19 July 2022

Was Vienna the most cultured city in the world? 1873 World Exhibition.


Rotunda and gardens
on the 1873 poster
Marc Maison

The 1851 World Fair in London had been vitally important, because it was the first! Until then, there had been national expositions in Paris ev­ery 4 years, but never a world project of such size. This was Prince Al­bert’s opportunity to display the achievements of industrialisation where British design and technology were leading the world.

In 1873, it was Vienna’s turn to host the 5th great World’s Fair and the first in a German-speaking country. Em­peror Franz-Joseph I commissioned it as soon as he returned from Par­is World’s Fair of 1867, to commem­or­ate his 25 years of reign, and to show off a cos­mop­olitan Austria-Hungary that was open to int­ernational trade.

Constructing the site, 1872-3 
Structurae        

His Exhibition was built on Prater Park where the arriv­al of coffee-houses led to the start of the Wurst­el­prater, a cent­re of relaxed ent­ert­ainment: lawns, gardens, lakes, forests. Prater Park, near the Dan­ube River, had prev­ious­ly been the imperial hunting grounds, bequ­eathed to the Vien­n­ese by Kaiser Josef II in 1766. The impressive grounds were much larger that the Paris grounds where the previous World Fair had been held, to showcase Austro-Hungarian indus­t­ry and culture. Prep­ar­ations for the Fair cost £23.4 million, lasting from May-Nov 1873 and hosting 7,225,000 visitors.

The buildings and landscaped grounds of all C19th world fairs, including Vienna’s, were directly related to the architectural and urban design traditions of the host cities. At the same time, they possessed ideal­is­ed qualities that made them dis­tinct from other contemporary build­ings. The result of col­lab­or­ative planning among architects, engineers and plan­ning commit­tees, the exhibitions were built to evoke ideal civ­ic sett­ings, their exhib­ition palaces, pavilions and gard­ens forming exemplary complexes that syn­th­esised both invention and tradition.

There were c26,000 exhibitors housed in different buildings er­ec­ted for this fair, including the Rotunda, a large circular building in Prater Park designed by Scot­t­ish eng­in­eer John Scott Russell. A central build­ing that became the symbol of the World Fair, the Rotunda was by far the largest domed structure in the world when it was built, with a 108 ms diameter. See the magnificent view of the rotunda towards the elongated gallery escape, after the picturesque, grotesque and instructive pavilions and sp­ec­ial buildings, after the well-tended meadow and forest areas, they wrote.

British Machine Hall

The Baron Karl von Hasenauer built the Palace of Industry, with a cen­t­ral rotunda gathering machines, industrial products and works of art. In the park, the national pavilions competed with beauty and or­ig­in­al­ity, and at this World’s Fair, many pavilions were also dedicated to the world’s pop­ular cultures, farms and fishing houses. The Pavilion of Foreign Princes was designed for visiting sovereigns to rest!

The opening of every exhibition was usually by royalty. Vienna’s Fair of 1873 was naturally inaugurated by Emperor Francis Josef, with imposing ceremonies in the presence of vast throngs. The day was immortalised by the music of Handel and Strauss.

The Vienna exhibition set off Western nations' pav­il­ions against East­ern pavilions, with the host, the Austro-Hungarian Emp­ire, setting it­self at the juncture between East and West. This was the place where many peoples brought the best of their culture and ind­ustry. Approp­riately the 1873 Ottoman Pavilion was more prominent than its pav­ilion in prev­ious world fairs. Egyp­t, which had its own pavilion despite be­ing a territory of the Ot­toman Empire, included small rep­l­icas of not­ab­le Ottoman buildings and models of vernacular archit­ec­t­ure eg a rep­lica of the Sultan Ahmed Foun­tain in Topkapı Palace, a model Istanbul resid­ence, Turkish bath and bazaar. This palace built by Khedive Ismail Pasha was particularly admired.                  

The Japanese display, 
seen from one of the Ottoman minarets, Wiki

The Chinese Tea Pav­il­ion was per­h­aps the most original. The U.S de­signed an In­d­ian wigwam, where gin and other spirits were served, and Br­asil’s Pav­il­ion displayed rich minerals and rare woods. The Japanese Pav­ilion had its own garden where a small bamboo bridge crossed a miniat­ure riv­er. The garden was decorated with bronzes, earth­enware, stone lan­ter­ns, temp­le and lavish copy of the 15+ ms Kamakura Buddha.     

The U.S Wigwam Pavilion
Artblart

The industrialists, who showed their products at world fairs, felt they were benefitting the whole of human society. After all, Vienna World Exhibition was dedicated to culture and industry. And it was the sewing machine industry that was most widely represented: from North America, France, Den­mark and Britain, but particularly from Germ­any and Austria.

Most countries’ World Fair structures were meant to be dismantled at the end of the festivities, the Eiffel Tower (Paris 1889) and the Ex­hibition Buildings (Melbourne 1880) were fortunate except­ions. In spite of this, the Vienna Fair itself was disapp­oin­t­ing in terms of the num­ber of visitors (because of flooding, stock market crash and cholera). In the end, rather than the expected 20 million visitors, only 7.2 million came, and result­ed in a major loss. So although the Rotunda was in­t­ended to be torn down, the lack of finan­ces meant that there were insuff­ic­ient funds to do this and so it rem­ained stand­ing.

The 61 m diameter giant Riesenrad Wheel, at entrance of Vienna’s Prater, was not er­ected until 1897, to celebrate Emperor Franz Josef I's golden Jub­ilee. How tragic that the largest Vienna fire broke out in 1937, after which very little of the main building was left.

Read Great Exhibitions: The World Fairs 1851-1937 by Robert Wilson, 2008



16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know I keep saying it, but so interesting and I knew nothing of Vienna World Exhibition. Can you put a USB stick in your ear, copy your knowledge of European history to the stick and post it to me please.

Joe said...

The opening ceremonies were normally huge. So why did Emperor Francis Joseph not glam it up? The reports suggest that the music was more important i.e the orchestra playing Handel's March and the waltzes by Strauss. Go Vienna!

Fun60 said...

It sounded a wonderful exhibition. What a huge loss when it was destroyed by fire. I imagine it would have taken days to wander around and enjoy this exhibition.

Hels said...

Andrew

From 1990 on, as a post-grad student and then as a lecturer, I was besotted with the Great Exhibitions aka World Fairs. They were my first introduction to booming 19th century arts, sciences, industry and culture, in cities that invited the whole world in. London, Paris, Vienna, Melbourne and Sydney were my favourite World Fairs, but then the students and I spread to other cities as well eg Chicago.

Hels said...

Joe

it was an easy choice regarding Johann Strauss II because he was born and raised in Vienna, in a very well loved Viennese musical family. His Viennese waltzes were played publicly for the first time at the 1873 World Fair.

With George Frideric Handel was born in Germany and never even visited Vienna. However he enjoyed a presence in Vienna's musical life that compared well to that of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. It was Handel that composed the 1873 Festival theme music.

Hels said...

Fun60

after the four years of careful planning, fund raising and building the World Fair facilities, it seems incredible that the organisers KNEW that most of the _very expensive_ facilities would be pulled down.

Sometimes it was by accident (eg the beautiful 2nd Crystal Palace in London accidentally burned to the ground, as did Sydney's beautiful Garden Palace in 1882). Less frequently a beautiful building was intentionally preserved (eg Festival Palace in Melbourne). Occasionally a Festival building was protected and converted into something the city needed (eg the 1904 Palace at St Louis Fair was reopened as the St Louis Art Museum.

mem said...

we tend to think of the industrial revolution and its consequences as being very much an Anglo thing and this shows us just how much the whole world was changing . I just love Vienna , Its a smaller city with a human scale and yet still so much a city aware of it magnificent history . Its a city with great self esteem .

Train Man said...

Who made the decision about where the next Fair would be and when? Vienna should have hosted it more often.

Hels said...

mem

The old city ​​fortifications were pulled down in the 1850s and expansion continued for the rest of the 19th century. Vienna must have been absolutely beautiful then, my favourite period of urban planning, architecture, music, landscaping and the arts. No wonder Em­peror Franz-Joseph I (reigned 1848–1916) was so keen to invite the world in, to admire the culture and industry.

Hels said...

Train Man

The Bureau International Des Exposition is a intergovernmental organisation that formally invites cities to submit applications for world fairs, assesses the applications, sets the dates and supervises the successful cities' progress.

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Hels - fascinating ... and I see you studied it - is there 'a definitive book' - preferably short one! - you'd recommend ... thank you ... you've whetted my appetite - cheers Hilary

Hels said...

Hilary

royalty and the aristocracy always lived and socialised in attractive facilities. But it wasn't until the second half of the 19th century that ordinary middle class families could participate in cultural activities - theatres, public parks, musical events, coffee shops, beach huts, pleasure piers, summer holiday resorts etc.

Of course workers down coal mines couldn't ever visit world fairs, even during the great years of culture and industry.

Luiz Gomes said...

Boa tarde minha querida amiga. Obrigado pela excelente matéria e aula de história. Não conhecia essa matéria.

Hels said...

Luiz

I am guessing that was because South America only had ONE International Exhibition that was recognised by the Bureau International Des Exposition/BIE - Independence Centenary International Exposition in Rio de Janeiro 1922-1923. It was a great success.

Luiz Gomes said...

Bom final de semana com muita paz e saúde minha querida amiga.

Hels said...

Luiz

thanks for reading the post :)