The ten craziest things from the depository
A chair with a secret message, a gaming machine that helps in the search for a partner, as well as the key to the casket of a famous writer, and many other curios await in the newly digitized depository of the Wien Museum. We dug through the archive and found some amazing things.
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The depository of the Wien Museum holds over a million objects that are only rarely on display to the general public. – Until now. In a project lasting several years, the Wien Museum has digitized its huge collection. Over 48,000 objects can already be viewed in the online collection of the Wien Museum . – A pool of Viennese Originals that, given its range from art to everyday objects to fashion and archaeological finds, inspires not only people with an interest in history. These ten objects, which tell us much about Vienna and its inhabitants, particularly impressed us.
Tinder isn't always the answer, as this gaming machine from the year 1897 shows: the 'International Marriage Agency' was a Prater attraction and promised to find the right partner for every lady or gentleman who put six 'heller' coins (a heller was 1/100th of an Austro-Hungarian krone) into the slot. The machine was an ironically playful answer to the marriage agencies that had become popular at the time. How many marriages did the machine give rise to? Nobody knows.
– © CC-BY 3.0 AT, Foto: Birgit und Peter Kainz, Wien Museum
Curious and clearly slightly macabre is this almost 30 centimeter-tall gallows from the year 1870. – A 'gallows to go', or a special form of gallows humor, if you will. Unfortunately, we no longer know what the unusual wood accessory was actually good for. What is certain is that the mini-gallows was owned by Josefine Gallmeyer. – An actress and theater director who celebrated successes from Vienna to Berlin and the USA. A street in Döbling is named after her.
– © CC-BY 3.0 AT, Foto: Birgit und Peter Kainz, Wien Museum
This special little animal is around 300 years old and for a long time decorated the passageway house at Lugeck 5/Wollzeile 5 not far from St. Stephen's Cathedral. It served as a house sign to remind people of the legend of the 'Smelly Dragon'. So the story goes, a beast is supposed to have lived deep within the building's cellar; it had an evil smell that could be 'tasted' from afar. The animal was presented as a hybrid of wingless dragon and crocodile, but despite this is far from scary.
– © CC-BY 3.0 AT, Foto: Birgit und Peter Kainz, Wien Museum
What many people don't know is that Egon Schiele not only put his art on paper but also created sculptures. Based loosely on the motto 'small is beautiful', this small sculpture depicting a dancer is not even eight centimeters tall, yet makes such an impact. To create the figure, Schiele used modeling clay and wire. Unfortunately, it is not know which year it was made in.
– © CC BY 3.0 AT, Foto: Birgit und Peter Kainz, Wien Museum
It was Vienna's highest post for centuries: from 1444 until the beginning of the Second World War, a tower watchman performed his duties high up on the tallest tower of St. Stephen's Cathedral. His task was to spot fires or approaching enemies in good time. To enable him to be heard should the worst happen, his equipment included a huge kind of megaphone. This metal beast measures almost one and one half meters in length and was made between 1600 and 1700.
– © CC BY 3.0 AT, Foto: Birgit und Peter Kainz, Wien Museum
To find the right keyhole to this golden key, you have to go deep underground. This is the key to the casket of Franz Grillparzer. The famous writer died in 1872. Grillparzer was initially buried in the local cemetery in Währing, which was closed down a short while later. His body was exhumed in 1879. He was reinterred at Hietzing Cemetery. If you want to visit his grave, you'll find it in grave group 13/number 107.
– © CC-BY 3.0 AT, Foto: Birgit und Peter Kainz, Wien Museum
It wouldn't be a traditional ball without a small gift for the ladies. Around 1900, these souvenir gifts for women ball-goers celebrated their artistic zenith. They had to be original and contemporary. That's why the organizers of the Landstrasse Citizens' Ball in 1898 decided to resort to the highly modern topic of the urban gas supply. The ladies were given gas pipes as a souvenir. It is doubtful whether women ball-goers would be happy with that nowadays.
– © CC BY 3.0 AT, Foto: Birgit und Peter Kainz, Wien Museum
An extremely tragic relic: on December 8, 1881, the fire at the Ringtheater went down as one of the most devastating fires the monarchy had every experienced. A fire broke out during a performance of Jacques Offenbach's 'The Tales of Hoffmann'. Due to the lack of safety arrangements, almost 400 people lost their lives. This ring was found after the fire in the ruins of the theater and ended up in the depository of the Wien Museum.
– © CC BY 3.0 AT, Foto: Birgit und Peter Kainz, Wien Museum
The fact that many people will have to be motivated to get themselves vaccinated is a very topical issue. – And also a pretty old one. Which is why, at the time of the monarchy, a reward was offered in the form of a vaccination bonus. This bonus for residents of Vienna who had themselves inoculated against smallpox dates to 1803. There were reasons why vaccinations were given at such an early date in Austria. Empress Maria Theresa lost three of her children to smallpox and therefore turned to the revolutionary medical method very early on.
– © CC-BY 3.0 AT, Foto: Birgit und Peter Kainz, Wien Museum
Otto Wagner designed this armchair in 1904 for the controversial Viennese mayor Karl Lueger. Lueger was an unscrupulous antisemite and racist, and regularly lashed out at the Social Democratic Workers' Party in his populist manner. That motivated the anonymous craftsman who was responsible for the chair's design to engage in subtle protest ...
– © CC BY 3.0 AT, Foto: Birgit und Peter Kainz, Wien Museum
... In a hidden message, which he placed beneath the chair's leather upholstery, the craftsman expressed his outrage at the way Lueger stood in the Vienna state parliament and described workers as being lower than the proletariat. The inscription was first discovered in 2018 during restoration work on the chair.
– © CC BY 3.0 AT, Foto: Birgit und Peter Kainz, Wien Museum
Tinder isn't always the answer, as this gaming machine from the year 1897 shows: the 'International Marriage Agency' was a Prater attraction and promised to find the right partner for every lady or gentleman who put six 'heller' coins (a heller was 1/100th of an Austro-Hungarian krone) into the slot. The machine was an ironically playful answer to the marriage agencies that had become popular at the time. How many marriages did the machine give rise to? Nobody knows.
– © CC-BY 3.0 AT, Foto: Birgit und Peter Kainz, Wien Museum
Curious and clearly slightly macabre is this almost 30 centimeter-tall gallows from the year 1870. – A 'gallows to go', or a special form of gallows humor, if you will. Unfortunately, we no longer know what the unusual wood accessory was actually good for. What is certain is that the mini-gallows was owned by Josefine Gallmeyer. – An actress and theater director who celebrated successes from Vienna to Berlin and the USA. A street in Döbling is named after her.
– © CC-BY 3.0 AT, Foto: Birgit und Peter Kainz, Wien Museum
This special little animal is around 300 years old and for a long time decorated the passageway house at Lugeck 5/Wollzeile 5 not far from St. Stephen's Cathedral. It served as a house sign to remind people of the legend of the 'Smelly Dragon'. So the story goes, a beast is supposed to have lived deep within the building's cellar; it had an evil smell that could be 'tasted' from afar. The animal was presented as a hybrid of wingless dragon and crocodile, but despite this is far from scary.
– © CC-BY 3.0 AT, Foto: Birgit und Peter Kainz, Wien Museum
What many people don't know is that Egon Schiele not only put his art on paper but also created sculptures. Based loosely on the motto 'small is beautiful', this small sculpture depicting a dancer is not even eight centimeters tall, yet makes such an impact. To create the figure, Schiele used modeling clay and wire. Unfortunately, it is not know which year it was made in.
– © CC BY 3.0 AT, Foto: Birgit und Peter Kainz, Wien Museum
It was Vienna's highest post for centuries: from 1444 until the beginning of the Second World War, a tower watchman performed his duties high up on the tallest tower of St. Stephen's Cathedral. His task was to spot fires or approaching enemies in good time. To enable him to be heard should the worst happen, his equipment included a huge kind of megaphone. This metal beast measures almost one and one half meters in length and was made between 1600 and 1700.
– © CC BY 3.0 AT, Foto: Birgit und Peter Kainz, Wien Museum
To find the right keyhole to this golden key, you have to go deep underground. This is the key to the casket of Franz Grillparzer. The famous writer died in 1872. Grillparzer was initially buried in the local cemetery in Währing, which was closed down a short while later. His body was exhumed in 1879. He was reinterred at Hietzing Cemetery. If you want to visit his grave, you'll find it in grave group 13/number 107.
– © CC-BY 3.0 AT, Foto: Birgit und Peter Kainz, Wien Museum
It wouldn't be a traditional ball without a small gift for the ladies. Around 1900, these souvenir gifts for women ball-goers celebrated their artistic zenith. They had to be original and contemporary. That's why the organizers of the Landstrasse Citizens' Ball in 1898 decided to resort to the highly modern topic of the urban gas supply. The ladies were given gas pipes as a souvenir. It is doubtful whether women ball-goers would be happy with that nowadays.
– © CC BY 3.0 AT, Foto: Birgit und Peter Kainz, Wien Museum
An extremely tragic relic: on December 8, 1881, the fire at the Ringtheater went down as one of the most devastating fires the monarchy had every experienced. A fire broke out during a performance of Jacques Offenbach's 'The Tales of Hoffmann'. Due to the lack of safety arrangements, almost 400 people lost their lives. This ring was found after the fire in the ruins of the theater and ended up in the depository of the Wien Museum.
– © CC BY 3.0 AT, Foto: Birgit und Peter Kainz, Wien Museum
The fact that many people will have to be motivated to get themselves vaccinated is a very topical issue. – And also a pretty old one. Which is why, at the time of the monarchy, a reward was offered in the form of a vaccination bonus. This bonus for residents of Vienna who had themselves inoculated against smallpox dates to 1803. There were reasons why vaccinations were given at such an early date in Austria. Empress Maria Theresa lost three of her children to smallpox and therefore turned to the revolutionary medical method very early on.
– © CC-BY 3.0 AT, Foto: Birgit und Peter Kainz, Wien Museum
Otto Wagner designed this armchair in 1904 for the controversial Viennese mayor Karl Lueger. Lueger was an unscrupulous antisemite and racist, and regularly lashed out at the Social Democratic Workers' Party in his populist manner. That motivated the anonymous craftsman who was responsible for the chair's design to engage in subtle protest ...
– © CC BY 3.0 AT, Foto: Birgit und Peter Kainz, Wien Museum
... In a hidden message, which he placed beneath the chair's leather upholstery, the craftsman expressed his outrage at the way Lueger stood in the Vienna state parliament and described workers as being lower than the proletariat. The inscription was first discovered in 2018 during restoration work on the chair.
– © CC BY 3.0 AT, Foto: Birgit und Peter Kainz, Wien Museum
