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Today, the white marble bust of the scholar stands unmissable next to the high-jet fountain on Vienna's Schwarzenbergplatz; it is sometimes gently moistened by its spray mist. Eduard Suess should thank you, especially on hot days. But the monument in question was only unveiled on September 19, 1928. This came at just the right time for the annual meeting of the German Geological Society, which was meeting in Vienna at the time. The monument was then removed during the Nazi era because Suess had Jewish roots in his family.
On June 12, 1951, 120 years after his birth, the Suess monument was erected again, this time next to the Rasumofsky Palace, then the headquarters of the Federal Geological Institute. His daughter-in-law, Olga Suess, did not agree with this; she preferred a place near the university where Suess taught. But the monument has been back on Schwarzenbergplatz since 1969; Olga Suess died in 1972 and lived to see it.
Contaminated drinking water, which came primarily from domestic wells in the middle of the 19th century, led to high mortality in Vienna. Suess, who published a geology of Vienna in 1862 and knew the city's subsoil very well, wrote in his "Memoirs": "Since the most dangerous contamination, namely that of organic origin, clings to people's homes, infiltration areas had to be sought that were outside the settlement area. Such areas were only present on the plateaus of the Alps, and the question now was whether the sources were at the foot of these plateaus (Schneeberg, Rax, etc. a.) should be proposed despite their removal."
For this ambitious project, Mayor Andreas Zelinka (1802–1868) brought him to the water supply commission in March 1863. On July 12, 1864, the commission submitted a proposal to the Vienna City Council that "the unification and creation of the sources of the Kaiserbrunnen, Stixenstein and the Altaquelle" should not only be sought, but also "implemented as soon as possible." The length of the line to be built was specified as 112 kilometers. The plans were subsequently pushed forward, and this phase also included the caricatures of Suess by his colleagues Guido Stache and Carl Maria Paul, who praised him as a hero.
On May 25, 1866, the local council received the project for assessment, and the resolution was passed on June 19, 1866. Construction began on December 6, 1869, although the emperor did not break the ground until April 21, 1870.
The water pipe opened in the year of the World Exhibition in 1873 had a lasting effect: "Fifteen years later, when the new water pipe was introduced in 91 percent of the houses, the senior medical officer Prof. Drasche estimated the total reduction in deaths from typhoid fever achieved by then at 7,961, the number before 1867-73, 34.21 in 1,000 deaths and in the same period up to 1888 only 9.44. The water was only introduced gradually."
The two geologists Guido Stache (1833–1921) and Carl Maria Paul (1838–1900) from the k. k. Geological Reichsanstalt not only had a sense of humor, they also knew how to draw well. Between autumn 1865 and 1866 they published the “New Free Figaro” a total of 18 times. "Published every Tuesday in a single magnificent copy and is not for sale." The price was affordable: "For single numbers, a friendly grin is sufficient as payment; for double numbers with supplements, a loud and unaffected laugh is required." The content was about current topics from the world of geology at the time, which were humorously recorded with a sharp pen. The humorous weekly magazine “Figaro”, which appeared from 1857 to 1919, served as a model.
In number 3 from November 21, 1865 we find Eduard Suess (alias Eduardo Dulci) in the victorious pose of Prince Eugene. His monument, created by Dominik Fernkorn, had been unveiled a month earlier, on October 18, 1865, by Emperor Franz Joseph on Vienna's Heldenplatz. It can be assumed that Stache, as the architect of the "Suess Monument in a heroic conception and in the primeval Renaissance style", found inspiration here. The medallions bear two inscriptions, on the one hand: "To the wise advisor of three mayors. To the victor over all newspaper pascha. To the conqueror of the old viper" and on the other hand: "Florentis Zelinka duce Vindobonae grati cives sitientes Eduardo Dulci convivi qui ex Alpium pedibus trium fontium aquam dulcem conductam ingenies & consilio et eloquentia polita splendita, suavi in urbem tulit hoc monumentum posuerunt."
And here is a modest attempt at a translation: "The honorable citizens of Vienna, which was flourishing under the leadership of Zelinka, erected this monument, thirsty for the banquet, to Eduard Suess, who ingeniously brought the sweet water of three springs from the foot of the Alps to the city with both a plan and magnificently crafted and sweet oratory."
Draft number two follows in number 5 of December 5, 1865. "The three-spring male as a counterpart to the Danube female. Suess monument in an idyllic conception based on Gasser's motifs in a semi-antique style by the architect Stache." Again, a currently erected monument served as a template. The Danube Female Fountain by Hans Gasser (1817–1868) was the first monument to be unveiled in Vienna's city park on September 30, 1865. The three springs mentioned here are the Altaquelle in Brunn near Pitten, the Stixensteinquelle near Sieding in the municipality of Ternitz and the Kaiserbrunnen in the Höllental. The Altaquelle was acquired by the municipality of Vienna. The Stixenstein spring, like the Kaiserbrunnen, came into the possession of the municipality of Vienna as a gift from the owners, Count Ernst Karl von Hoyos-Sprinzenstein and Emperor Franz Joseph.
The third draft appraisal was published on February 20, 1866 in the geological Bierblatt. "The Suess defeats the Mino-lupus. Third draft for a Suess monument after Canova-Paul executed by the architect Stache." The title needs explanation and leads into Greek mythology. "Mino-lupus" (composed of the Greek minotaur and the Latin term lupus for wolf) refers to the geologist Heinrich Wolf (1825–1882), a colleague of Stache and Paul at the k. k. Geological Reichsanstalt.
Wolf had presented a counter-proposal to Suess' water supply and suggested taking water from springs in Jedlesee, on the left bank of the Danube (today Vienna Floridsdorf). "Canova-Paul" is an allusion to the Italian sculptor Antonio Canova (1757–1822) and the aforementioned geologist Paul.
In contrast to the other two drafts, there was no current reason. The Theseus Group, completed in 1819, was acquired by Emperor Franz I in Rome. She came to Vienna via Belgrade in the spring of 1822. It was initially installed in the Temple of Theseus in the Volksgarten. It was only when the Art History Museum was completed in 1890 that the group found its place on the magnificent staircase there, where it can be viewed today. (Thomas Hofmann, October 22, 2020)