Aestheticism and the city: Gustav Mahler and musical politics in Fin-De-Siecle Vienna

Journal of Political and Military Sociology, Winter 2002 by Papanikolaou, Effie

Journal of Political and Military Sociology, 2002, Vol. 30, No. 2 (Winter):239-257

The physiognomy of the city of Vienna at the end of the nineteenth century appropriately reflected the political and cultural changes of the Hapsburg Empire after the 1848 revolutions. The sumptuous buildings erected along the Ringstrajsse, an assemblage of many different architectural styles, came to represent the extreme diversity and contradictions of fin-de-siecle Vienna and its inhabitants, and to affirm the power and glory of an - otherwise - aging empire. Brilliant artistic life and cultural and financial prosperity, however, provided the Viennese with a layer of surface euphoria and escapism. By extension, Gustav Mahler's life and work ideally epitomizes all the paradoxes of the world he chose to inhabit. As Director of the Hofoper, Mahler monopolized Viennese musical life for a decade, while his compositions were perceived with skepticism. The harsh criticism he endured during the first five years of his tenure represents only a summation of the personal, psychological, artistic, and professional battles of his entire creative life.

The revolutions that swept Europe in the middle of the nineteenth century had an indelible impact on the political, social, economic, and cultural future of all European states. In Vienna, the seat of the Hapsburg Empire and cultural center of the German-speaking world, the revolution of 1848 initiated a period of gradual civic and economic freedom, and active participation of the middle class in the public affairs, a fact that brought about many radical changes in the politics, culture, and even the physiognomy of the city of Vienna itself.

The center of aristocratic Vienna had been insulated from the outer suburbs for years, as a result of the strong fortifications that still stood around the city, dating as far back as the Ottoman siege of the seventeenth century. After the revolution, the suburbs would finally be incorporated into the city, even though the official abolition of the ramparts was not implemented until 20 December 1857, when Emperor Franz Josef s decree ordered their razing.1 This meant that the space where the city walls once stood and the wide glacis (open space) beyond it would henceforth be an area free to develop. Many proposals were submitted, and two years later Ludwig Forster's won. His plan included the creation of a big boulevard that would surround the city in the shape of a ring, which also gave the name to the street, Ringstrasse. On both sides of the Ringstrasse, public and cultural buildings would stand, to affirm the power and glory of an Empire which was otherwise shaking underneath; in only one year, 1859, Austria was both defeated by France and lost Lombardy, the first in a series of setbacks that would continue to accumulate during the years to come.

In 1860, however, when the actual development program was initiated, the construction of the Ringstrasse and the state buildings along it would not only assert the power of the Imperial City but also reflect a new ideology; the old aristocratic center would be separated in the inner city, where palaces and churches stood as symbols of a still viable tradition, whereas the outer new Vienna would be "strong through law and peace" and "embellished through art."2 These mottoes became the byword of a new society whose interest in cultural activities bordered on fanaticism. Whether the consequent aestheticism resulted from genuine sensitivity towards the arts or came about as an outcome of a fashion that demanded devotion to the arts through patronage is difficult to say. Both possibilities can be seen as the two sides of the same coin; whatever its ulterior purposes might have been, the Emperor's official opening of the Ringstrasse on I May 1865 signaled the beginning of a new era for the city of Vienna and the emergence of a new cultural identity for the Viennese.

The years between 1860 and 1890 saw intense reconstruction along the Ringstrasse - the greatest project of its kind in any European city from this period - which soon boasted a number of fabulous Prachtbauten (buildings of splendor). Given the lack of any particular historical orientation that characterized the new bourgeoisie and its cultural diversity (comprised of a multitude of nations and races, such as Germans, Slavs, Czechs, Slovenes, Jews, Hungarians, Poles, Italians, etc.), the buildings were fashioned after a variety of architectural styles. From the massive Gothic to the neo-classical Renaissance, the styles were chosen deliberately so that each building would indicate "function through historical allusion."4 The Hofoper (Court Opera House), ready by 1869, was among the first Prachtbauten to be finished. But four of the most important buildings for the liberal bourgeoisie were gathered in one sector of the Ringstrasse, the Rathaus Quarter; the Rathaus (Town Hall) was built in weighty Gothic style, and the Burgtheater appeared in late Renaissance/early Baroque style while the Italian-Renaissance style of the University was chosen to reflect the age of humanism that the liberals mused over. Yet, the most imposing and stately building erected during this period was undoubtedly the Parliament (Reichsrat).