A Spotlight On: Vienna

Home to world-famous silversmiths, pottery, glass and brass artisans, Vienna is a veritable workshop-wonderland meets craft utopia. Intriguing and ornate, it’s always a must-stop on the ABASK trail. So, we asked four of our very talented makers – who happen to be four of its most informed residents – to share with us their tips to get into the Viennese mood.

Lobmeyr

Did you know… Hand-blown and hand-painted glass connoisseur Lobmeyr, that celebrates its 200th anniversary this year, was 60 years young when it collaborated with Thomas Edison on the first electric chandelier.

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“Ariadne Press from California puts together a good collection of Vienna-related books. Friedrich Torberg’s Tante Jolesch gives a charming insight into the time when Vienna had only just been head of an empire. They also publish Adolf Loos’ writings like On Architecture, which gives a good insight in thoughts around here when Vienna was stepping towards modernity.”

WATCH:

“If you like The Third Man, that gives a good picture of what hides below this city, try Sissi – starring Romy Schneider by Ernst Marischka.”

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“Falco and Schubert give a good Vienna mood, I think. Vienna is a lovely and lively modern city today, but it’s good have a bit background to feel the deepness past centuries built.”

While you’re there…

Best restaurant:

Gmoa Keller

Best bar:

Tür 7

Best bookshop:

Phil Love

Words by Leonid Rath

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"Vienna is a veritable workshop-wonderland cum craft utopia"

Carl Auböck

Did you know… Founder Carl Auböck II was one of the first students to attend the Bauhaus in 1919, spearheading the modern approach that Carl Auböck IV continues in the same workshop in Vienna where the original brass moulds remain.

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“Carl Schorske’s Vienna 1900 is a standard book about Vienna’s urban and cultural development from a flock of villages into a metropole, becoming a hotspot of modernism, the arts and philosophy. The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving was one of his first books and shows the close connection of US life with Vienna showing a great deal of vernacular knowledge. It’s a sensual page turner, too.”

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“The Third Man by Carol Reed is a post-war movie that deals with the friendship of two men, one turned into a criminal war profiteer trafficking fake penicillin. The main character of this movie is the city of Vienna, lying wrecked after World War II, the inhabitants like eerie ghosts born in an era dead and gone. As an architect, I designed a travelling exhibition about the making and the whereabouts of this film together with Frederick Baker.”

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“The Third Man soundtrack reminds me of the intensive guitar punch of Son House. The delta seems to reach deep into Vienna. And Schubert Impromptus played by Friedrich Gulda, my favourite Viennese piano maestro. These short but magical pieces seem to bring out the best emotional reflections of Viennese life.”

While you’re there…

Best restaurant:

Disco Volante

Best bar:

The Grand Ferdinand

Best bookshop:

Buchhandlung Brigitte Salanda

Words by Carl Auböck IV

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Augarten

Did you know… Founded in 1718, Augarten is the second-oldest specialist porcelain manufacturer in Europe famed for creating world-famous objects with collaborators, including the melon service by Josef Hoffmann in 1929.

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“The World of Yesterday: Memoirs of a European by Stefan Zweig. He is extremely nostalgic. It also shows an empire which is in ruins after the First World War and he remembers what his use in this huge, beautiful, very peaceful city of Vienna was where all the nationalities, all the religions were talking together. This is this souvenir of the world of yesterday.”

WATCH:

“The Third Man with Orson Welles is a very dark movie but is still presented every day in the same cinema, Burg Kino, as it has been for the last 60 years. Every day people go to watch it. And it represents the Vienna after the Second World War when there was a lot of destruction; like a phoenix, we rose from the ashes.”

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“Beethoven Concerto 5 Emperor by Vienna Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein and Krystian Zimerman. Beethoven is so representative of Vienna, even though he was from Germany. He lived in 19 different apartments here and they all still exist. This music represents the time of the emperors and the time when Napoleon was here in Vienna.”

While you’re there…

Best restaurant:

Zum Schwarzen Kammel

Best bar:

Loos Bar

Best bookshop:

Hartlieb Bücherei

Words by Alexandre Boutry

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"Vienna is home to celebrated silversmiths, pottery, glass and brass artisans"

Jarosinski & Vaugoin

Did you know… Founded in 1847, Jarosinski & Vaugoin is one of the last silversmiths in the world to still work by hand providing many royal households with its design objects, including Queen Elizabeth II for whom it made a replica of its famous Cellini’s Saliera salt cellar in 1969.

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“There are several nice books about the hidden gems and funny stories about the city. If one is capable of speaking German, I would suggest Ein Mann ohne Eigenschaften by Robert Musil. It’s very hard to read though, so maybe The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance by Edmund de Waal is better. It’s a true family story reflecting the dark past of the city.”

WATCH:

“Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise is very nice, a typical romance with very nice shots of Vienna.”

LISTEN TO:

“The soundtrack should be a mix between a classic waltz and some more contemporary house music. There are quite good DJs in town. This mix describes best the rhythm of the city.”

While you’re there…

Best restaurant:

Fabios

Best bar:

Zum Schwarzen Kammel

Best bookshop:

Bücherstube Joachim Baumann

Words by Jean-Paul Vaugoin

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