Power sightseeing
Trip Start
Oct 05, 2009
1
3
Trip End
Oct 11, 2009
Vienna, Wien, Austria
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Friday I am back on my own and could begin my normally furious pace of sightseeing. The first stop is the Hapsburg palace where you can see the imperial apartments, the silver collection, and the Sisi museum. The silver collection was basically a walk through the palace’s china closet. They had dozens of sets of china and tableware for 140 people. There was room after room of candelabras, table linens and gold and silver. It was probably a billion dollar collection. I kept thinking of the economic inefficiency of all of it. The stuff was all made in Paris meaning the money spent didn’t even provide employment in the kingdom. I think I appreciate the GAO a little bit more after that.
Sisi is the nickname for Empress Elizabeth, wife of Franz Josef. The mythology tells the story of a happy, beautiful young girl growing up carefree Bavaria when she is chosen to be the wife of the emperor and dragged to Viennese Court. She does not adapt well to the confines of royalty and basically runs away so that she can go play in nature. She was the Hapsburg Princess Diana, which makes me think in 100 years, people will still be paying tribute to Princess Di. When will we celebrate princesses who use their husbands as mouth pieces through which they run the country? The walk through the imperial apartments revealed a bit about her husband Franz Josef, who was a slightly more interesting character. He ruled for 68 years, woke up every morning at 3.30, and seemed to take his role of emperor seriously.
In the afternoon, I wandered over to two very different museums. Kunsthistorisches Museum is your traditional big European collection of masterworks. It features paintings by Rubens, Rembrandt, Titian, Raphael, etc. I will admit that it is an impressively expansive collection, but it doesn’t really have anything to do with Austrian culture. It is worth a visit, but I learned far more from the neighboring Leopold Museum. Austria’s contribution to the art world wasn’t really made until the early 20th century with the birth Secession movement. Led by Klimt, the artists experimented with freer forms, new techniques, and more controversial topics. The museum does an excellent job of explaining how this art movement evolved during a very intellectually active time in Viennese history. At the time Austrians were struggling with their identity as they attempted to distribute the spoils of the industrial revolution. It was the era of Freud, the end of liberalism, and the dawn of anti-Semitism. The Viennese wanted to be considered cultured and art was an increasingly important part of the national identity. This museum is well designed, does an excellent job of providing cultural context for the art, and has a impressive collection of 20th century works by Klimt, Moser, Gerstel, and Schiele. (Who all died in 1918 along with the Hapsburg empire).
