After successful completion of the course, students are able to work scientifically and have gained experience in archival and literature research. They will be able to apply and expand these experiences in research on individual objects, ensembles or cities in the course of their studies.
In the second half of the 19th century, the "imperial capital and residential city" of Vienna underwent a revolutionary regulation and redesign. This is accompanied by enormous losses of historical building fabric and identity-forming ensembles. This transformation of the city - the loss of "Old Vienna" - leads on the one hand to melancholy and nostalgia. This phenomenon, borne by the industrial revolution and its effects on society, can be observed not only in Vienna but throughout Europe. At the same time, the dawn of the future of the "New Vienna" is enthusiastically welcomed by architects and cultural workers and promotes the emergence of new technical and scientific disciplines, for example photography as a medium of documentation. Among the protagonists of the time was the Viennese architect and urban planning theorist Camillo Sitte (1843-1903), who himself was critical of issues of urban preservation and monument conservation. He vehemently attacked the common practice of exempting historical architectural monuments - and he was not alone in this position. It was against this background that the predecessor institution of today's Federal Monuments Office was established in Austria, the so-called "K.K. Zentralkommission für Denkmalpflege" (Central Commission for the Preservation of Monuments), which at that time was still exclusively dedicated to the preservation and maintenance of architectural monuments.
This Seminar will deal with the early days of Austrian monument preservation and trace the considerations of urban preservation at that time. The thematic focus will be placed specifically on the Viennese situation and the urban planning level: In what historical environment did the discipline of monument preservation develop? Which buildings, which ensembles and cityscapes were considered worthy of preservation or how was their significance defined? Who are the decisive personalities on the cultural, scientific but also political level - which actors support this development? What positions do urban planners take on the question of how to deal with the historic city? What are the visions of the city and what is the position of heritage conservation? To what extent did the treatment of the historically evolved urban landscape and the ensembles that shape it change from the 19th to the 20th century?
weekly, Thursday 14:00-16:00; from October 20th 2022; SR 257
obligation to be present!
Handouts and reference books will be provided.
Writing a seminar paper: Each participant has to submit a written, methodologically sound, scientific paper of approx. 20 pages of continuous text. The language of the written work is (preferably) German. The results will be presented in a final presentation. The assessment criteria also include active participation in the group meetings, short presentations and text discussions. In particular, active participation in the guided tours of libraries and archives: Archive of the TU Wien; Austrian National Library; Library MAK, etc. The corresponding dates will be announced at the beginning of the course.
recommended and preferred are:
