Praterstern

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View of the Praterstern from the west with the Tegetthoff monument and the pergola , which is to be removed in 2020

The Praterstern is a square in the Austrian capital Vienna , which today has the shape of a roundabout . It is located in Vienna's 2nd district , Leopoldstadt , and is formed by the convergence of seven streets. Next to the Vienna Praterstern train station , a monument to the Austrian Admiral Tegetthoff dominates the square. In front of the Favoriten distribution circle, the Praterstern is the largest roundabout in Vienna.

history

Until 1945

Praterstern with Tegetthoff monument and the old north station in the background seen from the southwest (around 1900)

In the late 18th century there was already a square where seven avenues led to; the urban development, advancing from the Danube Canal to the northeast, ended here until the 19th century because floodplains bordered the unregulated Danube ; not only the Prater , but also the meadows where the Nordbahn and Stuwerviertel districts are today . The place was not officially z. B. already mentioned in 1838 Praterstern.

After the construction of the first north train station in 1838, the very first train station in Vienna, the neighboring crossing gradually developed into a traffic junction, as the northern railway, which connected the city with Moravia , Austrian Silesia and Galicia , soon became the most important rail link of the City and the whole monarchy proved. In 1859 the viaduct of the connecting railway was led around the square in the form of a segment of a circle; The Wien Praterstern stop , which existed until 1945, was built between Exhibition Street and Hauptallee in the 1880s . In 1865, the reception building of the north station, which was in use until 1945, was opened.

In 1868 the first horse-drawn tram line of the 2nd district was opened over the Praterstern ( Schottentor - Ringstrasse - Praterstrasse -Praterstern – Schwimmschulallee, today Lassallestrasse ). After the Danube regulation in 1870–1875, the area “out of town” of the Praterstern could be built with the road network that exists today.

For the 1873 World's Fair, the luxurious Roman Bath was opened 200 meters northwest of the Praterstern ; - it was closed in 1953.

In 1879 the square was officially named Praterstern. The first electrically operated tram line in Vienna , the later (and now) line 5, has been connecting the Praterstern with the Westbahnhof since 1897 . As its loop was close to the Prater, it was marked with the destination “Volksprater” for a long time.

In 1897, within sight of the Praterstern, the Vienna Giant Ferris Wheel was opened, one of the city's landmarks to this day.

The seven streets, the confluence of which forms the Praterstern, have had different names over the centuries. Today they bear the names

If the Tegetthoff monument, a Columna rostrata , unveiled in 1886 , originally stood exactly in the middle of the square, it has been on its western edge, at the latest since 1955, due to the expansion of the Praterstern, without having been moved.

The roundabout was driven around the monument; Tram tracks also ran almost completely around the monument on two tracks. In the autumn of 1938, the car was switched to right-hand traffic.

Since 1945

In 1945 the North Station was badly damaged by bombing and artillery duels; the historic reception building remained in ruins until the mid-1960s; the northern railway bridge over the Danube was not open again until 1959. In 1954/1955 the roundabout was greatly enlarged, the original star shape of the square has not been recognizable since then. The railway viaduct was relocated to the new center of the traffic area and the new Vienna Praterstern station with five tracks was built by 1959. The Praterstern (previously the Nordbahnhof) was (with the exception of the period 1945–1959) for decades the junction of intensive regional traffic with steam operation ( Nordbahn , 1924–1943 and from 1959 also Nordwestbahn ). Since 1962, the main rapid transit line (Floridsdorf – Meidling, electrical operation) has run over the Praterstern.

During the renovation in 1954/1955, pedestrian tunnels were built in order to reduce the number of pedestrian and car crossings. In the eighties, above-ground pedestrian crossings were created again. In 1981 the Praterstern underground station was opened as the northern terminus of the U1 line; In 1982 the U1 was extended to Kagran (since 2006 it has led to Leopoldau ). Until then, the square had been served by numerous tram lines (before 1960: A, Ak, B, Bk, C, 25R, 25K; terminus of E2, G2, 5 and 25). In the nineties, the traffic facilities on the square deteriorated considerably; it became a meeting place for people with a lot of free time and an alternative lifestyle. While the renewed renovation of the Praterstern and the new construction of the train station were being planned and carried out, the U2 underground line was being extended from Schottenring to the stadium; Since 2008 it has crossed the U1 underground on the Praterstern and has a station here.

Buildings with house numbers of the Praterstern only exist between Heinestraße, Nordbahnstraße and the train station, as in the other converging streets the houses appear under the street names up to the confluence (e.g. Heinestraße 42 is corner house to Praterstraße) or there are green spaces at the roundabout:

  • Praterstern 1 / Heinestraße 41–43: “Hochhaus am Praterstern”, built 1953–1955 by the Association of Viennese Workers' Homes and a housing cooperative, 14-storey corner elevation; with Volkshochschule Leopoldstadt and “Festsaal am Praterstern”, a multi-purpose hall
  • Praterstern 2: historic corner house facing Nordbahnstraße
  • Praterstern 3: Headquarters of ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG
Praterstern 1773 (map by Joseph Anton Nagel ; 10 a.m. corresponds to north)
Praterstern approx. 1830 (map by Carl Graf Vasquez )

Representation on city maps

  • 1773: The Praterstern can be seen, the semicircle in the eastern half seems to have no function.
  • Approx. 1830: Two thirds of the intersection is surrounded by a circular green area and otherwise unobstructed.
  • 1856: Although not yet officially named, the square is visible as the Praterstern. Opposite the north station is the kk forester's house, instead of the Stuwerviertel there is a meadow landscape with the fireworks area.
  • Shortly before 1900: The Nordbahnviertel already exists, the Stuwerviertel not yet.
  • 1912: The Stuwerviertel is now also built. On today's park area Venediger Au , part of the Volksprater with the Circus Busch has spread. The western part of the Praterstern is surrounded by blocks of houses, the eastern part by green spaces, on the outside of which the viaduct of the connecting railway runs.
  • Red Vienna : as before. There are tram loops between Heinestrasse and Nordbahnstrasse and between Hauptallee and Franzensbrückenstrasse. Altitude of the monument: 161 m.
  • 1936: Lassallestrasse is now called Reichsbrückenstrasse.
  • Approx. 1954: The Nordbahnhof appears like other train stations. (In fact, the station building had been out of service since 1945.) There are no longer any Prater businesses in the Venediger Au (they were not rebuilt here after the war damage).
  • 1959: In addition to the tram, the Praterstern can be reached by bus line 4 (Westbahnhof – Stephansplatz – Praterstern) and night bus line A (Keplerplatz – Stephansplatz – Praterstern). The north station appears as "former" (former).
  • 1972: The north station building has meanwhile been torn down. The large station area appears to be the Praterstern freight station.
  • 1976: The underground line U1, which is under construction, can already be seen. This line was to have its northern terminus on the Praterstern for a long time. The collapse of the Reichsbrücke in the same year greatly accelerated the construction of the extension to Kagran .

present

Functions of the place

Today, the Praterstern is one of the city's most important transport hubs with the following functions:

Conversion or redesign

The Viennese city planning and the Austrian Federal Railways have been concerned with the redesign and renovation of the Praterstern since about 1995. 50 years after the last renovation, which was completed in 1955, the square was again a major construction site. The aim of the measures was to increase the comfort for users of public transport through a clearer arrangement of the stops and improvement of the transfer routes, to carry out long-postponed renovation work on the transport structure and to significantly improve the overall architectural appearance of the square.

  • The renovation or new construction of the Vienna Praterstern train station (previously Wien Nord) was designed by Albert Wimmer in 2004–2008 on behalf of ÖBB . Apart from the use of the load-bearing structure of the viaduct, the station was completely rebuilt and now for the first time includes a glass-roofed hall at platform level (previously only the individual platforms were covered) with two central platforms and four tracks. The platform lengths are also suitable for long-distance trains.
  • Boris Podrecca , who designed several prominent squares in European cities, presented his design for the planning of the western part of the square closer to the center in 2002 together with B. Edelmüller and Werner Sobek. This design was largely implemented in 2009: The tram and bus stops on the station forecourt are protected by a 3,000 m² glass roof, which underlines the expanse of the square and visually refers to the Tegetthoff monument. In the semicircle around the monument, a large pergola (it is to be removed in 2020 because its appearance provoked criticism) takes up the original shape of the square. In 2010 a fountain with water features should be completed. The pole construction is to be dismantled from the end of August to mid-September 2020.
  • The part of the square away from the center between the train station, Lassallestrasse, Venediger Au and Prater is being rebuilt according to a design by Gerhard Mossburger and is currently still in progress. The pedestrian streams in the direction of the Prater and Hauptallee, which cross the multi-lane roundabout, have to be mastered here. In addition, the delivery traffic to the train station and the business premises below runs on this side of the square.

Around 2010 the Praterstern was often associated with violence and drugs. City administration and police have taken appropriate security measures. Among other things, there has been a general alcohol ban on the Praterstern and in the Venediger Au park since April 27, 2018; Only gastronomic establishments are excluded from the ban. In addition, a gun ban has been in effect on the Praterstern and the surrounding area since February 1, 2019 , which prohibits the carrying of all weapons. In 2019, the preparatory work began for the construction of a new police station right next to the train station, which should be completed in 2020.

Web links

Commons : Praterstern  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Adolf Schmidl: Vienna's surroundings described for twenty hours in the vicinity after own wanderings , quotation in: Christine Klusacek, Kurt Stimmer: Leopoldstadt. An island in the middle of the city , Verlag Kurt Mohl, Vienna 1978, ISBN 3-900272-29-8 , p. 62 f.
  2. ↑ Josef König (Ed.): Wiener Geschichtsblätter , supplement 4/2007, District Museum Leopoldstadt ; Association for the History of the City of Vienna, Vienna 2007, p. 43
  3. ^ Felix Czeike : Historical Lexicon Vienna. Volume 2: De-Gy. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-218-00544-2 , pp. 72-73.
  4. ↑ Michael Hierner : No monument protection for 140-year-old Roman bath derstandard.at, March 28, 2012, accessed March 2, 2017.
  5. ↑ König, pp. 44/45
  6. ^ Evelyn Klein, Gustav Glaser: Periphery in the city - The Vienna Nordbahnhofviertel - Insights, explorations, analyzes , Studienverlag, Innsbruck 2006, ISBN 978-3-7065-4189-3 , p. 115
  7. ^ City of Vienna Norbert Walter : ÖVP Vienna criticizes the design of the square around the Tegetthoff monument, RK 23 September 2008.
  8. ↑ wien.at , Mitteilungsblatt der Stadt Wien, Issue 9/2009, p. 8
  9. ↑ Pole construction on Wiener Praterstern will be dismantled at the end of August. In: DerStandard.at . August 21, 2020, accessed on August 21, 2020 .
  10. ↑ City of Vienna ( Memento of the original from July 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Surface design of the Praterstern @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wien.gv.at
  11. ↑ Praterstern: Drunk man beats police officers. In: kurier.at. Retrieved May 9, 2016 .

Coordinates: 48 ° 13 '4.4 "  N , 16 ° 23' 25.7"  E