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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).

A delightful collection of vintage and antique postcards of New York. This book presents a rare collection of more than 100 of the best vintage New York City postcards, providing a snapshot of how much the Big Apple has changed — and how much has remained recognizably the same. 

During the early years of the twentieth century, postcard photographers traveled the length and breadth of Manhattan snapping images and documenting landmarks and important new architectural masterpieces, such as the Singer Building (1908), the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower (1909), and the Woolworth Building (1913) — each of which succeeded the other as the world’s tallest building at the time of their respective completion. 

Also celebrated were the engineering feats of the Brooklyn Bridge and the elevated trains and early subway, as well as popular amusements such as the original Madison Square Garden and the Hippodrome, which occupied an entire city block at Longacre Square—since renamed Times Square. Scenic views of the city from a distance were equally popular — and in fact led to the coining of the word "skyline" in 1896. 

This charming keepsake volume is the perfect souvenir for architecture and history buffs and makes a wonderful gift.

About the Authors

Silvia and Stefano Lucchini are collectors based in Milan and New York whose unsurpassed collection of antique postcards inspired this book. Alyce Aldige currently resides in Milan, where she works as a writer, translator, and English teacher.

'Weegee's New York' ist das New York der 30er und 40er Jahre - eine Stadt, die gekennzeichnet ist von den Spuren der Depression: von Arbeitslosigkeit und Kriminalität, von Armut, Prostitution, Gewaltverbrechen und Gangsterkriegen. Weegee, der schnellste und gewiefteste Photoreporter New Yorks, ist der legendäre Bildchronist dieser Epoche.

Weegee (1899-1968) war so etwas wie der rasende Fotoreporter Amerikas. Oft fuhr er mit quietschenden Reifen und Sirene im falschen Krankenwagen am Tatort vor, und hin und wieder entwickelte er Filmkassetten mit Aufnahmen von Kriminellen illegal in der leeren Fahrerkabine eines rollenden U-Bahn-Zugs. Als Liebling der New Yorker Cops erhielt Weegee 1938 als erster Journalist die Erlaubnis zum Führen eines Polizeifunkgeräts. "Das Polizeihauptquartier war mein Club", notierte er 1961 in seiner Autobiographie Weegee by Weegee: "Ich saß in der Halle in meinem Lieblingssessel, die Kamera griffbereit, und rauchte eine Zigarette. Früher oder später kam hier alles vorbei, was Rang und Namen hatte." Rund 5.000 Bildreportagen sollen hier und auf den Großstadtstraßen entstanden sein -- wobei das Life Magazine Weegee auch schon mal nach der Anzahl der Kugeln entlohnte, die in der jeweils fotografierten Leiche steckten.

Rechtzeitig zum 100. Geburtstag dieses ersten Hofporträtisten der amerikanischen Unterwelt hat der Schirmer/Mosel-Verlag mit Weegee's New York nun einen Klassiker der Dokumentarfotografie neu aufgelegt, der einen faszinierenden Einblick gewährt in dessen Lebenswerk: 335 klug ausgewählte Schwarzweißzeugnisse der dreißiger bis sechziger Jahre zeigen Brände, Unfälle und Morde, Soldaten, Stripperinnen und Artisten -- und werfen als Ganzes nicht zuletzt auch ein ebenso kaltes wie schonungsloses, blendend helles Schlaglicht auf die Schattenseiten der USA.