Travel Time: Vienna Travelogue, by Sue Katz

Reprinted with permission from Sue Katz’s Consenting Adult Blog

By Sue Katz
All photos courtesy of Sue Katz

May 15, 2018

Because in the last election, the neo-Nazis became part of the ruling coalition, I decided that I wanted to see gorgeous Vienna one last time before it tilted any further towards fascism. I have been in Vienna two or three times before, but not since the 90s. I find a three-bedroom Airbnb with a rather parsimonious landlady (“Look it up on the internet” was her answer to any question – whether about the phone number of a taxi company or the location of recommended local restaurants). Two friends join me: Jaya, the sculptor from Italy and Sandy, the paper artist from the California redwoods.

They arrive close to dinner time so after a walk around the neighborhood we settle in for a delicious meal at the Turkish restaurant across the street. Two of us are dealing with varied levels of jetlag, so it’s off to bed with a Melatonin and a remarkable novel The Tobacconist by Robert Seethaler about Vienna in the run-up to WWII which I chose from a list of books recommended by 20 different Ambassadors about their own countries.

The Tobacconist is relevant on another level. It describes the path to Austrian Nazism, from increasing anti-Semitism to accelerated anti-democratic and exclusionary laws, accompanied by vicious street violence by right-wing paramilitaries and by everyday “true” Austrian assholes. So similar to what we are experiencing in the States.

I’m very aware the Austria has a deep history of anti-Semitism, dating back to 1267 when the church imposed a dress code for Jews, who were forbidden to mix with Christians. We walk through the square in which Hitler (born in Austria) spoke to a quarter of a million cheering Viennese. We cross a bridge to the Jewish Ghetto on which, a local gay couple we meet there tells us, is inscribed the love story of a young Jewish man, sneaking out of the Ghetto across the bridge to meet his lover – until one day when he does not turn up.

Vienna is exquisite and grand – with monumental medieval and baroque buildings (this is the national library). Today the wide sidewalks are divided in half between pedestrians and bicycle riders and no one but us (accident/ignorance) steps into the bike lane. Public transportation is comprehensive – a combo of subways, buses, trams, and trains, so we buy a multi-day ticket. There is even a “queer” ticket on the transportation poster, which apparently includes entrance into various gay male venues. Even late at night, the streets and the underground stations are spotless. It is one of the most prosperous cities on earth and I did not see a single homeless person in the city or on its outskirts, although my friend saw someone asking for money.

Half of the housing is public (subsidized) housing, which is not means-tested. You need to be a resident of the city for five years and get your name on a list. You can pick the district in which you want to live and once you are given an apartment it is very cheap. One woman we met was paying € 400 a month. It felt pretty easy to spot private housing: those facades were highly decorated with sculptures, bay windows, and elaborate doors.

May 16, 2018

We start at the twin museums – a natural history museum and The Kunsthistorisches Art Museum (first photo), built between 1871 and 1891 on commission from Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary. At the country’s biggest art museum, we are delighted by an exhibition called The Shape of Time that juxtaposes classic and new art, featuring so many modern women artists that Sandy says that she can only assume a woman curated the exhibit. We also visit the Stairway to Klimt where we have an opportunity to be lifted 12 feet off the ground to get a close look at the work Klimt did in decorating the walls above the museum’s main staircase.

Outside in the park between the twins, we are smilingly accosted by one of several young men dressed in the velvet embroidered formal wear of Mozart’s time. The lad is selling tickets to a show by the Vienna Royal Orchestra at Imperial Hall, which turns out to be a high school at the Beethoven Platz that was built by Friedrich Schmidt, master builder of St. Stephen’s Cathedral. The show consists of opera, waltz, and dance. The fellow is so charming with his notebook of photos, his sweet chatter, and his promise of serious discounts, that we three experienced travelers fall for his patter and purchase three expensive tickets, which we immediately only somewhat regret. The show could better be called The Top Ten Arias, Jaya suggests, and we decide not to cry over spilt Euros. Fast forward to the show, which we attend on our last evening in Vienna, we are surprised by the terrific 10-piece orchestra, the two opera singers, and the two ballet dancers who all manage to perform with good humor and great professionalism on a stage the size of a hot-tub.

We accidentally wander into a regional food and beer festival where we have our first sublime coffee and scrumptious pastries for which this city is most famous. I once deeply offended an Italian friend when I told him that the best coffee I ever tasted was in Vienna. Don’t get me started about the apricot strudel I had.

May 17, 2018

At the Leopold Museum we are thrilled at the exhibitions, but painfully aware that only two women artists are exhibited. Besides collections of Basquiat, Francis Bacon, Leger, Chagall, Magritte, Klimt, and Kokoschka, there is a large display of the unique Egon Schiele (1890-1918). Schiele disturbed genteel Vienna with his intensely sexual drawings and paintings and eventually served a month in jail for exposing neighborhood children to his “pornographic” work. His jagged naked self-portraits and his sensuous portrayals of women kissing each other or masturbating are powerful. He died at 28 of Spanish flu the day of his wife’s burial.

Other pieces that stand out for me are Keith Haring’s picture of a man’s huge dick choking himself, and the aluminum Boxman by Erwin Wurm Kastenmann.

The museums are tough on my feet so I suggest we jump on a random tram and start seeing parts of Vienna beyond the exquisite decorated facades of the grand buildings. As we head out to the edges, the buildings shrink and we pass through some industrial parks near which are massive projects of social housing – tall, wide, plain buildings with flat and undecorated windows. I notice the changing demographics of the people on the tram – with workers heading home. We enter the suburbs, with adorable and very individual small houses, some with a modern industrial flavor, some with roofs like a traditional Dutch hat. Further on the houses and gardens grow more intricate until we pass walled-in mansions. The final tram stop is at the Otto Wagner Hospital, an art deco building commissioned by Habsburg Emperor Francis Joseph in 1904. Unfortunately, it turns out to have a disgusting if not unusual Austrian history: the National Socialists performed cruel “health” experiments on children, many of whom died there.

May 18, 2018

Our outstanding dining experience was a spontaneous meal at Das Dreieck, a woman owned-and-operated establishment just down the street from the famous Hundertwasser Village. The environment is welcoming and comfortable, the scrumptious food is created with love, and the waitress Germina is personable and professional. Under various owners, the restaurant has been serving traditional Wien Schnitzel since 1804, but surely the basket of helpful items (from tampons to floss sticks) in the women’s bathroom is a recent innovation.

We catch a bus to visit the Karl Marx Hof, a municipal tenement complex in Vienna. At over a kilometer long, it’s the biggest residential project in the world. Built in 1927, only 20% of the land was used for apartments; the rest was saved for gardens and amenities such as schools, nurseries, washhouses, a library, and a medical center – all of which still remain. From the outside, it appears that every flat has a balcony. Unfortunately, in 1938, according to this plaque on the building, 66 Jewish families were expelled from Karl Marx Hof and many of them were subsequently murdered. Their names are listed here.

For me Karl Marx Hof epitomizes the conflicts inherent in much of Vienna: a history of culture and beauty combined with a nasty fascist legacy that taints even the most progressive visions. Besides the Vienna-born Schubert and Strauss, Vienna (known as the City of Music) was a magnet for other great musicians including Mozart and Beethoven. Many major Jewish cultural figures were escapees from Austrian fascism, including Sigmund Freud, Fritz Lang, and Hedy Lamarr. With the recent Austrian elections, I feel the echoes of bad times and wonder how the United States is going to fare under its present, similarly vicious regime.

At the airport I have a delicious goulash, a slice of traditional marble cake, and a smooth coffee (my regular fave is Viennese Melange, small espresso served in a large cup with half steamed milk topped off with milk froth.) Airport food never tasted so delectable.

About Sue Katz

Sue Katz’s business card identifies her as a “wordsmith and rebel.” She has lived and worked on three continents: first as a martial arts master, then promoting transnational volunteering, and most recently, teaching fitness and dance to seniors and elders. In all her locations, she has been an activist for social justice. Her fiction and non-fiction have been published for decades in anthologies, magazines, and online. Her books include Lillian in Love, Lillian’s Last Affair and other stories, and Thanks But No Thanks: The Voter’s Guide To Sarah Palin. You can reach Katz at consentingadultpress@hotmail.com.