Burgtheater

“The theater in Vienna played an even more serious role in cultural and social life than it did in Paris, and incomparably more than in Victorian London. In the years before 1848 only the high aristocracy had the privilege of occupying the first two rows of boxes… social segregation was enforced not by pocketbook but by law.” (1) The new theater was the perfect place for the emperor to break these traditions and to really make the bourgeoisie happy. He created a space to promenade and three new entrances for each of the classes to enter through. And the bourgeoisie was the largest and provided them a space to show off to each other as if they were aristocracy. The bourgeoisie were also given a better section of seats than they had before. For a culture that placed so much emphasis on then arts (and appearances), the new theater played perfectly into the bourgeoisie’s desire for power by giving them a forum to show off to each other and to feel superior while only a couple dozen feet away the real power and aristocracy was coming into the theater.

(1) – The City As A Work of Art, Donald J. Olsen, page 244-245