“Science is an integral part of culture. It’s not this foreign thing, done by an arcane priesthood. It’s one of the glories of the human intellectual tradition.” – S.J. Gould.
Is this a small park with plenty of trees, hilly terrain, and a small lake? Or is this simply a forest cemetery, a final resting spot for many prominent Berliners?
As part of an ongoing search for gravesites for physicists and mathematicians in Germany, I visited Berlinās Friedhof Heerstrasse, near the city’s Olympic Stadium. Within the cemetery is Sausuhlensee lake, which settled into a former glacial gully, around which much of the cemetery came into being in 1924. Named after the early 20th-century Heerstrasse estate district whose residents were to be buried here, the cemetery stretches out over an area of almost 15 hectares (37 acres).
I found the grave for physicist Hermann Minkowski, but among the buried there are other “Promis” (prominent).
Forested park, forest cemetery.
The calm waters of Sausuhlensee lake on an autumn afternoon.
Above/featured: Entrance into the Ferstel Passage (Ferstelpalais, Herrengasse 14). Photo, 2 Jun 2023 (X70).
The following structures in the city of Vienna share something (and someone) in common:
• Café Central,
• the University of Vienna,
• Votive Church, and
• the Museum for Applied Arts.
These buildings were all designed by Viennese architect Heinrich Ferstel. His architectural works left a deep and lasting impression on the city and her residents. What follows is a brief life summary and highlights from a number of his projects.
• born/✵ 7 Jul 1828 – died/✟ 14 Jul 1883.
• One of many architects contributing to the development of Vienna’s “Ringstrasse.”
• 1843–1847: student at Imperial & Royal Polytechnic Institute.
• 1850: completed studies at Architekturschule der Akademie der bildenden KĆ¼nste (Architectural School, Academy of Fine Arts) under Carl Rösner, Eduard van der Nüll, August Sicard von Sicardsburg.
• 1866: appointed Professor of Architecture at Polytechnic Institute; subsequently, dean 1866–1870; rector 1880–1881 after institute became the Technical University in 1872.
• 1872: founded the Cottageverein (Cottage Association) for the construction of English-style family homes in the Währing district.
… Prolific Austrian architect. He (Ferstel) designed the twin-towered Gothic Revival Votivkirche (1856–1882) and various other Historicist buildings, including the vast Italian Renaissance Revival University (1873–1884) in Vienna. Much of his important work (where the influence of Semper is often clear) was done for the area adjoining the Ringstrasse, but he also designed many buildings throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire. An advocate of housing reform, he admired English low-density developments, which influenced the Cottageverein (Cottage Association), Vienna (1872–1874), responsible for building small single-family houses. Ferstel also promoted the laying out of the TĆ¼rkenschanzpark, a public park on English lines (from 1883) …
On a warm June day in 2022, I’m sitting in the basement of someone’s family home, lovingly decorated over decades by Omas and Opas. In Vienna’s 4th district, the idea behind Vollpension cafe is retirees do all the baking.
Upon arrival, a host seats me at a table where I’m presented with a “menu card” listing combination- and timing-options. Unlike other cafes in the city, one does not hang out or loiter here for hours, and that means there’s a maximum stay-duration for a specified combination purchase; that’s fine by me, as I choose one of the cake-and-beverage options. The server leaves to retrieve my cool drink, while I go up to the front counter and gauge the remaining options on Sunday mid-afternoon. I want something light on this warm late-spring day: Kardinalschnitt, made with sponge cake, meringue, and fruit jam. I order a slice of Kardinalschnitt mit Schlagobers (with whipped cream). Behind the counter is a kindly Oma to whom I relay in passable German I came all the way from Canada’s west coast to see this place. That impressed her enough that she asks me to come back for a 2nd but smaller piece.
There’s a good mix of ages among the staff. I chat briefly with one of the servers about what it’s like to work here at the café, the guests they’ve seen from different countries, and their favourite cake. Among some of the retired pensioners in house today, I have an additional conversation with a gentleman who has spent time with his family in Vancouver, Canada.
At the outset, some Viennese or Austrians might not seek this place out, although I can tell from surrounding conversations how much Viennese-German is being spoken. At any rate, this place works for me, and if I barely knew my grandparents, I can perhaps get a good taste and long look at life with Austrian grandparents, here at Vollpension in Vienna.
Ameisen-Gugelhupf / Bundt cake with chocolate chips. No “Ameisen” (ants) were harmed or included in the cake-making process (X70).
Topfentorte / cream-cheese torte (X70).
Kardinalschnitte, made with sponge cake, meringue, and fruit jam (X70).
2nd, complimentary, but smaller slice of Kardinalschnitte, accompanied by cool unsweetened non-alcoholic lemon spritzer (X70).
Directions
Vollpension is centrally located on Schleifmühlgasse 16 with a second location at the MUK Wien (Music & Arts University of Vienna). Smaller versions of Vollpension might “pop up” elsewhere in the city during the summer season.
Public transport with Wiener Linien: in between U1/(U2)/U4 Karlsplatz and U4 Kettenbrückengasse; bus 59A to stop Schleifmühlgasse; or tram 1, 62, or Badener Bahn to stop “Paulanergasse.”
My independent visit to Vollpension was neither requested nor supported. I made all images above on 22 May and 12 Jun 2022 with an Apple 6th-generation iPod Touch (iPT6) and Fujifilm X70 fixed-lens prime (X70). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-n7U.
Above/featured: Examples of the “Ringstraßenstil” historicism style at Maria Theresa Square, with Maria Theresa Monument at left and the Museum of Natural History at right. Photo, 15 May 2022 (X70).
• Can a street alone define its surrounding architecture?
• Do the buildings themselves establish the street’s visual impression?
• Is Vienna (un)fairly defined by the Ringstrasse and the inner city?
The answers, as always, are a little complicated.
Like many, I’m also fond of Vienna’s Ringstrasse (Ring Road), as a kind of “hello” and re-introduction to the city after my first visit in 2002. At 5 kilometres in length, the Ringstrasse is one of the longest streets in Europe, longer than the nearly 2-km Champs-Élysées in Paris and longer than the 4.5-km Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg. The boulevard is surrounded by Prachtbauten (buildings of splendour), constructed in the architectural style of “historicism,” a big nod to classic “forms” reflecting structural “functions”. The late-19th century “Ringstrassenstil” (Ring Road architectural style) continued the practiced habit of choosing a historical style which best identified with the purpose of the building. For example, the Neo-Baroque architectural style is represented in the Civic Theater; the Neo-Classical style in the Parliament and New Palace; the Neo-Gothic style in City Hall and the Votive Church; and the Neo-Renaissance style in the museums, palatial mansions, Opera House, and the University.
On Christmas Day 1857, the Wiener Zeitung newspaper published an imperial decree written 5 days earlier (on 20 December) by Habsburg emperor Franz Joseph I. He ordered the demolition of the inner-city wall and the subsequent creation of a circular boulevard, bordered by grand buildings and filled with green spaces. The large outward extension of the inner city changed and influenced the urban development of Vienna, still seen to this very day.
It is my will that the extension of the inner city of Vienna should proceed as soon as possible, providing for appropriate connections between the city and the suburbs as well as the embellishment of my imperial residence and capital. To this end, I authorise the removal of the walls and fortifications of the inner city as well as the ditches around it …
– Emperor Franz Joseph I: 20 Dec 1857, published 25 Dec 1857.
On 1 May 1865, Emperor Franz Josef unveiled the Ringstrasse in an official ceremony, even though large areas remained under construction. Ringstrasse structures included the religious and the secular, as well as the public and the private. The Ringstrasse symbolized the power of the imperial state, and the growth of a new arts and culture scene with the increasing popularity of coffee houses.
It’s also important to note the architectural impact made by the Jewish middle- and upper-class to integrate within the Habsburg empire. For example, the families Ephrussi, Epstein, and Todesco commissioned architect Theophil Hansen to construct palatial mansions as visible manifestations and partial realization of the dream of many Viennese Jews: assimilation into and emancipation within Viennese society. (Viennese journalist and political activist Theodor Herzl might have had a different opinion about that.)
For residents and long-term visitors today, it’s entirely possible to fit into the unintended shape and mentality of the “modern” city: that the inner-city wall was simply replaced by a different wall of “economic class”, that the architectural callback to historicism “freezes” the inner-city in time, and that like many, I can live, traverse, and work in the outer districts and avoid entering the inner city.
For short-term visitors today, the Ringstrasse buildings form a golden shiny “ring” around the “fingers” of the U1 and U3 metro lines traversing through the UNESCO World Heritage inscribed inner-city. For these visitors, all that’s needed for their limited time in Vienna is the inner city.
This is “lĆqtÉd”, commonly known today in Seattle as Licton Springs.
This place is the city’s first indigenous landmark.ā£ā£
ā£ā£In a corner of Licton Springs Park, a couple of wood bridges cross over small creeks. Despite encroachment by urbanization over many decades and the pressure of being squeezed between Aurora Avenue and the Interstate-5 freeway, the water flow has essentially continued from the time before white/European colonization. Four springs and their emergent creeks flowed south into what is now called Green Lake. One of these springs, the āiron sulphur springā, remains visible with its outflow merging downstream with a larger creek, as iron-oxide mud stains the ground red. The word ālĆqtÉdā in the Lushootseed language means āred paintā. A recently installed cement ring-collar provides some protection around the spring as an attempt to preserving this historic location. As sacred site once used for medicinal and cultural activity, the Duwamish people camped and built sweat lodges near these springs; they bathed in the mineral-rich waters and used the brightly coloured mud to make paint. The second main spring, “white magnesium spring” at the park’s southern end, is no longer visible after having been capped under another existing pond.
ā£ā£On 16 October 2019, the city of Seattleās Landmarks Preservation Board approved the designation of the indigenous Duwamish site. Licton Springs Park received official historical recognition as the city’s first indigenous landmark.
Fotoeins Fotografie 