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The book title, “The Heat in These Days…” comes from Hugo Wolf (1860 to 1903). With these words the composer began a letter on July 16, 1894 to the mezzo-soprano Frieda Zerny (1864 to 1917), with whom he had an on-off relationship. Wolf repeatedly complained about extreme weather. Like so many others, he must have suffered from the heat. The letter is – Pars pro Toto – one of many individual approaches to the Vienna weather to which an exhibition is dedicated. Bernhard Hachleitner and Christian Mertens have published a large-format and magnificent publication to accompany the show of the same name at the Vienna Library in the Town Hall, which combines many facets of Vienna's weather over several centuries.
The envelope, the weather map and the telegraphic weather report from July 15, 1894, prove to be a real treasure trove. We find details about holiday destinations that still arouse longings today: At seven in the morning it was a cool 10.1 degrees in Bregenz, 22.1 degrees in Budapest, and an impressive 28.3 degrees in Lesina (Apulia), Italy. At Sonnblick (Salzburg) at an altitude of 3000 meters it was just 0.8 degrees, while 16.4 degrees were measured in Vienna. The thematically broad panopticon of contributions begins with a multi-page interview with ORF weather lady Christa Kummer-Hofbauer ("For me, the weather has never been a show"), which introduces part one, observation and forecast. When asked how she feels about weather saints, she answers: "For me, the weather is not a matter of faith, but the physics of the atmosphere."
Part two, Weather, Climate and Vienna, brings together topics ranging from climate change to snow clearance in the post-war winter to a search for traces of lightning rods, wind turbines and weather houses in the context of urban development and the cityscape. Peter Payer looks back at two extreme weather events in the late 1920s, when there were still ice bursts on the Danube. Part three, cultural-historical traces of the weather, combines text contributions as well as posters, such as the one for the film Dog Days (Ulrich Seidl, 2001). Friederike Mayröcker's weather notes can be found here as well as passages by Felix Salten and Ferdinand von Saar.
The technically sound contributions are characterized above all by a rich historical image material, all from the collections of the Vienna Library, which cover several centuries.
The book, published jointly by several institutes at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, impresses with its interdisciplinarity. Naturally, the focus of "Water City of Vienna" is on the Danube, but its numerous tributaries, the city's spring water, and the development of Vienna over the centuries also form the common thread. “This book invites you to search for such traces,” says Verena Winiwarter in her introduction “Water City Vienna? An Environmental History”.
The historical approach that shows the changes in the water landscape over the centuries is fascinating. In particular, the once numerous branches of the Danube and the mill streams in Vienna are hardly known today, although they are still present in street names (Bierenmühl Passage, Mühlgasse, etc.). Around 1825 there were more than 110 water-powered mills on Vienna's waterways.
Whether flood, low water, polluted water or water in a military context, the exceptional situations mentioned here always brought about changes in Vienna. Be it flood protection, the regulation of the Danube or the derivation of fresh spring water, all answers from previous centuries that should have a lasting impact on Vienna for the benefit of the city and the well-being of the population.
The range of water topics in Vienna is extremely broad. Not only are the effects caused by the forces of nature on the Vienna cityscape (river terraces or oxbow lakes) dealt with here, but also the topic of recreation and leisure - here we only mention the river baths in the Danube and Vienna, which have now disappeared - can also be found here. Above all, numerous compilations and drawings based on historical data from watercourses that no longer exist now shed new light on Vienna.
In Vienna's environmental history, the 17 authors describe not only the implemented projects of the past, but also visions that were never realized. In addition to various drafts for regulating the Danube, these also include ideas for relocating the Vienna River to a new bed. During the Nazi era, there were several variants of the confluence of the Danube-Oder Canal in the Vienna area under the motto "Hamburg of the East". Some visions, like the drawing by Leopold Bauer from 1917, which shows a skyline with monumental buildings at the Reichsbrücke in the 22nd district, gradually became reality. The plans made in 1990 for the 1995 Expo, which were rejected by the Viennese population, included, among other things, a monorail connection from Mexicoplatz to Donaupark. They are among the last major urban development visions in the context of the Danube.
Conclusion: Both publications deal with topics such as the weather and the Danube that affect every Viennese emotionally. In the numerous text and image contributions, they impress and shine with their thematic diversity, interdisciplinarity and density of content. (Thomas Hofmann, July 15, 2024)