Ring theater fire

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ruins of the Ringtheater after the fire on December 8, 1881
Ring theater before the fire
Depiction of Karl Pippich
Remaining door of the ring theater at a fire brigade exhibition in Geras Abbey
Immakulatafigur , placed in Baden near Vienna in 1884 on a column of the Ringtheater that was destroyed at the Conception of Mary ( description )

The Ringtheater fire in Vienna on December 8, 1881 was one of the greatest disasters of the 19th century in Austria-Hungary . According to official figures, the death toll was 384; Estimates put even more deaths. Ludwig Eisenberg writes of almost 1,000 deaths.

Cause and sequence

That evening in the Ringtheater , Schottenring 7, which had opened as the Komische Oper Wien on January 17, 1874 , Jacques Offenbach's Hoffmann's tales were performed. When the visitors took their seats for the beginning of the performance at 7 p.m., the gas lights were lit behind the stage at five showcases . The failure of the electropneumatic ignition devices caused gas to escape, which exploded when the next ignition attempt was made. The resulting fire jumped to the prospect trains before it quickly spread over the rest of the stage and finally into the auditorium. An existing wire curtain (forerunner of the iron curtain , see below) was not closed.

It was not until half an hour later that fire fighters tried to save the spectators, made more difficult by fundamental problems: The emergency lighting , which consists of oil lamps , is said to have not been on because - for lack of money - the lamps are said to have only been filled for inspections. In addition, the emergency exits only opened inwards, which prevented the fleeing visitors from leaving the building in time. A draft of air flowing in through a side window fanned the fire further. Due to a misjudgment of the situation, the police stopped helpers in the theater anteroom with the message "Everything saved!" From further rescue attempts.

Among the dead was Ladislaus Vetsera (* 1865), a brother of Mary Vetsera .

To identify the corpses, the method of identification based on the position of the teeth was used for the first time, thus laying the foundation for the later renowned “Viennese School of Criminology”. It was an entry into forensic dentistry .

In the building on the right of the Ringtheater (former corner building Schottenring / Heßgasse), Anton Bruckner lived since 1877 . He had tickets for the fatal performance but stayed home because of an ailment.

follow

As a spontaneous reaction to the fire, the Vienna Voluntary Rescue Society was founded. The fire had both national and international effects on preventive fire protection , especially in the theater sector and the corresponding legal provisions for theater construction in Austria. For example, the iron curtain was introduced to separate the stage from the auditorium, and the decorations had to be impregnated from then on. The larger theaters were obliged to allow a uniformed security officer to attend each performance, who, in the event of a fire, had to make the necessary arrangements to direct the large crowd. He had to remain in the theater until the last spectator left. The regulation still applies today.

From April 24th to May 17th, 1882, the so-called Ringtheater Trial took place. All accused city officials were acquitted, while three theater employees ( theater director Franz von Jauner , Josef Nitsche and Franz Geringer) were sentenced to imprisonment of between four and eight months as well as partial payment of damages . In the opinion of the court, they failed to check each other and to attach emergency lamps and incorrectly operated the wire harness. Franz von Jauner was released by imperial pardon after only a few weeks in prison.

In 1829 Vienna received the first 30 paragraphs building code. This was replaced by a new building code in 1859 and 1868. The building regulations for Vienna from 1883, a Lower Austrian provincial law, which took into account the fire in the Ringtheater, were valid until the middle of the 20th century. This included, among other things, the requirement that is still valid today that the doors in public buildings must always open to the outside.

Out of dismay, the so-called Atonement House was built on the site of the burned-down theater from private funds of Emperor Franz Joseph , and Sigmund Freud was one of the first tenants . The rental income from this apartment building was used for charitable purposes. The building was badly damaged at the end of the war in 1945 and had to be demolished in 1951. Today the official building of the Vienna State Police Department stands on the site .

Two of the pillars of the ring theater were later installed in the basilica of Kaisermühlen . The charred head of a dead person at the Ringtheater is exhibited in the Vienna Crime Museum to this day. The trial against those responsible for the fire was described in literary terms in the 1960s by Helmut Qualtinger and Carl Merz under the title Anatomy of a Catastrophe . The text was filmed under the title “Everything saved. The Ringtheater Trial ”.

Cinematic adaptations

  • The 1940 film “ Operetta ” is based very freely on the biography of Franz von Jauner, played by Willi Forst . The film also briefly addresses the fire in the ring theater and its consequences for the theater director.
  • The television film “Alles saved!” (ORF, 1963), based on the book of the same name by the authors Carl Merz and Helmut Qualtinger , recreates the ring theater process with many well-known actors such as Paul Hörbiger , Attila Hörbiger and Robert Lindner (as director Jauner).
  • The essayistic documentary " Atonement " by the Viennese filmmaker and journalist Maya McKechneay deals with the fire and the further history of the Schottenring 7 address . The film premiered at the Viennale in 2016 and shown at the Diagonale in 2017 .

literature

  • Emil Ritter von Förster:  The comic opera in Vienna. In:  Allgemeine Bauzeitung , year 1875, (volume XL), p. 23 f. (Text) (online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / dismantledas well as
    Emil Ritter von Förster:  The comic opera in Vienna. In:  Allgemeine Bauzeitung , year 1875, (Volume XL), pp. 14–22 (plans) (online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / dismantled.
  • The song about the ring theater fire . Text book. S. n. , Vienna 1881, OBV .
  • The fire in the Ringtheater in Vienna on December 8th, 1881. A truthful description of the catastrophe based on authentic sources . S. Tagwerker, Linz 1881, ÖNB .
  • The fire in the Ringtheater in Vienna. A detailed description of the catastrophe of December 8, 1881 . MF Benk, Znaim 1881, ÖNB .
  • The fire in the Vienna Ring Theater on December 8, 1881 and its victims. A detailed description of this terrible catastrophe . Jos. A. Massanatz, Vienna 1881, ÖNB .
  • Carl Theodor Fockt: The fire of the Ringtheater in Vienna on December 8th, 1881. A truthful description of the catastrophe, based on authentic sources . 7th edition. A. Hartleben's Chronicle of Time, Volume 1. Hartleben, Vienna 1882, OBV .
  • Joseph Seidel: The fire of the Ringtheater in Vienna. A truthful description of the disaster . Seidel, Vienna 1882, ÖNB .
  • Franz Patzer (ed.), Edith Koll (ed.): “Everything saved!” 100 years of the ring theater fire. Exhibition, beginning of October 1981 to the end of January 1982 . ... temporary exhibition of the Vienna City and State Library, Volume 194. Vienna City and State Library, Vienna 1981, OBV .
  • Helmut Bouzek: Vienna and its fire brigade. The fire in the Vienna Ring Theater . Vienna State Fire Brigade Association, Vienna 1991, OBV .
  • Werner Ogris : From Galgenberg to Ringtheaterbrand. On the trail of law and crime in Vienna . Böhlau, Vienna (among others) 1997, ISBN 3-205-98611-3 .
  • Peter Cerny: The Ringtheater Fire - A Failure? Dissertation, University of Vienna, Vienna 1986, OBV .
  • Ludwig Ganghofer: The child and the million. Novel. Stuttgart, Adolf Bonz & Comp. 1920

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b The fire of the Vienna Ring Theater. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt, No. 6209/1881, December 9, 1881, p. 2 ff. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp.
  2. ↑ a b Zeitzeichen on WDR 5 on December 8, 2006.
  3. ^ A b Ludwig Eisenberg : Large biographical lexicon of the German stage in the XIX. Century . Verlag von Paul List , Leipzig 1903, page 476, ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ The safety of the person in the theater. In:  Oesterreichische Verbands-Feuerwehr-Zeitung , January 5, 1882, p. 4 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / ovf
  5. ↑ Juliane Mikoletzky: The fire of the Vienna Ring Theater in 1881 and the consequences. In: e-periodica.ch, ETH-Bibliothek , Volume 69, pp. 59–68, 1997 ( PDF ).
  6. ↑ Hedwig Abraham (Red.): Victims of the Ringtheater Fire in 1881. (…) Anton Bruckner's fire trauma . In: viennatouristguide.at , accessed on April 24, 2014.
  7. ↑ Latest news. In:  Tages-Post , April 25, 1882, p. 3 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / tpt
  8. ↑ Daily report. In:  Linzer Volksblatt , May 18, 1882, p. 2 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / lvb
  9. ↑ The verdict of the court. In:  Neuigkeits-Welt-Blatt , May 18, 1882, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nwb
  10. ↑ Nö LGBl. 1883/35. In:  Provincial Law and Ordinance Gazette for the Archduchy of Austria under the Enns , year 1883, p. 51. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / lgn.
  11. ↑ Lecture Norms and Laws. (…) Slide 8. (…) In 1829 Vienna received the first building regulations (…) ( Memento of August 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). In: gbl.tuwien.ac.at , Studio Vorlesung 2001, slide 8 , March 28, 2001, accessed on August 15, 2013.
  12. ↑ The city of yesterday: Everything saved in the Ringtheater. Retrieved August 13, 2021 .
  13. ↑ The city of yesterday: Everything saved in the Ringtheater. Retrieved August 13, 2021 .
  14. ↑ Parish Church. In: pfarrekaisermuehlen.at .
  15. ↑ Christine Imlinger: Searching for traces in the ashes of the Ringtheater In: Die Presse , December 3, 2016
  16. ↑ Carl Merz , Helmut Qualtinger : Everything saved. The Ringtheater Fire Trial. In: Langen Müller Verlag , Munich / Vienna 1963, OBV .
  17. ↑ 1940 operetta (Willi Forst). Retrieved July 19, 2018 .
  18. ↑ Erich Neuberg: Everything saved. June 16, 1963. Retrieved July 19, 2018 .
  19. ↑ Margarete Affenzeller: Read in the Ashes of History In: Der Standard , October 25, 2016.
  20. ↑ Alexandra Seibel: Those who sat in the cheap seats paid with their lives In: Kurier , October 24, 2016.
  21. ↑ Christine Imlinger: Searching for traces in the ashes of the Ringtheater In: Die Presse , December 3, 2016.
  22. ↑ [1] viennale.at, accessed November 29, 2017.
  23. ^ Sühnhaus Dokumentarfilm, AT 2016, color, 99 min.Diagonale 2017 diagonale.at, accessed February 21, 2019.

Remarks