Schmelz (Vienna)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Location of the Schmelz in the north of Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus
Plan of today's allotment garden
Staff building of the Radetzky barracks , which was built in the course of the barracks transaction from 1894
The old valve chamber of the former water tank melting , which now houses which Meiselmarkt is
Memory of Adolf Schärf as an allotment gardener, shelter future
The Schmelzbrücke connects the southern with the northern part of the 15th district

The Schmelz is a former parade and parade ground in the 15th district of Vienna Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus . While the term Schmelz today is mainly used for the central area characterized by allotment gardens and sports facilities, the entire area between Thaliastraße, Wiener Gürtel and Westbahntrasse used to be perceived as belonging to the Schmelz , as the name of the Schmelzbrücke crossing the Westbahn in the south testifies to this day.

history

The Schmelz was originally an unspoilt, high-altitude, large field or meadow to the west of the city. It was particularly fertile due to the loess soil . The area was first mentioned in a document around 1309 as “Smeltz im Preitensewer aigen”. Until the second Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683, there was a smelting house on the Schmelz.

In 1847 the part of the area belonging to the municipality of Rustendorf was purchased by the city and set up as a parade and parade ground; the place had previously been used for riding maneuvers by the Austro-Hungarian cavalry; However, as early as 1835, Adolf Schmidl's travel guide reported on regular drills and maneuvers on the Schmelz (see below). The establishment of the parade ground was necessary because the previous practice area on the Josefstädter Glacis was a source of heavy dust pollution for the Viennese and was therefore heavily criticized; it was closed in 1857 when the Vienna Ringstrasse was being built . The parade ground on the Schmelz existed until the end of the German Empire in 1918.

Those who died in March , the victims of the revolution of March 1848 , were buried in the former Schmelz cemetery. With the opening of the Vienna Central Cemetery in Simmering , the Schmelzer Cemetery was closed. The corpses were exhumed and relocated there. Today the “ March Park ” reminds of the former cemetery on this square.

Between 1894 and 1896, the Graf Radetzky barracks , which still exist today, were built on the northern edge .

In the evenings, neighbors went to the Schmelz area to relax: when the soft spring, beneficial summer and beautiful autumn evenings sank, one could often hear the melancholy sounds of harmonics blowing dark, indistinguishable figures on the Schmelz. Glowing cigarettes dotted the groups until night came. When the new moon was without a star, everything fled in time, because then the “ plates ” reigned on the unlit enamel . The terrible crime gangs from the surrounding districts. They made the Schmelz into a true Sodom and Gomorrah . A security guard was never able to venture out to the Schmelz alone at night, they only went on patrols.

Following a report in the “Wiener Allgemeine Automobil-Zeitung” from 1904, Siegfried Marcus carried out a short test drive here with his first car.

The spring parade for Emperor Franz Joseph , which takes place every year on the Schmelz and which took place on the first Saturday in May from 9 a.m. , became famous . The troops were deployed on the Gablenzgasse side, while the General Staff and the spectators lined up along Hütteldorfer Strasse and Schanzstrasse. From here the emperor and his followers rode at a sharp gallop towards his troops. Then the troops marched in a wide arc in the direction of Johnstrasse and along Hütteldorfer Strasse in the direction of the belt past the Kaiser.

The Austrian football team Rapid Wien played its first games on the square that is built today (between Wurmsergasse and Selzergasse) next to the old water tank (today's Meiselmarkt ) . In 1911 the southern and eastern parts of the Schmelz were released for construction. In the period after the First World War , the area was almost completely covered by allotment gardens , sports facilities and residential buildings ( Neu-Fünfhaus and Nibelungenviertel ). On the western edge of the former parade ground, the Schmelz settlement and housing complex was built from 1919 , one of the first municipal housing developments in Vienna.

When the building was approved, the architects' desires for the area available were also aroused. The area was interesting for the architects, as there were no “old-established” buildings that had to be taken into account. Numerous projects to be built here were planned and presented to the public.

The Museumsavenue Hofmuseen - Schmelz project by Friedrich Ohmann from 1916 was intended to connect the planned city museum with the court museums on Vienna's Ringstrasse

In 1932, Clemens Holzmeister planned a " Christ the King Church and Doctor Ignaz Seipel Memorial Church " and Rudolf Perco also worked on a "Doctor Ignaz Seipel Memorial Church" on the Schmelz in 1933. Instead of the pompous plans, however, a much smaller project was realized. Before 1945, the western part of the Schmelz in the area of ​​today's school and university buildings was still a parade ground. In the easternmost area, the Wiener Stadthalle was built on the Schmelz between 1953 and 1958. The soccer field, the home of SC Red Star , which existed until the 1970s , had to give way to an underground car park accessible from Gablenzgasse , although the surface was landscaped.

Today there are still allotment gardens on leasehold in the eastern part of the area, which is still known as Schmelz , whereas the allotment gardens in the western part created after 1945, which were merely " grave land " on the basis of a precarious contract , had to give way in the 1960s. A secondary school , a public sports facility, the sports center of the University of Vienna (USZ) and a residential complex in the north-western area were built there. In 1991, a water tank was built under the sports field to replace the old Schmelz tank , the latter now housing the Meiselmarkt . The old valve chamber has served as an exhibition and event space since then. The allotment garden association's "Future" shelter has also been increasingly used as a location for cultural events in recent years. In the garden of the shelter there is a memorial stone for Franz Siller , the allotment garden pioneer, and on one wall of the building there is a commemorative plaque indicating that the future Federal President Adolf Schärf cultivated an allotment garden here from 1921 to 1959.

The Schmelz around 1900: parade ground and informal recreation area

  • Parade on the enamel

  • Exercising soldiers, spectators, walkers (around 1900). Looking north to the Graf Radetzky barracks

  • View to the east (excerpts from an oil sketch by M.Neubauer)

  • Hussars at a parade

This parade ground is described in a hiking guide from the Biedermeier period , the work " Vienna's Environs for Twenty Hours Around " by Adolf Schmidl from 1835:

The proximity of this not insignificant area to the two main barracks, in Josephstadt (see Josefstädter barracks ) and Alservorstadt (see Alser barracks ) , is the reason why the big autumn maneuvres of the garrison are held here, as well as the drill in fire for several years which used to take place on the glacis.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Weyr Siegfried: From Lampelbrunn to Hohenwarth. Through Viennese suburbs and suburbs , undated, quoted from Maderthaner / Musner: Die Anarchy der Vorstadt. The other Vienna around 1900 , pp. 149f., Campus Verlag, Frankfurt 1999
  2. ^ Johann Hödl: Exercise for the Emperor , in Johann Hödl (Ed.): Wiener U-Bahn-Kunst . Wiener Linien, Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-200-02173-0 , pp. 170f.
  3. ^ Adolf Schmidl: Vienna's surroundings for twenty hours in a circle. Described by Adolf Schmidl after his own hikes. Printed and published by Carl Gerold, Vienna 1835, p. 129.

Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 12 "  N , 16 ° 19 ′ 13"  E