Wien (Vienna), capital of the Federal Republic of Austria since 1918 and before that residence of the emperors of Austria.

Vienna stands on the site of the Roman frontier fortress of Vindobona, and is mentioned in 881 as Wenia. It became a city in 1137, and from 1156 to 1246 was the seat of the Babenberg dukes of Austria. After 1278 (see Rudolf I) it became the official seat of the house of Habsburg and from 1438 to 1918 of Habsburg emperors. The medieval city survives in important ecclesiastical buildings: the largest is St Stephen's Cathedral (Stephansdom, 1304-1450), with south transeptal tower and spire (c.1350-1433), affectionately known as ‘der Steffl’. The Ruprechtskirche is the oldest, St Maria am Gestade the quaintest of the smaller medieval churches. The Habsburg palace (Hofburg) is a huge agglomeration of buildings of disparate styles.

Vienna was besieged by the Turks in 1529 and again in 1683 (see Starhemberg, Rüdiger, Graf von). The layout of the city within the ancient girdle of fortifications is largely preserved, together with many notable 17th-c. and 18th-c. palaces of the nobility. The most impressive 18th-c. baroque survivals include the former Hofbibliothek, which now houses the older collections of the Austrian National Library (Fischer von Erlach, 1723-6), Karlskirche (Fischer von Erlach, 1716-39), Prince Eugene's Belvedere (J. L. von Hildebrandt, 1696-1723), and the palace of Schönbrunn (Fi-scher von Erlach, then N. Pacassi, 1695-1749). The baroque city is captured in canvases by B. Bellotto which hang in the Kunsthistorisches Museum.

With the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, Vienna became the capital of the Empire of Austria. The city walls, which provided agreeable promenades, were demolished in the mid-19th c. (a fragment, the Mölkerbastei, survives). The boulevard which was then built around the old city (Ringstraße) is flanked by grand public buildings, monuments of historicist architecture, including the Parliament, the Kunsthistorisches Museum, the university, the Opera House, and the Burgtheater, the last three replacing older buildings in the centre. The university, the oldest in what is now German-speaking Europe, was founded in 1365. It is especially famous for its medical school, and it was long the principal centre for psycho-analysis (see Freud, S.).

Entered by Napoleon in 1805 and besieged by him in 1809, Vienna became the diplomatic centre of Europe in 1814-15 (see Wiener Kongress). Its reputation for gaiety was sustained not only by the Congress, but also by the succession of Viennese waltz composers (see Strauss, J.) and the annual carnival with its balls (Redouten). From c. 1770 to the early 20th c. the musical tradition of Vienna was the most important in Europe, with the Austrians Haydn, Mozart, F. Schubert, A. Bruckner, Mahler, and Schönberg, and the ‘adoptive Viennese’ Beethoven, Brahms, and R. Strauss. The city has been the home of a succession of poets and novelists, including A. Grün, M. von Ebner-Eschenbach, K. Kraus, R. Musil, and H. von Doderer; its artistic life was at its most intense in the period around 1900, when it was a major centre of European modernism. From the late 18th c. it was also for over a hundred years the main theatrical centre in German-speaking Europe. Viennese dramatists include F. Raimund, F. Grillparzer, J. N. Nestroy, E. von Bauernfeld, L. Anzengruber, A. Schnitzler, H. von Hofmannsthal, and A. Wildgans. This theatrical tradition, which long centred on a creative interplay between the court theatres (Opera House and Burgtheater) and the popular entertainment of the commercial theatres (including the operetta theatres of the late 19th c.), is surveyed in a study by W. E. Yates, Theatre in Vienna. A Critical History, 1776-1995 (1996).

The Oxford Companion to German Literature. Copyright © 1976, 1986, 1997, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.