Vienna 1900 Tour

This private, special theme tour is ideal for those who would like to immerse in the atmosphere of Vienna 1900. In that period Vienna was the cultural capital of Europe, like Florence was around 1500.

Vienna in fact paved the way to Modern Life in Europe. Around 1900 the city highly appreciated intellectual talents, cultural achievements and innovations. It attracted numerous intellectuals, artists, scientists, businessmen and many of them were pioneers in the different movements of Modernity; in philosophy – Ludwig Wittgenstein, Kurt Gödel; in medicine – Karl Landsteiner, Carl von Rokitansky, Sigmund Freud; in architecture – Otto Wagner, Joseph Maria Olbrich; in visual arts – Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka; in music –Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schönberg, and many others.

The tour will begin with sharing my impressions with you about a masterpiece of Gustav Klimt – the Beethoven Frieze in the Secession building and will end on the old grounds of the General Hospital (das Allgemeine Krankenhaus Wien).

The itinerary and my narrative focus on:

• the majestic public buildings on the Ringstrasse and private mansions, in which took place the famous Salons;
• prominent coffee houses – centers of intellectual life;
• the Second Viennese Medical School, end of 19 century;
• Sigmund Freud, the origins of Psychoanalysis and the Jewish community in Vienna 1900.

A customized tour with special emphasis on a personality or on a specific subject connected with Vienna 1900 of your choice is welcome upon request. The entrance fee to the Secession building is 12 EUR/person. Visits to other museums are optional and upon arrangement.

Mainly the Jewish community produced physicians (Sigmund Freud), scientists (Karl Landsteiner), lawyers, writers (Stefan Zweig) and journalists. It supported artists like Gustav Klimt and contributed very much for the cultural life in the Austrian capital.

My Jewish Vienna Tour will give you an insight into the life of the Jewish community in that period.

To get in the mood for this city tour, read the book The Age of Insight by Eric Kandel, recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Kandel, Eric R. (2012), The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain, from Vienna 1900 to the Present, New York: Random House, ISBN 978-1-4000-6871-5.