An exceptional volume bringing together 1,000 images representing the diversity and richness of the visual arts in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century

At the turn of the 20th century, Vienna became an epicentre for new thought. A multi-disciplinary environment emerged where musicians, writers and intellectuals all flourished, often coming together in the capital’s famous coffee houses. This was the time of Freud and Wittgenstein, of Mahler and Schönberg, and of the Secession (1897–1905), the modern movement led by Gustav Klimt, Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser that aimed to bring different arts together in a ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’; of Jugendstil and of the Wiener Werkstätte.

There have been many exhibitions and publications devoted to this effervescence of artistic creation, and even more monographs devoted to its key players. None, however, brings together a selection of visual material from across the different artistic disciplines as significant as this volume, curated and authored by three leading scholars of the period. The illustrations take the lead throughout, creating an invaluable visual reference point for all those eager to identify a given category of the arts within this period, particularly in the field of the decorative arts, from ceramics to glass, silverwork, furniture and jewellery; and graphic arts, from book design to posters and postcards. There are also many less familiar works in the field of fashion and photography, and a particular focus is given to the role of women practitioners of the time.

This is an essential publication for anyone interested in fin-de-siècle Vienna, Viennese art and modern decorative arts more generally.

About the Authors:

Christian Brandstätter is a Viennese author, curator and publisher. Among his previous books is Wonderful Wiener Werkstätte, also published by Thames & Hudson.

Rainer Metzger is an art historian and author who has been a professor at the Kunstakademie Karlsruhe since 2004. His books include Gustav Klimt: Drawings and Watercolours (2005), Berlin in the 20s (2007) and Munich: Its Golden Age of Art and Culture 1890–1920 (2009), all published by Thames & Hudson. 

Daniela Gregori studied Art History in Vienna and Hamburg. As an author and journalist, she works especially in the field of applied arts.

Contents List:

Introduction • 1. The Fine Arts • 2. Painters • 3. The Wiener Werkstätte • 4. Commercial Art and Publications • 5. Glass • 6. Ceramics • 7. Metalwork • 8. Fashion, Textiles and Jewelry • 9. Furniture • 10. Graphic Art and Bookbinding • 11. Photography • 12. Architecture • A–Z of Artists and Manufacturers

City of Dreams. A visual journey through Vienna’s dazzling history

Explore a city of architectural splendor, ubiquitous history, and incomparable heritage of art, design, and music. This collection brings together hundreds of photographs from the last 175 years to trace the history of Vienna; from imperial city to modern metropolis, from major landmarks to tucked-away treasures, and from the flowering of the fin de siècle to the Cold War.

Vienna combines drama and elegance like no other. For centuries the heart of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the stately city on the Danube, has been defined by vast palaces and imperial grandeur—but behind the Baroque opulence, Vienna is also a place of genteel coffee house culture, epicurean tradition, and a heritage of both delicate and daring music, art, and design, from Johann Strauss to Egon Schiele, from Gustav Mahler to Josef Hoffmann.

This volume is a treasure trove of photography from the last 175 years, following the evolution of Vienna from imperial capital to modern metropolis. Like a visual walk through time and cityscape, hundreds of carefully curated pictures trace the developments in Vienna’s built environment and the cultural and historical trends they reflect, whether the urban Gesamtkunstwerk of the 19th-century Ringstrasse or the experiments of “Red Vienna” in the 1920s, when the city had a social democrat government for the first time.

Through these remarkable photographs, we discover not only the great landmarks and lesser-known corners of Vienna, but also the ubiquity and the tumult of its history. We see the cultural blossoming of the fin de siècle, when radical innovators such as Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Adolf Loos, and Sigmund Freud turned Vienna into a “laboratory of modernity”; the clashes of 1934; the ascent of Nazi dictatorship; and the horrors writ by the Holocaust in what was once one of the most populous and multi-ethnic cities on earth. More recently, fascinating postwar photographs explore the Vienna of the Third Man, at once a city in ruins and a hub for spies. The book closes with the most recent pictures, celebrating the emergence of today’s Vienna — one of the most attractive cities in Europe, in which rich history once again coexists with international flair and vibrant contemporary culture.

The authors:

Christian Brandstätter, born 1943, founded Brandstätter Verlag in 1982. He is the author and designer of numerous illustrated books, including groundbreaking publications on Vienna around 1900, including Gustav Klimt und die Frauen (1994), Design der Wiener Werkstätte (2003), and Wien 1900: Kunst Design Architektur Mode (2018), as well as on Austrian photographic history.

Andreas J. Hirsch, born 1961 in Vienna, is an author, curator and artistic photographer. His writings include books on Pablo Picasso, Tina Modotti, Friedensreich Hundertwasser and H.R. Giger. From 2009 to 2014, he was curator at the KunstHausWien and organized exhibitions on Henri Cartier-Bresson, Linda McCartney and H.R. Giger, among others.

Hans-Michael Koetzle, born 1953, is a Munich-based freelance author and journalist, focusing mainly on history and the aesthetics of photography. He has published numerous books on photography, including Die Zeitschrift twen (1995), Photo Icons (2001), Das Lexikon der Fotografen (2002), René Burri (2004), Photographers A-Z (2011) and Dr. Paul Wolff & Tritschler (2019).