City of the Viennese

Yesterday we went to Leopold Museum located in the Museum Quartier. Leopold had an excellent exhibition of Vienna artists like Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele whose paintings can clearly claim to be a new way of perspective. In fact, it was not only in the realm of art but also in psychology (Sigmund Freud), economics (Hayek, Schumpeter) music (Mahler and Schonberg) and architecture. It is one of those periods in history when gifted people, new ideas and a special city come together with the right ingredients to claim a break from the past and point the way towards a new way.

The exhibit at the lower floor of the Leopold was on esoteric subjects like Theosophy, spiritual enlightenment, life after death and such areas that pertain to the supernatural realm.  Vienna in the 1900s is like Paris in the 1920s or New York in 1950s or San Jose\ Silicon Valley in the 1980s or Shanghai in the 2020s. Unfortunately, Vienna succumbed to fascism with the rise of National Socialism and Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust. After the World War I, Austrian – Hungarian empire collapsed, and the Hapsburg were dethroned. It was not a happy ending considering the promising start.

The next museum we went was the Wien or Vienna Museum. Initially, I wanted to go to the Albertini Museum but decided we had enough of art museums. We walk through the museum quartier made our way towards St. Charles Church. There was a Christmas Market in front of the church but did not get a chance to visit the church or the market. Instead, we spent nearly 3 hours in the Wein Museum, which was all about Vienna, the city. The museum reminded me of the Tokyo Museum which I visited long ago.

I have been watching YouTube videos about the Hapsburg, Austro – Hungarian empire which I tried to relate to my visit, to imagine rising of a multi-ethnic society and the social process and governance it took to manage or mismanage this immense grouping. Wien Museum brough me down to earth, to understand the history of the place with exhibits of weaponry, armory, artifacts and good use of audio-visual technologies to improve our understanding. The admission was free, and I should have spent more time here.

I liked the exhibits on the siege of Vienna by the Ottomans, by Napoleon Bonaparte, Congress of Vienna and the Anschluss or annexation of Austria by Hitler. I could link my visit to Upper and Lower Belvedere which was owned by Prince Eugene of Savoy who fought in the wars against Napoleon. Of the city mayors and the business men and financiers whose palatial homes dotted the city center and their business history. It provided a closer glimpse of the Viennese and their city.