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The entrance

Details of the entrance and cornerstone

Design details of the side of the building and the side of the entrance

The Vienna Secession grew out of a dissatisfaction with the traditional
practices of the Kunstlerhausgenossenschaft; an association which could have
been called the Vienna Academie.

The Kunstlerhaus was, in Gustav Klimt's
eyes, directed by commercial motivations which were limiting in their disregard
of foreign artists and maintained art as something separate from the lives of
the majority of the Austrian people. This conflict between new ideals and the
establishment came to a head in 1897 when forty members of the Kunstlerhaus
seceded and founded their own association with Gustav Klimt as their president.

Wagner, Otto, b. Penzing, Vienna, July 13, 1841, d. Vienna, April 11, 1918, architect and art theorist. Studied in Berlin and Vienna; then joined the circle of L. <!-- (see) -->Förster and T. <!-- (see) -->Hansen (for whom he designed Epstein Palace on the Ringstraße in Vienna). From 1884 Professor at the Vienna Academy. Independent from 1864, but later criticised some of his early work; the most influential Viennese architect of the late 19th and early 20th century embodying the fruitful combination of <!-- (see) -->historicism and modernism. Set standards in most fields of <!-- (see) -->architecture. His work was always guided by his endeavour to create a total work of art (Gesamtkunstwerk). In his early work combined late Romantic and modernist elements (Epstein Villa in Baden, 1867, synagogue in Budapest, 1873); he then developed monumental projects and large-scale urban architecture ("Artibus"). Until the 1890s preferred an impassioned even opulent Renaissance style for the Ringstraße (<!-- (see) -->Ringstrasse Style). Planned the building on Schottenring 23, 1878; assisted in the Makart procession, 1879; designed the Hahn Villa in Baden, 1885; and the "big" Wagner Villa in Hütteldorf, Vienna in 1888. Participated in international competitions on numerous occasions. Later turned away from historicist style and embraced a more innovative approach with an emphasis on formal design rather than structure. Even though he strongly supported the transition to modern realism and functionalism he remained loyal to the belief that the architect, as an artist, although recognising engineering aspects must rise above simple functionalism. With his works he largely defined both <!-- (see) -->Secession architecture and the basis of modernism, later to be put into practice by younger artists ("Schützenhaus" building at the weir at Kaiserbad on the Danube Canal, Vienna, 1904-1906). The housing constructions of this phase won international recognition (in Vienna the buildings on the Wienzeile, 1898, the "small" Wagner Villa, 1913). While many famous designs were not actually constructed (e.g. Academy, City Museum, Ministry of War), W. completed 3 masterpieces: the building of the Vienna City railway (1892-1901, esp. the station buildings, today the U4 line and the U6 line), the church at Steinhof (1902-1907) and the Post Office Savings Bank (1904-1906). As a teacher he founded a renowned school of architecture (J. M. <!-- (see) -->Olbrich, J. <!-- (see) -->Hoffmann, J. <!-- (see) -->Plecnik) that continued to develop his ideas in accordance with the highest aesthetic values, but unfortunately, due to lack of financial means, could not often carry them out. His son, Otto W. the Younger, (b. Aug. 28, 1864, d. Aug. 28, 1945) was also an architect and worked mainly in Belgium.

Otto Wagner (1841-1918) was one of the most influential figures in the development of twentieth-century European architecture. Trained in the fashionable mode of combining disparate historical styles, Wagner established himself early on as the leading architect of late imperial Vienna. In the late 1890s, however, he rejected the eclecticism of his early career and developed a signature approach in which simplified exterior decoration was determined by a building's structure. Privileging pragmatic over stylistic concerns, Wagner exhorted a truly modern architecture for a modern age. "Modern forms," Wagner declared, "must correspond to new materials, contemporary needs, if they are to be found suitable for mankind today." His progressive stance led to an alignment with, and membership in, the likeminded Vienna Secession (two of his pupils, Josef Maria Olbrich and Josef Hoffmann, were founding members), a group dedicated to challenging the conservative artistic establishment. But his membership in the Secession prevented the realization of a number of major projects, including the unbuilt Academy of Fine Arts. Wagner's later years were marked by critical acclaim but relatively few major commissions. The Postsparkasse (Post Office Savings Bank, 1904-6) and the Kirche am Steinhof (St. Leopold's Church, 1905) were among his last buildings, and are considered his most revolutionary work. Both utilized new materials -- steel, glass, aluminum -- and innovative modes of construction in a highly successful fusion of functional building and aesthetic vision.

Otto Koloman Wagner (13 July 1841–11 April 1918) was an Austrian architect.

Wagner was born in Penzing, a suburb of Vienna. He studied in Berlin and Vienna. In 1864, he started designing his first buildings in the historicist style. In 1884, he became a teacher in the school of architecture of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

Sitte proposed instead to follow what he believed to be
the design objectives of those whose streets and buildings shaped medieval
cities. He advocated curving or irregular street alignments to provide
ever-changing vistas. He called for T-intersections to reduce the number
of possible conflicts among streams of moving traffic. He pointed out the
advantages of what came to be know as "turbine squares"--civic spaces served
by streets entering in such a way as to resemble a pin-wheel in plan.

His teachings became widely accepted in Austria, Germany,
and Scandinavia, and in less than a decade his style of urban design came
to be accepted as the norm in those countries. There were, of course, critics
of this approach, and ultimately the kind of carefully studied informality
that Sitte endorsed came itself to be regarded as old-fashioned. Nevertheless,
from 1890 until the outbreak of the First World War, the majority of the
numerous extension plans for enlarging the rapidly growing cities of Germany
incorporated all or some of the elements so strongly supported by Sitte
and his followers.

Camillo Sitte (1843-1903), born in Vienna, is a son of the arts. His father, Franz, was a famous architect who was primarily concerned with repairs and religious architecture, designing churches in Vienna, Voslaw and Erland.

He advocated the applied arts and disliked the industrialism that destroyed the old corporations of arts and crafts. Rudolf von Eitelberger, besides the father, was interested in old arts.

At 32 years old, he was named director of a professional technical school in Salzburg, which he left in 1883 to direct another in Vienna. He traveled a lot in the Central Europe, Minor Asia, Egypt, and especially in Greece and Italy, fundamental countries for his artistic formation.

With his father, he designed many churches (of Mechitaristi in Vienna, of Giubileo in Privoz and the parochial church of Temesvar), yet he was also dedicated to the professional activity of urbanism, establishing plans for expansion of Olmutz, Teschen, Lubiana, besides the general plans of Mahrisch-Ostrau and Marienberg.

Great admirer of Richard Wagner, he was friend of the scenographer Josef Hoffmann and of the designer of Wagner theaters Gottfried Semper. His book “Der Städtebau nach seinen Künslerische Grundsätzen”, first published in Vienna in 1889, is simple and clear in its theoretical structure. It is illustrated with several cases and explanatory schemes, achieving immediate and clamorous success among the public of specialists or semi-specialists in urban planification.

The works of Sitte present a feeling of refusal to the metropolis, which was constituted as the dominant means of human living in the 19 th century, as the headquarter of the illuminist notion of man as an individual able to contrast with the social body.

His urbanistic theories would be opposed to it, since they presented the public space as the antidote against disaggregation of collective life and corruption of the individual, identified as characteristics of a new way of life.

Thus, the importance of the public space as a social gatherer is modern. Before the metropolis, its role was not explicated, since the problem of social disaggregation caused by individualism did not exist. The artistic bases of Sitte are much deeper than only "urban beauty". Squares and parks should be catalyzers of public life, social condensers able to re-propose the way of life regarded as absent.

The street was built to replace the city walls, which had been built during the 13th century and reinforced as a consequence of the First Turkish Siege in 1529, and instead of the glacis, which was about 500m wide. The fortification had been obsolete since the late 18th century, but the Revolution of 1848 was required to trigger a significant change.

In 1850, the Vorstädte (today the Districts II to IX) were incorporated into the municipality, which made the city walls a simple impediment to traffic. In 1857, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria issued his famous decree "It is My will" (Es ist Mein Wille at Wikisource) ordering the demolition of the city walls and moats. In his decree, he laid out the exact size of the boulevard, as well as the geographical positions and functions of the new building. The Ringstraße and the planned buildings were intended to be a showcase for imperial Habsburg grandeur and the glory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. On the practical level, Emperor Napoléon III of France already demonstrated with his boulevard-building in Paris how enlarging the size of the streets effectively made the erection of revolutionary barricades impossible.

Since the Ringstraße had always been meant primarily for show, a parallel Lastenstraße (burden road) was built on the outside of the former glacis. This street is commonly known as 2-er Linie, named after the index "2" in the identifiers of the tram lines which used it. It is still important for through traffic.

After some disputes about competence between the government and the municipality, a "City Extension Fund" was created, which was administered by the government. Only the town hall was planned by the city.

During the following years, a large number of public and private opulent buildings were erected. Both nobility and the moneyed aristocracy rushed to build showy mansions along the street. One of the first buildings was the Heinrichshof, owned by the beer brewer Heinrich Drasche, which was located opposite the opera house until 1945.