronenzeitung , April 2, 1924, p. 4.
  31. Illustrierte Kronenzeitung , March 11, 1922, p. 4.
  32. Illustrierte Kronenzeitung , August 6, 1925, p. 7.
  33. Wiener Sonn- und Mondags-Zeitung , March 29, 1926, p. 10, or ibid., September 6, p. 14.
  34. Österreichisches Abendblatt , August 9, 1933, p. 4.
  35. ^ Karl Kraus: The friends of children
  36. The Centralbad is affected only in a very specific marginal remark, namely when it comes to masturbation : “As an exception, a boy has learned from a professor what he would otherwise have infallibly learned from a classmate. The act of the adult may be deplorable. But it is really bad enough for official Austria, the land of the Konvikte , to be indignant about the fact that young people are being thrown off the track of normal sexual development. In the nurseries of bureaucratic and aristocratic spirit, the age limit is of course strictly respected, and there it is certainly rare enough for a boy under fourteen to abuse an older one. But isn't all of Austrian statecraft a product of mutual masturbation? In this realm of the wildest Theresian instincts, official morality should not be so snobbish! Your embarrassment would look like a cold shower in the Centralbad. "
  37. “Strange enthusiasts! Who do not know that in Austria it is not humanity that makes sexual laws, but morality, not life experience, but unspoiltness, not progress, but cowardice, not fantasy but the normal sexuality of a university professor and a senior public prosecutor. Who do not know that the fear of being mistaken for a thief will let the legislature dare to permit theft rather than the fear of being mistaken for a pederast, the abolition of the homosexual penal code. Truly, I tell you, there will still be a lot of water flowing into the basin of the Central Baths before the realization breaks out that no citizen can be held responsible for the direction of his or her nervous desires! ”( Request to repeal § 129b ).
  38. Karl Kraus: The last days of mankind . Chapter 5, scene 37 ( projekt-gutenberg.org ).
  39. ^ Gunther Martin, in: Wien Aktuell , No. 6 (June 1976), pp. 27-29.
  40. According to this, in the 1870s, a long time before the current building was erected on this site, crowned heads, namely Emperor Franz Joseph (August 12, 1873), Dom Pedro II of Brazil (March 13, 1877 ) and the Persian Shah Naser al-Din (July 13, 1878). In the bathroom, representative portraits of all these emperors suggest the authenticity of their visits. In the relevant years, however, only visits to the Roman Baths, which opened in 1873 and located near the Praterstern, are documented for these personalities . Cf. F. Czeike: Historisches Lexikon Wien , 2004, Vol. 4, p. 690.
  41. Cf. F. Czeike: Historisches Lexikon Wien , 2004, Vol. 3, p. 420.
  42. Stefan Riedl's paintings, which he created until 2011 (and portrayed himself there several times), have been illustrated and described many times, for example as the magazine cover “Glück im Unglück” (2000) ( Memento from December 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) and in Internet blogs by Falter columnist Comandantina Dusilova ( “Narrative excursion into a picture of my old friend Stefan Riedl” ) and Andrea Maria Dusl ( “Between stone and stumbling block ).
  43. Page no longer available , search in web archives: Fig. 1 and page no longer available , search in web archives: Fig. 2@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.kaiserbruendl.at@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.kaiserbruendl.at
  44. Images of the “Roman Grotto” can be found under the keyword “Wall paintings” on Riedl's homepage. They are located near the bar in the basement, but are not accessible to bathers until further notice.
  45. The richly decorated front of the temple (Herrenbad) is not historical, but was designed by Johann Schefer ("fliesenundsteine").
  46. There are a number of reports on this in the press ( e.g .: The day on which Aeryn disappeared ( memento of December 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), The police, no friend and helper ( memento of July 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) 2012 in the web archive archive.today )), a parliamentary request from the Greens ( missing person case Aeryn Gillern ), a detailed private documentary about the missing person as well as a documentary film under the title Gone (2011) . The film was also shown at the Viennale on October 23, 2011 ( Viennale diary ).
  47. Documented in Vienna - City of Love (2016)

Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 20.8 ″  N , 16 ° 22 ′ 28.5 ″  E