Print - Die Welt der Habsburger

A traffic obstruction:
the Kärntnertortheater
The theatre boom in the Habsburg Empire during the
eighteenth century spawned numerous new theatres –
albeit not always of the size desired by the Empress.
In 1709 the ‘Theater nächst dem Kärnthnertor’ was built, more
or less on the site of the present-day Hotel Sacher, near one of
the old gates into the inner city. Originally intended to be a
forum for German-language drama, Emperor Joseph I initially
ordered that preference be given to Italian operas, then a form
of entertainment reserved for the elite. From 1711 a
considerable broadening of the programme attracted
audiences from all strata of Viennese society. Here figures
such as the beloved Hanswurst performed their comic antics.
Erected by order of Maria Theresa in 1748, a passage from the
ramparts led over the old city walls directly to the Imperial loge.
In 1761 the Kärntnertortheater burned down. Maria Theresa
had ambitious plans: the old theatre was to be replaced by a
large stage for German and French drama, the site being
enlarged by the incorporation of part of the adjacent
Bürgerspital. However, the city authorities frustrated these
plans, and so a new, slightly larger Kärntnertortheater was
constructed by the court architect Nicolaus Pacassi ‘on the old
site at the expense of their Supreme Majesties’. The city
authorities had sold the site and the burn-out ruins to the
Court. In 1763 it opened its doors again as the Imperial Court
Theatre. According to the diaries of Prince Johann Joseph
Khevenhüller-Metsch, the head of Maria Theresa’s Court
Household, the imperial family regularly attended performances
of German-language plays at the Kärntnertortheater, where
they had their own loge.
As space around the theatre was very limited due to the
narrow lanes and its location on the city bastion, ‘parking
regulations’ were issued for the horse-drawn vehicles of those
attending a performance, limiting them to halting in rows
two deep.
It was not only in the imperial capital but also in the cities of the
Austrian Hereditary Lands, in Bohemia, Hungary and
Lombardy-Venetia that a vibrant theatrical culture flourished.
Established theatres were joined – in particular after the ending
of the Court monopoly on theatre in 1776 – by smaller
theatres, touring companies, amateur performances and
fairground spectacles that reached a wide audience. Social and
economic barriers meant that the large theatres remained
closed to the great mass of the population. Here the divide
between elite and popular culture was particularly clear.
Author
Julia Teresa Friehs
Literature
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