Karlsplatz Stadtbahn Station is a former station of the

Viennese Viennese may refer to: * Vienna, the capital of Austria * Viennese people, List of people from Vienna * Viennese German, the German dialect spoken in Vienna * Music of Vienna, musical styles in the city * Viennese Waltz, genre of ballroom dance * ...

Stadtbahn ' (; German for "city railway"; plural ') is a German word referring to various types of urban rail transport. One type of transport originated in the 19th century, firstly in Berlin and followed by Vienna, where rail routes were created that co ...

''. The buildings above ground on Karlsplatz are a well-known example of ''Jugendstil'' architecture. These buildings were included in The

Vienna Secession The Vienna Secession (german: Wiener Secession; also known as ''the Union of Austrian Artists'', or ''Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs'') is an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austri ...

, as they followed many of the artistic styles of that movement. They were designed by Otto Wagner, adviser to the Transport Commission in Vienna, and

Joseph Maria Olbrich Joseph Maria Olbrich (22 December 1867 – 8 August 1908) was an Austrian architect and one of the Vienna Secession founders. Early life Olbrich was born in Opava, Austrian Silesia (now Czech Republic), the third child of Edmund and Aloisia O ...

and are, unlike the other Stadtbahn stations, made of a

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistan ...

framework with

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...

slabs mounted on the exterior. These stations allowed Otto Wagner to achieve his goal of creating two modern axes of architecture in a city that was becoming one of the most modern cities of its time. These buildings went on to become the most modern monument of the modern city. Architectural critic and poet

Friedrich Achleitner Friedrich Achleitner (23 May 1930 – 27 March 2019) was an Austrian poet and architecture critic. As a member of the Wiener Gruppe, he wrote concrete poems and experimental literature. His magnum opus is a multi-volume documentation of 20th-cen ...

commented on the Stadtbahn stations as follows "...In these two station buildings Wagner reached a highpoint of his dialectic (in his planning of the Stadtbahn) between function and poetry, construction and decoration, whereby a severe rationalism engages in competition with an almost Secessionist kind of decoration." The station was opened as ''Academiestraße'' in . When the ''Stadtbahn'' line was converted to

U-Bahn Rapid transit in Germany consists of four U-Bahn systems and fourteen S-Bahn systems. The U-Bahn commonly understood to stand for Untergrundbahn (''underground railway'') are conventional rapid transit systems that run mostly underground, while ...

in 1981, the original station was scheduled to be demolished. As a result of public outcry, it was decided to keep the station buildings. Both buildings were disassembled, renovated, and then reassembled higher than their original location after completion of U-Bahn construction. One of the buildings is now used as an exhibition space by the

Vienna Museum The Vienna Museum (german: Wien Museum or ''Museen der Stadt Wien'') is a group of museums in Vienna consisting of the museums of the history of the city. In addition to the main building in Karlsplatz and the Hermesvilla, the group includes nu ...

, with an U-Bahn entrance in its rear; the other is used as a

café A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-c ...

Notes

References

* * ''"Architecture in Austria in the 20th and 21st Centuries".'' Ed. Gudrun Hausegger. Basel, SW:

Birkhäuser Verlag Birkhäuser was a Swiss publisher founded in 1879 by Emil Birkhäuser. It was acquired by Springer Science+Business Media in 1985. Today it is an imprint used by two companies in unrelated fields: * Springer continues to publish science (particu ...

, 2006. * * Borsi, Franco, and Ezio Godoli. ''"Vienna 1900 Architecture and Design".'' New York, NY: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1986. * * Arnanson, Harvard H. ''"History of Modern Art".'' Ed. Daniel Wheeler. 3rd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1986. {{coord, 48, 12, 01, N, 16, 22, 13, E, region:AT-9_type:landmark, display=title Art Nouveau architecture in Vienna Buildings and structures in Innere Stadt Buildings and structures in Wieden Railway stations opened in 1899 Transport in Vienna Art Nouveau railway stations Otto Wagner buildings 1899 establishments in Austria