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The number of books and travel guides about Vienna is almost endless. There is hardly a topic that hasn't been written about yet. As the author of several books on Vienna, I can only confirm how difficult it is to find gaps in the dense panopticon of Viennensia. Falter-Verlag is a guarantee for these special Vienna books and Vienna topics that always amaze even die-hard Vienna connoisseurs. Two examples that address the topic of urban facades are presented here. Although – this is once again emphasized – the façade theme is not specifically Viennese. It would work just as well in Graz, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Rome or Zurich. All you have to do is raise your gaze and walk through the city curiously with your eyes open. The character of “Hanns Guck-in-die-Luft”, which we know from Struwwelpeter, is not a model worth imitating for urban forays. There are a lot of things to take into account when strolling around the city, other people, dogs, scooters, bicycles, cars, etc. - but that shouldn't stop us from looking at facades.
Published in 2016, the book by Tom Koch, a self-employed graphic designer with a strong penchant for typography, with photos by Daniel Gerersdorfer and Stephan Doleschal, is a long-seller, as they say in the book trade.
The book, which is entirely bilingual (German/English), is based on a crowdfunding initiative that attracted more than 600 submissions. Not only the Vienna Museum community was involved, but also STANDARD. Under the title "Ghostletters: Send us your photos!" There was a call on July 5, 2016 that went beyond the borders of Vienna and also solicited photos from the federal states. On October 19, 2016, in advance of the book presentation ""Ghostletters Vienna": Stories behind faded city writing" there was a matter of opinion as a foretaste of the 159-page book.
The beautifully designed book is primarily about fonts, lettering, signs, company names, advertisements, neon signs, etc., as can be found on facades, primarily above shops. The emphasis is on “found”, i.e. the past. Often the actual letters, once large, proud letters, are no longer present or are only incomplete. They were often removed. Sometimes they have eroded, i.e. fallen down one by one, piece by piece, little by little. Anyone who devotes themselves to the typography of facades over a long period of time may notice here and there that the decay of the fonts is consistent, that the shadows of individual lettering continue their shadowy existence as "ghost letters" for years or decades to come. Anyone with a sense of Viennese transience and morbidity will get their money's worth here.
At the beginning there are two of the legendary facade paintings by the painter Franz Zadrazil (1942–2005), who is unforgettable as a chronicler of urban, highly realistic facade paintings. On the one hand, you can see the entrance to the Imperial Cinema on Rotenturmstraße (Vienna's Inner City) with "Morgenländisches" (1973) with lettering, and on the other hand, an advertising sign "Mary Kindermoden" (1970) - cinemas like Kindermoden no longer exist today.
In the chapter “The City of Signs, the Signs of the City” (from page 8) this topic is dealt with historically. What follows is an interview with Josef Samuel and Johann Hautzenberger, sign painters. "The highest neon sign in the world" (from page 27) shows pictures of the assembly of the "Z" (Zentralsparkasse) and the logo of the Schwechater Brewery, which adorned the Danube Tower from 1964, but are no longer there today. Starting on page 100, the chapter “The stories behind the facades” shows individual company histories and the changes in their business facades. Finally, it's about the second life of letters ("Saving the city's typographic DNA", from page 114) and bright advertising lettering ("Messages written in the night", from page 130).
Under the title "Antlitz & Soul of the City", Gregor Auenhammer, cultural journalist and author of the STANDARD, introduces the topic and the author, Klaus-Jürgen Bauer. "The man born in Vienna in 1963 is not only an architect and author, he is also a draftsman, painter, critic, curator, collector, builder, designer, teacher and scholar." (page 6f). Said Klaus-Jürgen Bauer about his intention: "Townhouses are generally a product of a variety of transformations. However, these transformations are only a small part of the architecture - of course this also includes everything that you don't see when you first look at the facade: plans, architectural biographies, clients, etc. The facade is now that architectural element that is directed towards the outside." He concludes: "You can read every facade like a face." A small part of the facades masterfully depicted here by photographer Charlotte Schwarz appeared in the Falter.morgen newsletter in recent years. And so we follow Mr. Bauer and Ms. Schwarz because "In this book we will look at 100 facades together."
The first of the five chapters, each containing 20 facade images and descriptions, "The Inner City" (from page 12), begins with the west facade of St. Stephen's Cathedral - that is the one with the giant gate - which Charlotte Schwarz impressively photographed without (!) people in the picture. From now on you will find well-known buildings (Hotel Imperial,...) as well as rather unknown houses (Naglergasse 19) on double pages. Bauer's descriptions are by no means "just" superficial observations of the facade, but rather deep reflections on the history of the respective object, which is shown on the full page on the right. After chapter two, "Civil Vienna" (from page 56), where buildings from the suburbs (districts 2 to 9, including the Heumühle, the Palais Metternich and the Arik-Brauer-Haus) are united, "Workers' Quarters" follow in the third chapter (from page 100). In addition to classic municipal buildings of "Red Vienna", barracks (Meidling and Field Marshal Radetzky's command building), churches (Sandleiten Parish, Evangelical Cemetery Church) and Roland Rainer's town hall from the 1950s are also discussed and depicted here.
Chapter four, "Suburbs" (starting on page 144), takes readers to the outer districts of the city. In addition to impressive villas, many in the Art Nouveau style, the Speising depot, the Hernals moated castle, the bridge on Höhenstraße and the Rosenhügel film studios are also portrayed. The final fifth chapter, "Gardens, Parks, Gstätten", shows, among other things, Transdanubian flagship projects such as the Seestadt Aspern, Donaustadt or the Großfeldsiedlung. As a contrast, a cellar entrance ("cellar neck") made of brick in Stammersdorfer Kellergasse (page 220f) is also described and atmospherically depicted.
Conclusion: Tom Koch's "Ghostletters Vienna" impresses not only with its broad photo documentation but also with its comprehensive and profound representation of the transience of urban lettering. "Speaking Facades" by Klaus-Jürgen Bauer are a subjective selection of 100 buildings in Vienna, where not only the facade but also the respective, often little-known history of the object is explained. (Thomas Hofmann, August 22, 2025)