Evolution of the City

Source: May, Vienna: „Das Werden der Stadt im Zentrum Europas“ // Layout, translation: P.Ryborz

Lives under the town

The »social deposit«

Vienna developed to an imperial metropolis in three last decades of the 19th century. Previously it was a medieval residence cut into in narrow town walls. After the demolition of the city fortifications the ring road provided modern big-city atmosphere as a representative splendour mile. Behind this facade the social differences were still extreme. Between the rich members of the upper classes and aristocrats and the proletariat a self-confident and strong bourgeoisie was missing. There were many people who lived on the edge of the society.

This »social deposit« in Vienna had deposited in the belly of the town, in the canalisation. While the upper class in the town visited balls and did a pleasantly life, enjoyment of art and strolling along the new ring road, under the plaster the pure need often ruled.

To show these conditions and to change thereby, had been one of the aims of the »worker newspaper«. Journalist Max Winter (1870-1937) was member of staff of this paper since 1895, and was one of the founders of the engaged social report. In Vienna he found the place, to describe the social misery at close. For this Winter descended also in the subsoil of the town. His report with the title "Kanalstrotter" (it means like canal-digger) was one of the first attempts to show the Viennese, what happening under their feet, maybe to wake up and get sympathy for those social problems.

Winter did not simply present sober facts to the reader, but took him on an adventurous investigation in the canalisation, while he tied up him. He describes a strange occurrance he saw during an early morning walk: »A man disappeared before my eyes in an entrance hole of the canal. He lifted the canal grid and put it up, using the short handle of a rake as a lever, rose in the shaft and closed it again, with the back supporting, slowly low planing. (...) Looking to the canal hole I only could see the man at the bottom turned on any light and disappeared as quickly in the belly of the street as the whole remaining process had happened. From lifting up the grid to the disappearance of the light, not a minute had passed. Who was these man and why he was going there in the canals below?«

Straight away Winter supposed, that the man would start this unusual way down in the canal more often, because he disappeared verry expertly.

At that time I had to be content with this explanation, because the secret of subterranean Vienna also for me was a secret still. I did not know anything about the "free-business" of the "Kanalstrotter", as that group of poor living people in Vienna is called, lifting the treasures of the canals for getting a verry small acquisition. Today I have a better knowledge about the hard existence of this guild. I know the life in the canal and the laborious search for the flotsam and jetsam of the city. Looking after lost cents and cruisers, after metal objects and pieces which find their grave in the canals, hunting for the bones which get flushed down by the city abouve and so long. And I know a person, who is doing this job more about than twelve years, day by day in the canals. And which even today goes diggin there, if the bread becomes too scarce at home, because his trade with old iron, is not productive enough.«

Finally in 1902 the reporter participated his readers by doing a "Strottgang" (a diggin-tour) with this man, called "Specklmoritz" (like bacon-moritz). They met at the tramway-station in „Rudolfsheim“. On the corner „Hollergasse“ and „Siebeneichengasse“ in the XV district, they raised a canal grid and descended along the iron steeps on the wall of the canal shaft. At the bottom they lighted an oil lamp and waded through the water on the canal sole in the tunnel system.

»The first step is always the hardest. Already the Specklmoritz is ahead ten steps. Now I am postgasping and it seems to me, he would run, as fast he is going, as slowly I am. Already after the first twenty steps I think, I have to go back. More than two fifths of my body I must suppress to come along trough the low built canal way. The upper part of the body is horizontally, the legs are bent a little bit. In the right hand I carrying the lamp, whose open flame sends black smoke flood to my lungs with every step I do. The center hand is looking for props for the stooped body, gliding here and there along the wet, slimy canal wall. Thus I had made twenty steps, but secretly I curse my research urge already. Sweat steps from all pores. I am getting verry short of breath more and more. My legs tremble. Also they are not accustomed for walking in simple knee bend.«

However, the reporter Winter tried to followe him furthermore. Meanwhile, Specklmoritz began with his work in the canal, which was about 80 centimetre wide, horseshoe-shaped. He sieved the sand on the canal sole with his rake. Already after a short time he had found the first cents and cruisers, which he stowed away in the bag he carried on the back. But of course the Strotter does not only find coins, also all kinds of other metallic and non-metallic objects and everything, just comming from the street or from the houses above the canalisation: Buttons, metal spoons, nails, uncompleted knife blades, pieces of iron tyre and the bonnets of lead of some bottlenecks. In this way both worked up the underground on the way to „Winckelmannstrasse“. Only sometimes rising their head for scooping air, by passing a shaft which led to the surface. Finally, they came to the interceptor sewer under the „Linzerstraße“, where the sewage runs to the „Wienfluß“ (vienna-river). Now the waterlevel is rising and touching our knees. The current is getting stronger. But it does not concern me, because now it is possible for me almost, to go upright. Now I must make smaller myself only about some centimetres- ten may be. I work the way up forward with lowered head. Here it is cold, twice colder than the sudorific tour before. »Get Your clothes verry closed« my guide sends a reminder. By going on, he tells me about the »coldness, the „Wiensammelkanal“, which is as big as a haycart could drive through.« Nevertheless, even under the „Strotter“ there was a hierarchy: Specklmoritz, who was looking for metal, outranked to the osseous seekers: »This is a hard bread if one has to live by skeletons, which he finds in the canal. The happy people there, which works in factories or in constructions, does not know anything about such a heavy labour. Until you have collected a few kilos of bone, already You think Your cross is breaked. If You would get twenty cruisers for one kilo, it would be a bad price- but in real they only get two cruisers for it. If somebody wants to save to a guilder, he has to drag sixty, seventy kilos. Also the bones are complete sops, so he must dry them first, before he can deliver them to „Atzgersdorf“, where the soap boilers are. Such a guilder is hard earned...«

Specklmoritz threw all the bones in the sand aside, which he found by searching, obviously for an unknown successor. Winter realized that as a great solidarity between the poorest of the society. Winter was certainly: »From the Strotter even some could learn!«

Winter did more than 1500 reports, bare descriptions of the relations, but also requests to change. If he described social mismanagement, then he did to change them. For example: The "Partzikhütte". A tiny dwelling, not even 16 square metres of base, was rented to ten inhabitants for expensive money. The hut was torn off, one week after Winters article about it was printed and the inhabitants found better hiding places with other cheap accommodations.

His biggest success was the reporting to the „Fall Hofrichter“ (the case of „Hofrichter“) in 1910: He uncovered the mismanagement with the military jurisdiction, which get reformed as a result after that.

A part of the canalisation workers were recruited from the guild of the Strotter, which had to provide for the cleanness in the drainpipes of the town by order of the municipalities. Specklmoritz reported competently about their work. They had to free the narrow canals from the mud with so-called „Kruckn“, long poles with round boards, which were was fastened on the front. A verry necessary job for the modern town, but unreasonably badly paid: »Thus in the world, who really slaves and makes the whole work, are getting nothing, and the other ones, who are standing on the sidelines, they are getting everything. The strongest work here at the bottom in the canal most badly is paid. And if one compares it with outdoors, the canal work is paid again much worse than the otherone outside!« A sober summary of a Kanalstrotter about the relation of upper world and underworld in the city. At this time in his guild Specklmoritz supposed around 50 Strotter. He is presumably one of the few, who center more lasting tracks in the world- Max Winter is thanks. The destiny of the rest of the people there is unknown. Except the Specklmoritz, particular only the „Simandl“ is known of, which disappeared in 1938 without a trace.

The last one of his guild might have been a certain „Hablecek“. After a New Year's Eve quarrel in 1958 he withdrew into the drainage system. He should have closed the canal lid about himself and has never been seen again since that time. Whether one day does one find his remains in the canalisation?

Canal inhabitants and fat fisherman

While the Specklmoritz could finance itself and his 6-headed family a shelter by his activity, otherones had to descend even deeper in the Vienna during the turn of the century: »Some days before the police was informed, that several people would stay in the collective canal near the „Karl-Walder-Gasse“ in „Rudolfsheim“. They had prepared there homely also to spend the night there. For this police agents and watchmen carried out for controlling the collective canal and they really found four fellows, which were arrested.«

Where else one should go, if he has no flat? One could live as „Bettgeher“: During the day one could sleep in a strange bed for a cheap price and in the late afternoon had to disappear.

Others found lodging in shelters for the homeless or visited some empty buildings, to unattended arrangements or hiding places. Man's hostels had also economic situation like the infamous proletarian's flats. Whole families had to vegetate on few square metres, often under pathetic hygienic conditions. It was not remarkable, some slept even in the canal, by doing closer inspection of this situation. Not only the Kanalstrotter get applied: As many as which lived on top and worked below, as reverse.

In the stench of the canalisation they struggled to promote the raw material, which is needed for the soap, while the otherones, which living above, washed their necks with the result, the same soap. Underground the necks remained filthy. These uprooted ones even had been avoided by many beggars and largely they lived in the canals, only came out to deliver their product.

The second important chronicler about the Viennese untertown is Emil Kläger. 1908 his book »the Viennese accommodations of misery and crime« was published and also announced him moreover the town. As a feuilletonist and court reporter he worked for the »new Viennese journal« and the »new free press«. More about one quarter the searches for his book lasted. At the same time a documentary film about the national education equipment of the Viennese Urania was produced, which got verry successful. The book also was translated in Russian and French and representet the basis for more than 400 lectures happened in Urania and had an effect even to the reorganisation of the criminal law in 1912.

Kläger did also report about the man's hostel in the „Meldemannstrasse“ in „Wien-Brigittenau“, which was newly constructed and where also Adolf Hitler found a Quartier later as homeless guide. At that time the homeless asylum was valid as new and exceedingly comfortable, Kläger described the prices as »luring cheap. I saw a competent roast pork with addition which costs 19 cruisers according to map. A complete midday meal is already available about 23 cruisers, tea and coffee about five cruisers, a soup with insert about four cruisers.« However, if we remember four years before the find of the Specklmoritz by his canaltour: »Nine cruisers and a cent« - by heavy work while four hours. If there are also woman and children at home, the favorable offers in Meldemannstrasse are not enough for them by far.

In his reports Emil Kläger visited a whole of social foci of the Danube metropolis, also the legendary „Zwingburg“ in the Viennese canalisation. In the chapter about »accommodations in the Vienna canal« he describes this protected and guarded arrangement, which was located below the „Schwarzenbergplatz“ and even quite was defended against the police several times successfully. Also like Winter did, Kläger did participate the reader while his adventure in the underworld. He get suggestive being there in the sewer, getting part of the "Schrobs" – as the inhabitants of the Zwingburg were called. By approaching this place in the belly of the town, he describes: First we stand in front of a high embankment, thereunder the collective canal runs. And just counterpart the shaft, which we had just center, we saw the entrance to a chamber. This were the sleeping accommodations of the Zwingburg.

away, so they are inaccessible in their hiding place. Also there are countless escapes from the chamber in form of small canals in all directions.

The reason, why the homeless entrench here, is not because they would be criminals. They are harmless fellows mostly, but thea want to defend their last resting place against the police. Therefore, some guards are standing there, which signal to the comrades, if the Police is approaching.«

By the reporting of Kläger and Winter the problems of the poorest were recognised, also at the politics. These reports where the start of a modern arm care.

Homeless asylum "crypt"

Even today some rooms under the town are shelter for poor people. In the middle of the most popular shopping mile of the Viennese, the „Mariahilfer Straße“, which runs between the VI. and VII district, there is a part of thouse underworld, which offers food and lodging to homeless. Under the baroque church „Maria Hülf“ there are some vaults in the cellar, which are called Crypt. As like under the „Michaelerkirche“ and other churches there are big spaces, which originally was not intended as room for the living. But this has changed since Advent 1986. At that time the crypt has become a sanctuary for homeless.

Provided by the rectorate Mariahilf and renovatet by the homeless themselves, it has become the only benchmark in the life for many people. Since summer 1996 the charity is doing the management of the crypt. The team confirms by certified social workers and does active civil help. They have the aim to integrate people again into the society, who have lost their flat. The basic principle is: Nobody get turned down and everybody get helped, who needs.

At the end of a small stair there is a space, where a lot of people are sitting and eating together, for example, stew with meat insert. But the most important offer there is staying and overnighting there round the clock. A medical basic care is performed in addition. Also consultations by any problems and even creative activity are offered.

Who comes there, gets a locker and his own postal address – verry important things in favor for homeless people.

Compared to the places, which Max Winter and Emil Kläger have described, the warmed crypt with food and the washing machines is a homy place.

Even today some lives in the canal below, as the social workers report. Sometimes one of them visits the crypt at the midday. He is accompanied by a dog and several times he had told about his accommodation below the town: His space should is furnished like a flat, even with television. All the things he got by the bulky refuse. However, the urban sewage workers never met such a cave flat. Maybe, the stranger with the dog is only telling stories, because he had read the book of Emil Kläger.

Today nobody is „Strotting“ in the sewers any more. Because by begging on the streets to the passers-by, one would get much more money, as if he would dig in the canals under the hardest conditions for some cruisers. The social net has changed during the last 100 years, since Winter and Kläger did their first reports. Today the affected persons can report about their situation by themselves in many towns, using homeless newspapers, which cofinance self-help projects and a modest extra income to the doers. In Vienna this newspaper is called "Augustin", in support of the famous Minstrel, who involuntarily got in contact to the underworld also.

Pubs, Bars, Clubs

„Der Liebe Ausgustin“ (dear Augustin) was the best known boozer of Vienna in the 17th century and he visited all the cellar inns. Vienna has to offer traditionally a huge number of bars and pubs: Already during the Turk's wars the defenders of the town met at the „Prince Esterhazy“ in the underground, where richly wine was distributed free to them. Today primarily tourists enjoy their „Vierterl“ (a cup of wine) there in the „Esterhazykeller“ as it is called now. All these Viennese cellars have their own individual ambience, is disreputably or seriously, normally or unusually, moulder or antique, but usually they are rather comfortably. Till this day a living catering trade in the basement has kept: enterprises, steeped in tradition, survive, while new clubs and stage bars arrive. A raid through this part of the untertown is advisable.

In the „Marxergasse“ in the III municipal district of Vienna there are the „Sophiensäle“, a former event- and bath house, where extensive cellar arrangements are situatet. The „Sophiensäle“ did great activities in the past. The founder was a cloth cutter's assistant called „Franz Morawetz“. He wanted to realise the idea of a Russian major, to furnish a steam bath in Vienna. In the year 1826 he startet this plan with the money of his wife. In 1838 the bath could be opened. Some years later a new building was necessary and in January, 1848 it was opening by a party ball under the direction of „Johann Strauss Vater“ (the father of the musician „Johann Strauss“).

Under the name „Sophiensaal“ the swimming hall was altered to a dance hall later, which get soon as the biggest public bar of Vienna, with nearly 520 square metres of surface. Concerts and fancy-dress balls, but also meetings with up to 2700 people occured here. In the 19th century the Sophiensäle developed to a tradition venue.

During the twenties numerous political rallies also happened here, on the 4th of May, 1926 also the foundation of the Austrian „NSDAP“ (the Nazis) by „Richard Suchenwirth“ took place here. In the same building later the Jews were collectet there before deportation to the exermination camps.

Today the „Sophiensäle“ are an aged, dilapidated complex of buildings with two event halls, economic areas and great cellars. Still they are used for balls, disco events, ballet performances and musicals. They are addicting at all. In the cellars You can find old prize boards, which show You the fact, that once there also had been a catering trade company.

But the history does not get decontaminated so simply everywhere. Many catering trade companies take care about their historical ambience. By visiting the „Bretzl-Gwölb“ in the „Ledererhof 9“ You get insight into the subterranean town history of Viennese. The house, where now the restaurant is, was mentioned first time in a document in 1341. The „Ledererhof“ was the guild house of the tanneries and dippers, who needed a lot of water for their established, so they built their companies always close near to watercourses. Near the „Tiefen Graben“, not far away from this house, the „Ottakringer Bach“ as well as the „Alser Bach“, two brooks, ran there in former times. The main building „Am Hof“ was destroyed in 1881 and built anew during the twenties years of the 20th century. From 1981 to 1989 now it was restored.

At this building the subterranean construction body is bigger than the upper one. The cellar, where the bar of „Bretzl-Gwölb“ is arranged today, at Roman's time had been the ground level. A Roman wall with an aperture is integrated into the current guest space. Three basements underneath, which were connected with numerous cellars in the I Viennese municipal district, were filled and bricked up during the past years completely. Before „Bretzl-Gwölb“ was furnished as a restaurant in 1970, there was a baking room more than 30 years. It was one of the first baker's in Vienna, which produced lye pretzels. Therefore they called it „Bretzl-Gwölb“. The name "Gwölb" also is stamped by „Johann Nestroy“ (a dramatist, performer and opera singer), for a cellar room, because their vault architecture.

Immediately on the right in the first space there is a simulation of the twelve-apostle's clock, which was formed in the 17th century. The original is in the Viennese watch museum. Every quarter of an hour one of the apostles rings a bell and You hear the sound. Every hour all twelve apostles run in the circle. In lateral niches there are comfortable living-room furniture and old chandeliers hanging on the ceiling above. The rooms are equipped with antique furnishings.

Going on You pass the kitchen and You arrive the second cellar by a precipitous stair. Here the ground exists of black bricks. The masonry shows typical Romanesque stone ashlars of 1100. The house was mentioned first in 1339 in a document. The lower cellar is from 1561 with an early-baroque curvature, when the house was rebuilt after its destruction. In the third vault, the "Brunnenkeller" (well cellar), it is the only Gothic well room in Vienna, which is still accessible. The restaurant with its three basements, is situatet in the oldest quarter of the Viennese city centre. Earlier the cellar rooms were a part of the catacombs.

Here You find typical old Viennese kitchen, for example, „Grammelknödel“, „Blunzengröstl“ or „Kümmelbraten“, to the dessert „Apfelstrudel“, „Germknödel mit Vanillesauce“ or „Topfenstrudel“. And if sometimes one is got drunken a little bit, like "Glaserl zvü ghobt habm" (means like „got some glasses too much“), perhabs he would have some problems by getting upwards again, because the many narrow staircases.

Also in the I district, in the „Haarhof“ is the „Esterhazykeller“. Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) was the first bandmaster 1766 to 1790 of the prince Esternazy and lived in this house also. One of the many taprooms is named by him even today.
In the 19th century the „Esterhazykeller“ was known why its vinous atmosphere. The journalist and author „August Silberstein“ (1827-1900) reports about a visit: »Here one means to stop and to await, until the eye has accustomed to the darkness, because otherwise, one collide with another one, or touching a foreign nose with the outstretched hands. After waiting some minutes and beginning to realise where the people around are staying, seating ore drinking one may go on. ... «

Nowadays mostly tourists there enjoy their „Vierterl“ (Glass of Wine). „Liptauer, Geselchtes, Blunz'n, Most or Schmalzbrot“ are available and for special occasions and festivities there are also seven guest rooms in two floors or other underground places offered, like the „Prinzenkeller“ (prince's cellar) or the „Türkenkeller“ (Turk's cellar).
After the fortress arrangements was destroyed, in 1871 the Viennese district council decided to build a new, representative city hall in the area of the ring road. In 1883 it could be concluded with a ceremonious opening. „Friedrich Schmidt“ was the architect of the city hall. He also planned to create a big catering trade company in the cellar vaults. Principal on the 11th of February, 1899, it was opened.

A row of splendid halls, which are one of the big attractions of the gastronomic Viennese underworld: the „Rittersaal“, the „Grinzinger Keller“, the „Salon Lanner-Lehar“, the „Augustin-Stüberl“ and the „Salon Ziehrer“. A restaurant of high prices, which impresses by its spatial dimensions and new astonishing luxuriant equipment in each of the halls.

In contrast to the representative taprooms at the same level there are the economic areas. At the toilets and changing rooms of the staff there is no splendour at all, as like the other rooms. Also looking the wine cellar is getting disappointed: No old brick vault with venerable Bouteillen, but a soberly whitewashed storeroom in which all kinds of drinks are stacked. But it does not matter to the guests, because they do not get seen these parts of the restaurant anyway. So they can sit down in the „Grinzinger Keller“, in search of the Viennese cosiness. Near the great wooden carved „Grinzinger“ barrel, You will hear some operetta melodies, played by the drawing room orchestra "Gloriette".

But there is also other music available than violin tones and zither sounds in subterranean bars. The name of some club, as for example the „Funky pub“ in the „Bennogasse“ in the VIII district, concludes by other music direction and therefore also by another audience. Beside old established bars, over and over again new clubs and stage clubs are opening, often also beyond the city centre situated. Subterranean vaults are equally liked with Barkeepers and guests, not least, because they reduce the noise level by live concerts to a tolerable measure for the local residents. For this numerous tapes use this noise prevention effect in their test cellars. Many of them only exist half legally and are patient by the owners of the real estate. Likewise in the „Neubaugasse“ in the VII Viennese municipal district. Inside a court one finds a cellar entrance in a lateral niche from the turn of the century. By narrow staircases and winding ways with mucky ground, passing ailing wooden doors, and the end one gets in a space, maybe ten square metre. Walls and covers are dressed up with Styropor records and egg cartons. Several days the week some drummers, guitarists and singers are meeting there for making music.

Before modern building with ferro concrete began, the weight of the walls were one and two metres. A big advantage by sound insulation. Test rooms of this kind in new apartment houses are not possible. Much too cheerfully the sound would reproduce in concrete and steel.

The locals „Papas Tapas“, „Z U G A B E“ and „Atrium“ offer a regular cellar labyrinth with modern management and live music. Situatet in the IV district on the „Schwarzenbergplatz“, one finds the entrance to „Papas Tapas“, which is half hides and looking like the cabin door of an old tub. After about 15 steps one reaches an upper leveled gallery, which is concludes by a smith-iron railing. From there one gets a glimp of the deeper situated remaining bar and the stage. Tables, chairs and the whole atmosphere remind of the past times, as well as Chikago of the thirties. Beyond the gallery there are other seat niches, wooden benches, stools and standing tables as well as a bar. Since 1980 quite a lot of austrian musician's career had been started there at this graffiti-decorated stage.

Also the second bar „Z U G A B E“ is to be entered by the same entrance. Going down there until to the deepest place, there are the guests of the third bar, the „Atrium“, also You find the way to the toilets there. Than, by looking the way back to the first place, ones get lost his compass.

In the VIII district in the „Florianigasse“ there is the „Tunnel“. The bar opened in summer 1981 and offers place for about 160 people. From Tuesday till Saturday several artists of different music styles appear. On Sunday and Monday there are jazz concerts by free entry. A group begins about 9 pm, and after one hour other musicians join spontaneously to do a Jam session.

A lot of the Austrian music scene did their best there on the stage, like blues interpreter „Al Cook“ and „Erik Trauner“ as well as jazz- and radio musician like „Harry Stojka“ up to „Tommy Böröcz“. The tunnel also moves to a predominantly student audience, decoratet with old wooden doors, wall lamps and other things of the flea market.

The bar „Weberknecht“ is situatet under the Viennese town road curves. In the XVI Viennese municipal district in the „Lerchenfelder Gürtel“. First there was the „Gasthaus Wunsch“, which was verry favoured in the post war period. During the last years it changed to a meeting place for the dossers, beggars and homeless. Since the „Weberknecht“ opened, the whole week a varied programme is offered here: Irish or Breton live music, slide talks and even motorcyclist's meetings. So the Weberknecht is one of the first bars, which startets another stil here in the "red light area" of the Viennese „Gürtel“. Some years later this way get promoted by the European Union: the old town road curves from „Otto Wagner“ should get a better image at the „Gürtel“ area.

The underworld in the subsoil

»Yesterday in the afternoon there happened a sensational manhunt on the Schwedenplatz. Passers-by had seen a young fellow scrambling on the third floor of the ruin of the former „Cafe Silier“ and they informed the police. Cause the fellow could be one of these thieves, stealing valuable scrap material in the bombed houses. So the police moved out by a raid car and a feel dog, cause the fellow did not want to leave his place. Finally the young man tried to escape by the cellar rooms of the bomb ruin, however, he could be caught by the police. It concerns, the arrested 16 year old boy did several thefts of scrap material in destroyed houses in the past. The incident has caused great sensation among the passers-by.«

So therefore the air defence space net in the center of the town was a miraculous playground for crooks of all kind, not deliberately from his planners certainly.

As to see in the detective novel over and over the felonies occurred in the subsoil there again. In cellars or canals they find a produced scene which protects against undesirable visitors and moreover a covered escape route. Some of the edge figures of the society particularly were often familiar with the conditions in the underground, because they even have lived there sometimes. A look to the "criminal" subsoil also allows a look at the backgrounds of the crimes, which have committed or have been discovered in the sphere by canalisation, Vienna river or also Danube canal.

In some cases it seemed that a culprit has tried to steal a corpse simply in the canal. The sartorial journeyman „Raimund Lewisch“ murdered his girlfriend „Anna Gangisch“ on the 1st of December, 1861. First he had promised to marry her. Nevertheless, he got another girl to know and now he wanted to get rid of his old girlfriend which he had become weary fast. He divided her corpse and threw the parts in the house canal of the „Mölkerbastei“. Afterwards the murderer went to the police to file a missing person´s report. He informed the commissioner, interrogating him that he has been in an inn with his girlfriend previously. In the police station already they wanted to let him go, when the message of finding the corpse of the woman arrived. The alluvial body of the victims had been found in the Danube canal by height of the „Kettensteg“, near the today's „Salztorbrücke“. In help of the stomach contents the corpse could be identified as Lewischs girlfriend. Still he hid the fact, that he was her murderer. After the questioning in the land court, he was led away and he recognised the hopelessness of his situation and rushed about the railing of the narrow staircase house. Finally in the hospital as a serious casualty he became confess. He succumbed to the injuries of his attempted suicide, even before it could come to negotiations. Once the murderer was sure to his idea, but he had not calculated on the fact, that the canal would release the corpse so fast again, after his inlet in the Danube canal.

Often these were of course the men who had to do in the sewage system their daily work which did such discoveries interesting for the police.

A forensic doctor carried out the autopsy. The head was cleaned by the mud, and one found out that the neck had been cut with a sharp knife. Besides, two heavy slash injuries were to be seen. Soon one was persuaded of the fact that it had to concern a murder, because »two wounds reaching up to the brain only could come« from a »sharp knife«. By missing person's reports the identification of the corpse was possible. It concerned the 65 year-old „Michael Sack“, the single owner of a tobacconist's shop. He was disabled, carried an artificial leg and had to move with the help of crutches. He also acted as a beggar, so he was bag covered not only income from his business. In this manner he had accumulated a property. Time of his life he maintained numerous women's acquaintances, in spite of all he remained an always distrustful loner.

Quite he does not seem to have been an uncomplicated contemporary: In his tobacconist's he had about 40 shop assistants during the time. On the 28th of March, 1929 Sack was seen living for the last time when he visited a restaurant with two unknown women. About two weeks, after one had found his head in the Vienna river, one found his putrid body in the „Mühlbach“ in „Hütteldorf“. At that time the leader of the inquiries hoped for tips to him or the culprits by this discovery, however, the case "Michael Sack" could not be cleared up till this day.

Under the numerous crimes which stand in connection with the undertown, some of them offered good material which one could certainly have processed to a dreadful street ballad. Although the fat fishermen rarely looked the contact with the authority and various "catch" kept for theirself, on the 10th of April of 1932 three of them - „Johann Böhm, Josef Ovzenijek“ and „Johann Watzlawik“ - turned voluntarily to the police. By searching for usable fat centerovers, osseous centerovers and meat centerovers, in the „Simmeringer Hauptkanal“ (main canal), a canalisation influx in the Danube canal, they found different body parts obviously of human origin. »80 lumps of meat as big as hand plates« were washed ashore successively there, which could be identified as funeral parts of the »abdominal wall of a stout woman«. Nevertheless, instead of to the soapboiler they reached in the forensic medicine. After a great search a labourer answered, who missed his girlfriend, called „Maria Walter“, a presser. On account of some signs he could identify the woman. Now the way of the criminalists to the sister of the dead woman and her lifelong companions, the 38-year-old labourer „Franz Gruber“, was not wide any more. In the flat of the victims as well as in the flat Grubers numerous trails of blood could be guaranteed. Gruber had maintained a love triangle with both sisters. When he had become weary Maria Walter, he strangled the woman. He was convicted already 18 spots previously. A combustion of the divided corpse he failed, and thus chopped up the body further and threw him in the canal. Maria's sister knew about the murder plan of her friend and committed suicide after the purification of the crime. The culprit was condemned to 20 years of heavy dungeon and passed away in 1942 in a prison.

In the end of the twenties years for the supervision of the extensive sewage system a special unity of the Viennese police was put up during the domestic tensions: the canal brigade. center and right extremists had used in this time the canal net as an arms cache and ammunition depot, but also as an escape route. First the brigade existed of about 30 men whose major task was to range the canal net constant. During the war the unity was reduced and renamed as "Kanalzug". This people had their seat in a tract of „Hofburg“. In addition now the members of this special unity also had to control the air defence-space net internal town which pulled through almost the complete city centre. Also after end of the war the unity continued. Now it had to go forward primarily against the gangs and racketeer, who used cellars and canalisation.

Today the duties of the canal brigade are perceived by the security troop „WEGA“ (Viennese task force Alarm department) of the police, which exists of about 50 men. Also as a matter of routine the WEGA is controlling in the subsoil, indeed, more seldom than formerly. Burglaries under exploitation of the Viennese canals are carried out only by few specialists. Moreover, passable house canals may not be built any more. Mostly at the nighttime the WEGA is working there, because it is easier to enter the canals in the protection of the darkness by unauthorized. Today in addition to the canal net the extensive shafts and tunnels of the district heating lines must also be controlled, because they have become the preferential accommodation of without flat.

Otherwise the men of the WEGA are used in high state visits, with the object marking or in the case of uncontrolled pollutant escapes in the sewage. If domestic animals get lost or any things fell down in a manhole cover, You also may call the WEGA.

Also nowadays the canal does not less important, as we can see in TV and the magazines. In one special case no one lost his blood and the viewer was fascinatet by the whole preparation of this great robbery. It was the year 1999. At first some unkown man visited a jeweler and unremarkable startet with measering the shop by taking an umbrella or other unobtrusive things. Outside on the street they counted their steps to get some distances and so long. All together it was a part of a plan for an expectionally break in.

At the end they started in the canalisation and breaked through several walls in the cellars below of three huoses. By taking this loop way they avoided the alarm device att all. They endet in the middle of the jeweler and had no problem to get a great haul by openind all drawers. By level of knowledge they started at the confluence of the Alserbach in the Donaukanal by using a rubber dinghy and oared through the canalisation.

Arrived under the third house, exactly behind the counter the culprits broke through the floor of the business. Just the place had steered by her plannings. The preparations and excavation works for this burglary had to have lasted about one week. One fact is especially embarrassingly for the law guardians in this connection: the crime had happened practically before the door of the responsible commissioner's office. On the 16th of February, 2001 three men were arrested in Wroclaw in Poland. A parts of the prey could be found. On the same day in TV by "Aktenzeichen XY" it was reported in the broadcasting. Now the case seems to be cleared.

Finally when the culprits have been determined and already been put in court, the extensive acts which documented their criminal offences, movings again in the subsoil circumstance.

Acts about murder and manslaughter, heavy robbery with taking of hostages or without, finance scandals, political intrigues, attempts - all together You find them in the »archive of the criminal activity« in the land courthouse, accurate bundled up to paper packages. The building originated in the years 1831-1839 on the area of the new Stephansfreithof, center open in 1784. Since the 16th of December, 1876 the not more public executions now happende there in one of the courts by the gallows. The first offender the robber and murderer Enrico Francesconi should have been.

Today the criminals do not have to fear such a destiny there any more. They leave their tracks in the heaps of acts, which are steadily enlarging, because the single processes must be kept in the house up to 50 years. Especially sensational shower malice and politically relevant criminal cases have the note: »permanently keep«. Thus famous cases are preserved of the future generations and are not destroyed after some time like usual acts.

For this the archive in the cellars of the Viennese land court grows faster than any other. Indeed, it lasts for a while, until even the most sensational criminal case get bundled up in the iron shelves of the grey house, by the Viennese it is also called "Landl". Between action celebration, act end and dumping, many of the crimes have fallen into oblivion in public.

Also the Viennese criminal museum is partially accommodated in subterranean rooms. The museum, that is situated in the „Große Sperlgasse 24“ in the II Viennese district, was opened in 1991. Many exhibits where moved several times and where amassed in the former police museum in the »K. K. Police building in the Elisabeth-Promenade« and before it in the »K. K. Police management« in the Schottenring. The oldest exhibits are from the end of the 17th century. The museum leader, Harald Seyrl is also member of the institute of historical criminology.

The detective novel is not only a matter of murder and manslaughter, but ruther a part of the cultural history of a country. The museum also shows detective novel as a fertile mirror of social-political changes and presents an unusual past. The history of the Viennese judicial and police system since the late Middle Ages till our days is documented in 20 show rooms, in an impressive and thoughtfully tuning manner. The show of historical action weapons and preparations is completed with suitable tips and exhibits the abysses of the human existence.

Also there are shown many action tools like revolver, knife, files and axes or pieces of evidence, possibly clothes and poison ampoules.

To the subject appropriately, the mood among the visitors in the narrow rooms is depressed. In the basement than You find wide photos of single murder victims hanging on the walls and most the conversations fall silent. So the staff of the museum reports about some smirking school classes which returned quietly home after looking all these things: historical admissions of various corpses on the dissected broads or in their pools of blood in sordid flats around the turn of the century.

Torture cellars and spy tunnels

However, not only criminals have crossed the borders of law, also the state and his representatives have used the subsoil for their purposes. To spy out others, often one had to use the subterranean corridors. Such hidden bugging systems there were already in the past when „Maria Theresia“ was living. Also „Count Wenzel von Kaunitz“, one of the mightiest men in the state at that time, used such arrangements. The rests of his hunting seat near of the „Ungargasse“ and „Rennweg“ are today a convent school, better known under the name "Sacre Coeur". There were some carefully concealed subterranean ways, hiding places and assembly rooms in the building. While the installation of a milk lift in favor the schoolchildren in 1980, a vault was found, which cellar chambers, narrow staircases and ways through to a door curve which marks the way to a secret passage. Its could not be reconstructed yet. In old buildings such ways often have been constructet for escape purposes. In the Mezzanin there was found a pillar which was obviously without static need. At the place where the dining room of the school is, was a changing room, while count Wenzel von Kaunitz was staying there. When the pillar was removed, a listening canal to the room above it was found. It must be more than 200 years old and presumably the count used it for monitoring his employees and visitors.

On the 12th of March, 1938 there happened the connection of Austria with national-socialist Germany. After this time all state organisations and party organisations also had suitable spions in Vienna.

The confidential state police (called „Gestapo“), was of one of the most important suppression instruments, was staying in three buildings: In the „Herrengasse 7“ in the I district there was the department of personal matters and organisation. Before it, this building had been used by the Austrian Ministry of the Interior. The department II (Domestic executive) was in „Schottenring 2“, where prior of that the police management of Vienna had been. The foreign-policy executive and counter-intelligence (department III) was in the „Herrengasse“ 7 and 13, where had been the Lower Austria broads government.

Since the middle of April, 1938 the Gestapo moved to the former hotel "metropolis" on the „Morzinplatz“ 4, as headquarter. The house was build while the Viennese world exhibition in the year 1873 and was a verry established representative building in the style of the neoclassicism. Soon it convertet as prison with torturing to the most dreaded houses in the town.

On the 12th of March, 1938 German troops had marched in the Austrian country with cheering of large parts of the population. At the same time they arrested more than 70.000 people. Excesses against regime opponents and Jews began.

Also in the headquarters of the Gestapo there were numerous of cells where prisoner were held, waiting for questioning. Still 1942 several vaults in the basement were partly also used as coal camp and material store. Even dreadful tortures took place there by eye-witnesses accounts.

During the Nuremberg processes against the main war criminals it was documented in detail, like the Gestapo handled with prisoners everywhere in Europe.

Then they hit me particularly in the cross and in the face with an bull´s pizzle. These tortures lasted on three hours this day. (...) on Friday 16th of June, happened again the same, lasted only 1 1/2 hours, because I was exhausted and they brought me back to my cell. (...) on Saturday once more even worse tortures. There I admited my sabotage actions, because the monsters pushed needles in the arms to me. From now on they center me alone up to the 10th of August.

Then one called me in the orderly room to inform me that I was sentenced to death. (...) one sent me to Brussels where I was freed on the 8th of September by patriots from Brussels from the kidnapped train.« The members of the Gestapo operated with the same cruelty against suspects and regime opponents also in the house on the „Morzinplatz“. In a post-war process in Vienna the scenes was exactly described, which had taken place in the cellar of the hotel "metropolis":

Moreover, the Gestapo exercised a number of other ordeals by the questionings in the cellar rooms, as for example head-ducking in a tub full of water, clamping the hands in a vice and so on.«

But they did not manage this completely. After capturing of Vienna by the members of 2. and 3. Ukrainian front on the 13th of April, 1945, Pioneers of the red army sprinkled the rest of the house.

But there is also other supposition about the end of this house. Therefore, looters would have set on fire the building on the 18th of April, 1945. Then in the burnt-out house a detonation occurred on the 22nd of April. Obviously a unnoticed fire smoldered in the cellar. Probably there were ammunition stored also as bigger coke. These would have been roused and would thereby have caused this explosion.

During the postwar years the dwelling house arrangement "Leopold Figl court" was established on this place. Beside on an unobstructed meadow surface there is a memorial for the victims of the fascism which was formed by „Leopold Grausam“.

Up to the end of the Austrian state contract on the 15th of May, 1955, Austria and Vienna were split in zones by allied troops. Already in the final phase of the war against the »third empire« the clash of interests between the Soviet Union and the west ally became to the cold war in Europe. Though they together organised the management of the country and the town still, but behind the scenery it was worked already mutually.

The »Four in the jeep«, military policemen from the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and France together maintained order on the streets of Vienna, while in real they begann working against.

»Operation of lord« was the code name of a command enterprise of the Britons, they startet in their sector in middle of Vienna. With the tunnels under the Soviet information center they were monitoring the Soviet troops in the town since 1953. Experts of the British Secret Service with „Peter Lunn“, a man graduatet by Eton and Oxford, had put on a total of four listening tunnels in the Viennese subsoil. One of these tunnels directly tapped the line of the Soviet headquarters at the old "hotel Imperial" to Moscow. In this case the yield of information for the spies was especially great. The tunnels did not require a lot of manpower only during the construction, also their operation was very personnel-costly.

All together three years the wire-tapping lasted and ended by a deserter who betrayed. Phone engineers of the Austrian post in the future have still problems with the legacies of the Britons by finding any unexpectedly old tunnels.

Source: Unter Wien/ Glück, La Speranza, Ryborz // Layout, translation: P.Ryborz

Peter Ryborz

aliases „Peter van the underworld“, is chairman of the „underground club vienna“. During the years 1996-2004 he leaded more about 100.000 people by his „torchtours through the underground“ along the viennariver, 12meters under the streets. Also in CNN it was shown worldwide and since this time he is classified as contact person by any questions about the underground.

Furthermore he does tours in the first district with knowledge and also esprit for all age-groups, tourists, school-classes and interested people.

His book „Unter Wien“ is sold out since several years, but parts of it are inside in this booklet. Also DVD´s with information and videos about this historical part of the city were offered by the club.