Abe Streep
Link 3: Ringstrasse culture (art and architecture) as evidence of a new, modern liberalism.

The art and the architecture of late-nineteenth century Vienna represented the ideals of a new, urban class of Austrians that possessed its own culture. Gone was the aristocratic focus on classic, precise, noble beauty. The art of this new place and new class was an original, liberal sort of art. Individual human emotions were explored with unrealistic, symbolic, impressionistic images. Gustav Klimt was the leader of the nouveau artistic movement that came with the development of the Ringstrasse. Klimt represented everything that the bourgeois liberals stood for: he was born into the lower ranks of Viennese society, but rose to prosperity with the patronage and recognition of the new, upper middle class. The architecture of the Ringstrasse also represented a change in Austrian culture. Grand, flourishing buildings and elaborate, beautiful roads were abandoned for the efficiency of a new, straightforward, and efficient style of architecture. This new mode was apparent in the architecture of buildings such as the University, and was further developed by Otto Wagner, the head architectural planner for the development of the Ringstrasse. Thus, the Ringstrasse bourgeoisie had its own culture that signified its arrival and its seemingly great impact upon Vienna. Old traditions were thrown away, and efficient, secular modernism was embraced.
In 1897 a relatively young artist named Gustav Klimt led a group of artists in a "Secession" from the art academy of Vienna. He rejected the old Viennese tradition of portraits and realistic, precise, boring tributes to the prosperous nobility, and declared an age of artistic freedom. Klimt became famous for his examinations of the inner human life through tormented, symbolic images of individuals. At a time when women were depicted mainly in proper, realistic portraits and were deemed clearly inferior to men, Klimt made a career out of examining the souls of women. His paintings probed an inner, erotic, instinctual life, and had nothing to do with propriety whatsoever. Klimt was hated by many members of the upper class; many of his paintings, such as "The Kiss" and "Life and Death" were considered to be off limits for children. The artist’s career was constantly paralleled with that of Sigmund Freud, psychologist and controversial author of "The Interpretation of Dreams." Klimt’s use of bright colors such as silver and gold transformed everyday scenes into extraordinary, imaginary images that probed human desires. Klimt’s originality and rebelliousness represented a clear change in Viennese culture and art, and showed that the old, rigid way of thinking had lost its dominance over the people. At the beginning of the nineteenth century Prince Metternich had enacted the Carlsband Decrees (1819), which made all Viennese publications subject to censorship. Eighty years later, an upstart artist from the lower echelons of Austrian society was successfully challenging all conformity and restrictions, and doing so within the walls of what was once the most conservative city in the world.
The University of Vienna was originally designed to be in an ancient, gothic style. However, these plans changed soon after the scheme for the dual Parliament was altered: the newly empowered Viennese liberals decided on Roman Renaissance architecture for the University instead of the domineering, outdated gothic style. By first acquiring the land for the strategically placed University (right next to the Parliament and City Hall) and then giving the building a decidedly secular, non-classical feel, the liberal bourgeoisie emphatically laid their claim to the Ringstrasse. The University's appearance invited humanist, secular learning, and defied traditional foppish aristocratic ideals, thereby staking the modern, educated, individual and secular man’s place in a world that had once been open simply to the landed elite.
Otto Wagner fostered a bustling, interconnected, and modern urban Ringstrasse that fit perfectly with the philosophies that were held by the new class of Viennese bourgeoisie. He was appointed the “development planner” for the Ringstrasse in 1890, and soon began to bring his vision of an interconnected, efficient city to life. His plans and architecture would never have passed through the Vienna city council fifty years earlier; he cared nothing for aristocratic splendor and the aesthetic. Yet ,with the support of the new liberals Wagner was wildly successful. Under his order four large, circular roads were built around the inner city; one was the broad path of the Ringstrasse itself. Space efficient architecture was what Wagner desired, and so no wasteful luxuries were found in the infrastructure of the Ringstrasse. Five story apartment buildings, straight avenues and bustling neighborhoods were the mark of the region surrounding Old Vienna. In order to promote the efficiency of his bustling metropolis, Wagner designed “modules,” or self-sufficient neighborhoods that could prosper on their own but were also interconnected with other modules. Transportation of goods, labor, and commerce was deemed a necessity, and so long, straight avenues were built that branched out of Old Vienna and reached all the way to the suburbs. As a result, the Ringstrasse directly connected the the manufacturing regions with the inner city and bridged class gaps by removing the physical space that separated different social levels. The architecture and infrastructure of the Ringstrasse were clearly both results of and major contributors to the late nineteenth century Viennese culture of modernity.

The University of Vienna, built right next to the Parliament

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