The Hermannskogel () is a hill in

Döbling Döbling () is the 19th District A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, seve ...

, the 19th district of

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. At 542 metres above sea level, it is the highest natural point of Vienna. It lies on the border to

Lower Austria Lower Austria (german: Niederösterreich; Austro-Bavarian: ''Niedaöstareich'', ''Niedaestareich'') is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Since 1986, the capital of Lower Austria has been Sankt P ...

. The

Habsburgwarte The Habsburgwarte is a 27 metre-tall tower that stands on Hermannskogel hill in Vienna. It was built by architect Franz von Neumann to resemble a medieval tower. The construction of the Habsburgwarte was funded by the '' Österreichische Touristen ...

, standing atop the Hermannskogel, marked the

kilometre zero In many countries, kilometre zero (also written ''km 0'') or similar terms in other languages (also known as zero mile marker, zero milepost, control stations or control points) denote a particular location (usually in the nation's capital cit ...

in cartographic measurements used in

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

until 1918.

Geography

The Hermannskogel is a forested ridge in the Wienerwald. It is both the highest point in the Kahlengebirge and in the city of Vienna. The Hermannskogel is part of a north-eastern chain of foothills belonging to the

eastern Alps Eastern Alps is the name given to the eastern half of the Alps, usually defined as the area east of a line from Lake Constance and the Alpine Rhine valley up to the Splügen Pass at the Alpine divide and down the Liro River to Lake Como in the ...

. It is composed of

flysch Flysch () is a sequence of sedimentary rock layers that progress from deep-water and turbidity flow deposits to shallow-water shales and sandstones. It is deposited when a deep basin forms rapidly on the continental side of a mountain building ep ...

containing

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

marl Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, clays, and silt. When hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae. Marl makes up the lower part o ...

, and other conglomerates. The many cliff-like layers on the south-western approach to the Hermannskogel clearly show the hill's geological make-up. The

Kahlenberg The Kahlenberg () is a mountain () located in the 19th District of Vienna, Austria (Döbling). General The Kahlenberg lies in the Vienna Woods and is one of the most popular destinations for day-trips from Vienna, offering a view over the entire ...

and

Leopoldsberg The Leopoldsberg (; ) is perhaps Vienna’s most famous hill, towering over the Danube and the city. Leopoldberg’s most prominent landmark is the church which stands at the top, and which is clearly visible from Vienna below. Construction of the ...

, behind which lie the

Wiener Pforte Wiener (from German: "wikt:Viennese, Viennese") may refer to: Food * A Polish sausage (kielbasa) or "wenar" * A Vienna sausage of German origin, named after the capital of Austria * A hot dog, a cooked sausage, traditionally grilled or steamed ...

, where the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

breaks through the Wienerwald, are three kilometres to the east of the Hermannskogel. The Vogelsangberg stands nearby, as does the Dreimarkstein (to the southwest).

History

The first documentary reference to the Hermannskogel can be found in the

Klosterneuburg Monastery Klosterneuburg Abbey or Monastery (german: Stift Klosterneuburg) is a twelfth-century Augustinian monastery of the Roman Catholic Church located in the town of Klosterneuburg in Lower Austria. Overlooking the Danube, just north of the Vienna city l ...

’s

tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash or cheques or more r ...

register. It dates from 1355 and names the hill ''hermannschobel''. The name is composed of the personal name Hermann, which was common in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

, and ''Kobel'' (which appears elsewhere as '' Kogel''), a common designation for cone-shaped hills. In the Middle Ages, the Hermannskogel was covered in

vineyards A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...

. On the side of the hill, in a depression between

Sievering Sievering is a suburb of Vienna and part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna. Sievering was created in 1892 out of the two erstwhile independent suburbs Untersievering and Obersievering. These still exist as Katastralgemeinden. For many y ...

and Weidling, is the probable former site of the village Kogelbrunn, which lived from

viticulture Viticulture (from the Latin word for ''vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ran ...

and which is mentioned for the first time in a document from 1237 as ''chogelbrunne''. In 1256, Albero von Feldsberg accorded the village to the

. In 1346, it was still inhabited, but it was destroyed at the end of the 15th century, probably a victim of Magyar raids. The village's demise also spelt the end of the vineyards and the Hermannskogel was reclaimed by woods. The relief army summoned from the

Kingdom of Saxony The Kingdom of Saxony (german: Königreich Sachsen), lasting from 1806 to 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. The kingdom was formed from the Electorate of Saxon ...

and other parts of the empire that lifted the second siege of Vienna camped here in 1683. In the 19th century, several requests made by the Klosterneuburg Monastery to erect a watchtower on the Hermannskogel were turned down. The 27-metre tall

(known from 1938 to 1974 as the Hermannskogelwarte) was first built in 1888 and opened a year later.

The kilometre zero

The Habsburgwarte that stands atop the Hermannskogel was established as the

of cartographic measurements in

at the start of the 19th century. In the 1920s however, Austria adopted the

Gauss–Krüger coordinate system The transverse Mercator map projection (TM, TMP) is an adaptation of the standard Mercator projection. The transverse version is widely used in national and international mapping systems around the world, including the Universal Transverse Merca ...

. Thereafter, the Hermannskogel had the same function as a trigonometric reference point as the Rauenberg point on the Marienhöhe in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. The transition to the 1989 European Territorial Reference System will take place soon.

References

* Christian F. Winkler / Alfred Hengl: ''Vom Leopoldsberg zum Hermannskogel. Geschichte des Kahlengebirges.'' Sutton Verlag, Erfurt 2007, {{Authority control Vienna Woods Döbling Hills of Vienna Geodesy