Kritzendorf power pool

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Main building of the Strombad Kritzendorf with passage from the lawn to the central square

The Strombad Kritzendorf is a bath and a holiday colony, around twelve kilometers north of Vienna on the right bank of the Danube in the Lower Austrian village of Kritzendorf . It was one of the first open-air swimming pools in Austria and had its heyday in the interwar period , when up to 12,000 visitors from all social classes frequented it on individual weekends. The facility is no longer operated as a public outdoor pool, but the lawn on the banks of the Danube is freely accessible and is also used by numerous guests in summer. The garden parcels in the complex are leased all year round under the name “Donausiedlung” by the bathing administration of the municipality of Klosterneuburg .

history

Kritzendorf, Strombad: Rondeau (postcard from the interwar period)

In 1887 was in a - in the course of Danube regulation a private arm of the Danube - abandoned shortly before bathing ship moored to even non-swimmers and beginners to enable a secured swimming. A wooden floating basket was located between two hulls, surrounded by changing rooms, which also provided privacy. Ladies and gentlemen bathed at separate times. Since the water quality in the side arm, which no longer flowed through, had decreased significantly after a few years, this had to be given up. In 1903, the beautification and sociability association “Die Linde” moored a new bathing ship directly on the bank of the river and therefore called it “Strom-Bad” . Because of the great demand and the desire for simultaneous use by women and men, a larger raft with two separate swimming baskets and surrounding cabins was purchased after a few years. Soon there were cabins, kiosks and a row of wooden huts on the bank. After the First World War , more rows of huts were built, which were built on pilots to protect against flooding, with roof gables removed. In 1927 the site was converted and expanded and the central square was framed with a rondeau, cabins and cabins (living quarters ), a bridge to the beach meadow, a weather house and a beach pavilion, by the architects Heinz Rollig (1893 –1978) and Julius Wohlmuth (1874–1931).

Originally intended as an open-air pool for the less affluent population, the Strombad slowly developed into a fashionable bathing place for the Viennese upper class in the late 1920s , who had villas and weekend houses built here by architects such as Adolf Loos , Fritz Keller , Felix Augenfeld , Anton Potyka and Heinz Rollig . The Wiener Symphoniker played in the beach pavilion . The place got nicknames like "Riviera on the Danube", Kritz-les-Bains, or also " Gelsenstadt " or "Kratzendorf". The Kritzendorfer Strandmarsch, the song "My treasure is at the fire brigade in Kritzendorf" by Hermann Leopoldi , however corruptions like “Come with me to Kritzendorf, where everyone sweat with me” were on everyone's lips.

The heyday of the power bath ended abruptly in 1938 when the National Socialists came to power in Austria . As a result of the Nuremberg Race Laws , 80 percent of the tenants were persecuted as Jews, their lease contracts were terminated without notice and transferred to Nazi party members.

After the Second World War , the aryanized huts were terminated by the provisional pool manager at the time, Hans Reif, in an unprecedented so-called "restoration" with the aim of returning them to the original owners. But only a few survived, even fewer came back.

There was regular bathing operation until 1977, since then the area has been freely accessible. In 2002 the Rondeauplatz, the center of the baths, was renovated and rebuilt in its original way. Today the beach meadow attracts numerous visitors again on nice weekends.

In the summer of 2013, the river bath was hit by flooding in Central Europe , which was associated with unprecedented mud sediments.

Since 2014 there has been a big summer festival organized by the Kritzendorf cultural initiative, the so-called "Krido Open", at which residents open their houses and gardens for cultural or culinary events and at the end of which a big concert takes place on the central bathing area. The aim is to preserve and renovate the historical public buildings, for which the proceeds from the festival will be used.

The holiday colony found its way into literature, including in the novel " Die Strudelhofstiege " by Heimito von Doderer , " Tante Jolesch " by Friedrich Torberg , in the novella " Brigitte and Regine " by Franz Karl Ginzkey and in the novels Tauschzentrale and Kleine Damen size von Erika Mitterer . In addition to the aforementioned poem "Summer Plans", songs like "My treasure is at the fire brigade in Kritzendorf" by Hermann Leopoldi and "In Kritzendorf are so many gels" by Sepp Fellner made the place known. The song I lost my heart in Heidelberg, known in Germany , became the subtitle of the silent film “Weekend Magic - I lost my heart in Kritzendorf” (1927). In the television documentary Erbe Österreich - Lebensraum Electric Baths , the electric bath Kritzendorf plays the main role.

literature

Web links

Commons : Strombad Kritzendorf  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Municipality of Klosterneuburg: Strombad Kritzendorf. accessed on Jan. 17 2015.
  2. ^ The press : Strombad Kritzendorf ; accessed on 18 Jan. 2015.
  3. ↑ Local report. Twenty-five years of Kritzendorfer Bad. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt, No. 22939/1928, July 26, 1928, p. 7f., Bottom right and next page top left. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp;
    Caroline Jäger-Klein, Sabine Plakolm-Forsthuber, Thomas Prlič: The architecture of Klosterneuburg beach baths and weekend colonies     . Municipality of Klosterneuburg, Klosterneuburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-85028-453-0 .
  4. ↑ Construction of the beach area in the Strombad Kritzendorf. In:  Bau- und Werkkunst. Monthly for all areas of architecture and applied arts, house and home , year 1927, (IV. Year), p. 249. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / buw.
  5. ↑ Architects Lexicon Vienna 1770–1945
  6. ↑ Ursula Prokop: From the Dollinergasse synagogue to the “Riviera on the Danube”. The architect Julius Wohlmuth (1874–1931). ( Memento of the original from February 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: DAVID. Jewish culture magazine. Issue 83 (12/2009) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.davidkultur.at
  7. ^ Karl Farkas: Summer plans. In: So spoke Karl Farkas. Halm and Goldmann, Vienna oJ (1930): "Instead of Aix-les-Bains only Kritz-les-Bains" (reason: trips abroad were unaffordable in the mid-1920s after the currency depreciation)
  8. ↑ Lisa Fischer: The Riviera on the Danube - 100 years of Strombad Kritzendorf .
  9. ↑ City Land River. Travel report. In: The time. Nº 41/2011.
  10. ↑ | ORF III (2018)

Coordinates: 48 ° 20 ′ 24 ″  N , 16 ° 18 ′ 20 ″  E