Steffl (department store)
The Steffl Department Store Vienna (short form: Steffl ) is a department store at Kärntner Straße 19 in Vienna's 1st district, Inner City . It is named after the nearby St. Stephen's Cathedral , Vienna's landmark.
history
The M. Neumann department store previously stood on the property , built in 1895/1896 based on a design by Otto Wagner . It got on 11/12. April 1945 on fire in the course of the Battle of Vienna and was demolished in 1949 because of this war damage.
In 1949–50, Carl Appel built a nine-storey new building (floors −1 to +7) for the Neumann company, which has been known as the Steffl department store since 1961 . At that time there was still traffic on Kärntner Strasse.
On May 1, 1979, a fire was noticed in the women's clothing department on the second floor, in which 900 m² of sales area went up in flames. During the clearing-up work, a burning smell was again detected; the police discovered an incendiary device with time ignition. The next day two more incendiary devices were discovered in a neighboring department store. One organization “May Day” described the attacks as protests against capitalism.
In the last few decades the ownership structure of the department store has changed several times. Among the temporary owners was the cooperative Konsum Österreich , which in 1995 shrank from a large company to a small one in a sensational compensation .
A complete renovation took place in the 1990s. In 2007 the entrepreneur Hans Schmid acquired the property and the operating company. Since then, a gradual redesign and repositioning has started and has already been completed on several floors.
The total area is around 13,000 m². The department store is frequented by up to 30,000 people per day. The top floor is used as a catering area by the sky bar. The building is also home to the only Global Blue Tax Free Office (VAT refund for customers from non-EU countries) in downtown Vienna.
Cultural
In little Kayser house , which until the middle of the 19th century on a portion of the property (in Rauhensteingasse 8, so on the back of the current building) was, composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in his last year, the Magic Flute and the Requiem . A memorial plaque reminds that Mozart died there on December 5th, 1791.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Felix Czeike (Ed.): Historisches Lexikon Wien , Volume 5, Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-218-00547-7 , p. 323
- ↑ Kurt Stimmer: 1979 - the year of the great Viennese fire disasters , in: Wien at. Aktuell magazine for employees , publisher. Press and Information Service of the City of Vienna, No. 6/2009
- ↑ Mozart's death house in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna
Web links
Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 23.1 ″ N , 16 ° 22 ′ 18.1 ″ E