Wien - Hofburgtheater Prior to 1918 - a photo on Flickriver

Wien - Hofburgtheater Prior to 1918

            The Postcard

A postally unused postkarte that was published by B. K. W. The card has a divided back.

Burgtheater

The Burgtheater (literally:"Castle Theater" but alternatively translated as "Imperial Court Theater"), was originally known as K.K. Theater an der Burg, then until 1918 as the K.K. Hofburgtheater.

It is the national theater of Austria in Vienna. It is the primary German-language theater, and one of the most important theatres in the world.  

The Burgtheater was opened in 1741 and has become known as "die Burg" by the Viennese population; its theater company has created a traditional style and speech typical of Burgtheater performances.

History of the Burgtheater

The original Burgtheater was set up in a tennis court (called a 'ball house' at the time) that the Roman-German king and later emperor Ferdinand I had built in 1540 in the lower pleasure garden of the Hofburg after the old ball house fell victim to a fire in 1525.

The theater opened on the 14th. March 1741, the creation of the Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, who wanted a theater next to her palace.  Her son, Emperor Joseph II, called it the "German National Theater" in 1776. 

Three Mozart operas premiered there: Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782), Le Nozze di Figaro (1786), and Così fan Tutte (1790), as well as his Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor (1786). 

Beginning in 1794, the theater was called the "K.K. Hoftheater Nächst der Burg". Beethoven's 1st Symphony premiered there on the 2nd. April 1800. The last performance at the venue, in October 1888, was of Goethe's Iphigenie auf Tauris.

The theater's first building adjoined the Hofburg at Michaelerplatz, opposite St. Michael's Church. The theater was moved to a new building on the Ringstraße on the 14th. October 1888, designed by Gottfried Semper and Karl Freiherr von Hasenauer, and St. Michael's Wing of the Hofburg Palace was erected at the vacated site.

In 1943, under Nazi rule, a notoriously extreme production of The Merchant of Venice was staged at the Burgtheater - with Werner Krauss as Shylock, one of several theater and film roles by this actor pandering to antisemitic stereotypes.

On the 12th. March 1945, the Burgtheater was largely destroyed in a USAF bombing raid, and one month later, on the 12th. April 1945, it was further damaged by a fire of unknown origin. 

After the war, the theater was rebuilt between 1953 and 1955. The classic Burgtheater style and the Burgtheater-German language were groundbreaking for German-language theater.

Taken on: August 2, 2022

Tags:

postcard

old

nostalgia

nostalgic

Wien

Vienna

Hofburgtheater

1918

Burgtheater

Austria

1741

1540

1525

Maria

Theresa

1776

1943

Nazi

Merchant

Venice

Werner

Krauss

1945

USAF

fire

1953

1955 « less

Sets appears in: • Theatres Cinemas and Opera Houses

Stats: 170 views

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder