Mödling is a city in Lower Austria and the capital of the
district of the same name. The city is located about 20 minutes
south of Vienna, at the foot of the Anninger and on the eastern edge
of the Vienna Woods.
Finds testify to an early settlement in
the Neolithic (Jennyberg), Iron Age (Calendar Mountain), by Romans
(near the train station) and Longobards (Lerchengasse). In the early
Middle Ages the area was finally settled by Slavs, partly under Avar
suzerainty (location: Goldene Stiege). Charlemagne conquered the
region in the Avar Wars, and the Hungarians soon followed. From the
end of the 10th century, the area was finally under the influence of
the Babenbergs. Around 1200 Mödling was even the seat of a
Babenberger branch line, there was the title "Duke in Mödling". This
title was borne by Heinrich the Elder and Heinrich the Younger, who
also had Mödling Castle expanded into a large defensive structure.
Walther von der Vogelweide was a prominent guest. In the late Middle
Ages Mödling became a market and should have been economically quite
prosperous. B. the magnificent Schranne (town hall) and the two
Gothic churches. In the Turkish wars, the wine-growing village was
destroyed and then rebuilt. After the Napoleonic Wars, the hussar
temple and the many artificial ruins that the Prince of
Liechtenstein had built on the calendar mountain were built. In the
Biedermeier period Mödling was also a very popular destination for
painters, poets and composers (the "Brühl", a rocky section of the
Mödling valley, was particularly popular). Ludwig van Beethoven and
Franz Schubert also appreciated the place and spent some time here.
Mödling was a well-known spa town from the 19th century. Thanks to
the connection to the southern railway and the associated
industrialization, Mödling quickly grew into an important suburb of
Vienna. Above all the mayors Josef Schöffel (also known under the
name "Der Retter des Wienerwaldes") and Jakob Thoma did a lot for
Mödling. B. Schöffelstadt, the hospital and the orphanage named
after Josef Hyrtl. In the 19th century Mödling was also promoted to
town. From 1938 to 1954 the city and the surrounding communities
belonged to Vienna as the 24th district, and from 1945 to 1955 it
belonged to the Soviet occupation zone. Since 1954 Mödling has been
an independent town in Lower Austria again.
In 2016, the
former gendarmerie school was demolished.
The name "Mödling"
is derived from the word "Medilihha" and is of Slavic origin.
The most important church building is
the towerless, late Gothic parish church of St. Othmar in the west
of the city center, directly on the slope of the Kalenderberg, a
former fortified church. Next to it is a late Romanesque Karner
which is well worth seeing. The hospital church (1443-1453) St.
Aegyd is also worth seeing. There used to be a citizens' hospital
there. The oldest church in Mödling stood where the orphanage
church, a building from the 19th century, can be found today. The
first phase of Mödling's settlement in the early Middle Ages took
place at the same location. In the immediate vicinity you can marvel
at the modern Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (20th century). In
Mödling there is also a Protestant church from the 19th century and
another modern church (St. Michael).
In total there are two
Roman Catholic parishes in the city: The parish of St. Othmar (with
the churches of St. Othmar, Karner St. Pantaleon, Spitalkirche St.
Aegyd and the Church of St. Michael) and the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Both are part of the Archdiocese of Vienna. The orphanage church is
also used by the Old Catholic Church.
Liechtenstein Castle
Liechtenstein Castle:
Classicist building, today a senior citizens' residence
Both
the castle and the Liechtenstein castle are already located in the
municipality of Maria Enzersdorf.
Castle ruin Mödling: In the
Middle Ages the seat of a Babenberger branch line, around 1200 even
the famous Minne singer Walther von der Vogelweide was a guest
there. Badly affected by several catastrophes (fires) in modern
times, it was partially rebuilt in the 19th century in the Romantic
style. Located in the middle of the Föhrenberge Nature Park, the
castle is easily accessible for hikers.
The
Mödling City Theater is located in an Art Nouveau building in the
center. The Beethoven House is also nearby: the composer Ludwig van
Beethoven spent his summers in the house in 1818, 1819 and 1820 and
often went for walks in the Vienna Woods.
Other interesting
buildings are the Posthof on Schrannenplatz and the Herzogshof near
the Posthof.
Museum of the City of Mödling.
The collection of the Museum of the City of Mödling in the
Thonet-Schlössel ranges from prehistory to modern times. The
permanent exhibition is supplemented by special exhibitions on
various topics.
Schoenberg House. Arnold Schönberg's Mödlinger
residence (1918–1925) is often referred to as the "birthplace of
12-tone music" because of the compositional method developed there.
A permanent exhibition with pictures, display boards, video and
audio stations as well as original furniture and instruments gives
an insight into Schönberg's life and work, into his time in Mödling
and into the history of the Schönberg House.
Henricoland
miniature world: model railway landscape with attached model railway
shop in Babenbergerstraße
The (short) pedestrian zone Elisabethstrasse / Schrannenplatz with the Renaissance town hall (the so-called "Schranne"; today registry office) and medieval town houses is well worth seeing. There is a plague column near the town hall.
Museum park last
change:
various
To the northwest of the city, on the calendar
mountain (already in the municipality of Maria Enzersdorf), there is
an extensive recreation area (Föhrenmischwald), which was provided
with some artificial ruins (romanticism) at the beginning of the
19th century, including an amphitheater, the Black Tower, Pepper
cans and the glasses. Access, etc. from the parish church of St.
Othmar. There are many vineyards south of the center; The wine grown
there can be tasted in one of the city's numerous Heurigen
restaurants.
By plane
Vienna-Schwechat Airport is about 20 kilometers east
of Mödling. There has been no direct bus connection between the
airport and Mödling since 2010. The journey by public transport from
the airport to Mödling either takes a Railjet to Vienna Meidling,
where you change to an S-Bahn or a regional train, or take the S7
S-Bahn to the station Wien Rennweg or Landstraße / Wien Mitte (CAT)
and there change to the S-Bahn or a regional train to Mödling. You
can find the exact times at the ÖBB timetable information. The
journey takes about 50 minutes and costs around 7 euros. By car, the
journey is via A4-S1-A2.
By train
Mödling train station is
about 10 minutes' walk from the city center. At the station
forecourt, regional buses go to the surrounding area (e.g.
Seegrotte), the City Bus towards the center, there is also a station
from the bike provider Nextbike. Mödling is served by regional
trains and S-Bahn trains. Long-distance and express trains usually
stop not in Mödling. From long-distance traffic you have to change
to regional traffic in Vienna Meidling or Vienna Hauptbahnhof.
Travelers arriving from the south by long-distance travel should
already change to an S-Bahn or regional train in Wiener Neustadt.
From Vienna you can reach Mödling by S-Bahn or regional trains
during the day mostly every 10 minutes, travel time approx. 25-35
minutes. The last S-Bahn from Vienna arrives in Mödling every day at
1:26 a.m. Train end stations are usually Mödling, Wiener Neustadt or
Payerbach-Reichenau. Boarding in Vienna at all stations of the
S-Bahn main line, among others in Floridsdorf (U6), Praterstern (U1,
U2), Wien Mitte (Landstrasse; U3, U4, CAT), Hauptbahnhof (U1,
long-distance trains) or Meidling (U6, long-distance trains, WLB).
Be careful in Vienna Meidling or Wiener Neustadt: As some S- or
R-Bahn trains go via Pottendorf to Wiener Neustadt, you have to make
sure that the train goes "via Liesing" or "via Baden" on the
destination indicator.
More information is available from the
ÖBB timetable information and from Verkehrsverbund Ost Region.
For an alternative journey by rail, the local railway
Vienna-Baden (WLB, "Badner Bahn") is also ideal. Mödling city center
can be reached in approx. 20-25 minutes on foot from the stops
Wiener Neudorf or Grießfeld; some places in the eastern municipality
sometimes even faster than from the train station.
By bus
The station forecourt is an important hub for buses from the
surrounding communities and from Vienna Liesing. Buses in the
Verkehrsverbund Ost Region from Mödling drive e.g. to the
surrounding excursion destinations Gießhübl, Hinterbrühl, Laxenburg
or Gumpoldskirchen.
In the street
From the A2 Südautobahn
you drive either at the Mödling SCS or Wr. Neudorf and then follow
the signs to Mödling. If you come via the Westautobahn (A1), change
to the Wiener Außenringautobahn (A21) at the Steinhäusl junction and
then take the Hinterbrühl exit. Then follow the signs again to
Mödling. If you come from the south of Vienna, you can drive to
Mödling via Triester Straße (B17) or Brunner Straße (B12) instead of
the motorway. If you are coming from Baden, you can take a trip
through the vineyards via Gumpoldskirchen instead of taking the
motorway.
In principle, Mödling is easy to visit on foot. However, there is also the option of taking the City Bus. There are three City Bus lines and these cover the city area relatively well. All three lines start at Mödling station. A ticket costs € 1.10 and a day ticket € 2.20. The buses only run from Monday to Saturday. There are also a large number of other bus routes that run through the city and beyond. If you are traveling by car, it is better to leave it where it is at peak times, in the morning and in the late afternoon. Otherwise you can get around in Mödling without any problems. All parking spaces in the center are short-term parking spaces that are subject to charges. There is a parking garage in Lerchengasse. A little further away from the center there is usually enough free parking space and these are also free of charge. The Mödlinger connecting taxi runs regularly through the city area between 6:00 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. Monday to Friday: You can only get on at the station forecourt, otherwise you will be taken comfortably and safely everywhere free of charge. Mödling is the operating area of the rental bike provider Nextbike, together with several other southern Vienna suburbs. There are stands, among others. at the train station and at Schrannenplatz.
Mödling borders directly on the Föhrenberge Nature
Park. You can go on long hikes, etc. in the direction of
Gumpoldskirchen (Weinort), Baden (spa town), Gaaden, Heiligenkreuz
(Cistercian monastery), Hinterbrühl (Seegrotte), Perchtoldsdorf
(Weinort) and Vienna. Bike tours on the paths planned for this are
also possible.
There is also a city pool (in winter: indoor
pool and artificial ice rink, in summer: outdoor pool).
At
the end of July there is an annual wine festival in the museum park.
In September you can enjoy wine from the region and culinary
delicacies on a few weekends on the "Genussmeile" and the
"Weinherbst" along the 1st Viennese high spring water pipeline.
During Advent there are Christmas markets in the pedestrian zone
and in front of the orphanage church.
Most of the shops are located in the pedestrian zone (Elisabethstraße) in the center of Mödling. There are also a number of shops on the main street. In Mödling there are mainly smaller specialist shops and boutiques. Mödling is in the immediate vicinity of the largest shopping center in Austria, the Shopping City Süd. There you can really find everything you need.
Mödling has a very
long tradition of viticulture, which is why the town's Heurigen are
highly recommended. There is a good gingerbread shop in Herzoggasse.
In addition, there are many other restaurants in the city, ranging
from nice cafes (traditional or modern) and Austrian inns, pizzerias
and kebab shops to Greek and Asian restaurants. In the Vienna Woods
there are some huts with culinary offerings.
Medium
In the MaWi (Mautswirtshaus) you can find good and inexpensive food.
Vokalem offers down-to-earth Viennese cuisine. The Mayer stage is
located in the basement of the Mautswirtshaus, where small artists
also perform.
Upscale
In the Babenbergerhof, also a 4-star
hotel, you can try out Austrian cuisine at an excellent level.
Unfortunately Mödling does not offer an exciting nightlife. In 2017 a club opened at Eichkogel. The bars and clubs in Vienna are recommended for night owls. The Casinobus 360 runs from 12:10 a.m. to 03:17 a.m. from Vienna's Karlsplatz / Oper via Möding (stations in Mödling: train station and Weißes-Kreuz-Gasse, travel time approx. 30 minutes) to Baden approx. Once an hour. S-Bahn trains run regularly from around 4 a.m. This means that there is public transport from Vienna to Mödling at any time from Monday to Sunday.
On Schrannenplatz, near the town
hall, you can find out more about the city and the surrounding area
in an information office for tourists.
There are three post
offices in Mödling.
The phone code is 02236, the postcode (es)
2340, (2342, rarely used).
The place name changed over time from medilihha (903 AD) via Medelikch and Medling to Mödling. The roots of the name come from the Slavic and thus at the latest from the Awareness period in the second half of the first millennium AD around 800; it refers to either a border stream or a slowly trickling body of water (literally: sluggish river), probably with reference to a corresponding settlement near today's Josef Hyrtl-Platz.
One of the oldest agricultural settlement finds in Austria
Brunn-Wolfholz (about 5700-5000 BC) is located in nearby Brunn am
Gebirge. The first finds in Mödling date back to later Neolithic
(5000-2000 BC) settlements. Finds from these millennia include a double
burial, a larger settlement at the foot of the Eichkogel and finds on
the Jenny Mountain of the Baden culture (3600-2800 BC). On the
Hirschkogel in Maria Enzersdorf, those finds were made to which the name
of the End-Neolithic Mödling-Zöbing/Jevišovice Group refers.
Bronze Age activity from the end of the third millennium BC has been
amply demonstrated by finds, e.g. settlement finds of the earliest
Bronze Age Leitha Group on the Jennyberg.
Finds for the last
millennium BC were found on the Kalenderberg and the Jennyberg from the
Celtic Hallstatt period (8th-5th c. B.C.). In the following Latène
period, the Mödling area was located in the eastern border region of the
Celtic kingdom of Noricum, which extended to the Celtic oppidum of the
Boians in Bratislava, and subsequently to the encroaching Germanic
peoples. With the Augustan Alpine campaigns, the kingdom came peacefully
increasingly under Roman control from 15 BC onwards.
After the uprising of 6-9 AD in Dalmatia of the Roman province of
Illyricum, the Celtic area east of the Alps and up to the Danube, which
was already under Roman influence, finally came under the control of the
Roman Empire. As a result, Mödling became part of the province of
Pannonia, founded between the years 20-50, in the western border area of
the Illyricum Inferius, and its later part Pannonia Superior and the
then smaller part Pannonia Prima. As a result, the Eastern Amber Road
running in a north–south direction via Carnuntum (Petronell) and
Scarbantia (Sopron), as well as the defense against the Transdanubian
Germanic tribes (e.g. Marcomannic wars) was expanded in the region. The
Vindobona (Vienna), which was founded in the course of this, was
connected to the Amber Road and its destination, the Adriatic port of
Aquileia (about 50 km northwest of the later destination of Trieste) by
means of the Triester Straße, which led past Mödling to Scarbantia.
Thus, the most important transport corridor in Vienna to the south and
thus also to Mödling ran and runs along Triester Straße to this day.
From the Roman period, the main street in Mödling itself can already be
traced and finds of coins and tombs near the railway station and Josef
Hyrtl Square can be made. Not far from it, East Germanic tombs were also
found, which were attributed to the inhabitants of the region from 433
AD. With the retreat of Rome in the fight against the Huns and thus
point to their various East Germanic refugees (vandals), followers and
successors such as the Ostrogoths.
A Lombard burial ground in the
south of Mödling testifies to the settlement by the Lombards, who
settled here at the end of the migration period with the 6th century.
before the mass of this people left for Pannonia and finally Italy,
leaving the Carpathian Basin to the Avars around 568. The urban area of
Mödling remained populated during this time. This was shown by
excavations of an awareness-age burial ground with over 500 graves at
the foot of the Golden Stairs. Grave goods and completely preserved
skeletons are exhibited in the Museum of the city of Mödling.
With the victory of the Franks under Charlemagne over the Avars in 803,
Mödling became a town in the west of the part of the Avar Khaganate
conquered by the Franks, the Awarenmark of the French Empire. This area
was initially still controlled by Avarian princes, who were replaced
around the year 828 with counts of the now Franconian Marcha orientalis
(also Pannonia Superior) of the Bavarian Eastland. In the Mark, Mödling
was part of the Danube county of Upper Pannonia, which stretched from
the Vienna Woods to the Raab, which was the seat of the prefect of the
Mark.
As a result of the Frankish rule, the settlement of
Bavarians from the Bavarian heartland to the Mödling region began. In
the course of this, the St. Martin's Church was built near today's
orphanage church as a base for the Christianization of the region, and
represented the then settlement core, east of the later center of today.
The oldest documented Carolingian predecessor church of today's St.
Othmarkirche also dates from the 9th century.
The oldest known documentary mention of Mödling as MEDILIHHA ULTRA
MONTEM COMMIGENUM is from September 8, 903, from an exchange of estates
between two bishops. Since the settlement from the previous 9th century
was probably destroyed after the Battle of Pressburg in 907, in the
course of the conquest by the Magyars, it can therefore be assumed that
after the Magyars were pushed back in 955 and 991, there was a relocated
settlement area of the renewed Bavarian settlement of Mödling, away from
the destroyed settlement around St. Martin's Church to the current
village center.
At the latest in 991, Mödling was reintegrated
into the partially reconquered Bavarian Eastland (Marcha Orientalis),
which was territorially reduced by the founding of the Duchy of
Carinthia in 976, reorganized as a margraviate with the Babenbergers
from Würzburg and was referred to as Ostarrichi (996) in the area of the
old Danube counties.
The parish of Mödling had its first known
mention in 1113, when the parish, including two-thirds of the parish,
went to Melk Abbey, founded in 1089 and from 1122 expelled from the
Diocese of Passau, which was dominant in the Mark, and whose strong
landlord established a presence in the area until 1783. The
Martinskirche remained a parish church until 1475, despite the shift in
the focus of settlement in the 10th century, and was destroyed only in
1683 and demolished in 1787. The attached old cemetery of Mödling was
preserved until the opening of the current one on the Eichkogel in 1876.
The grounds of the cemetery and St. Martin's Church were finally built
over by the orphanage in 1889.
From the 11th century until 1177, the seat of power was a local
mountain complex around today's Othmar Church, whose lord in 1140 was
Hugo von Petronell (108?–1142), who at that time had the nearby
eponymous ancestral castle of the ruling house of Liechtenstein built
for himself. The neighboring settlements of Neudorf and Enzersdorf are
also mentioned for the first time from this period. At this time, the
Babenbergs established centers of their rule and of the future Austria
in the region. Thus, from 1136 onwards, the relatively nearby
Heiligenkreuz Abbey, which has survived to this day, was built in the
heart of the Vienna Woods and subsequently used as the central burial
place of the Babenbergs. In 1155, Vienna finally became the seat of
power of the Babenbergs and Austria instead of Melk and Klosterneuburg.
At this time, Mödling also acquired a poorhouse and pilgrimage home (on
the site of today's St. Othmar parish hall) from the Babenberg
Jasomirgott, Duke of Bavaria and from 1156 first Duke of Austria. In
1177, Henry the Elder (1158–1223) of Babenberg received from his brother
Leopold V, their father after the death of Jasomirgott, the rule over
Mödling, as part of an area from Liesing to Piesting and Bruck. Henry
then moved into the current ruins of Mödling Castle, which had been
built since 1148 and can be reached away from the town via the Golden
Stairs and was used until 1556. This was originally intended as a
wedding gift from his father to his Byzantine mother Theodora, the niece
of the then Byzantine Emperor, future Duchess of Bavaria and later first
Duchess of Austria, when his father, one of the few surviving knights of
the Second Crusade, married her on the way home. Mödling thus became the
seat of the Mödling branch of the Babenbergs from 1177 to 1236. This
branch line had three lions in its coat of arms, one more than the main
line, and probably descended from Henry's great-nephew Ulrich III
(Carinthia), to whom the Carinthian coat of arms refers. During this
time under Henry, the castle with its extremely large fortifications was
known for the society and art that was cultivated there; Walther von der
Vogelweide is said to have been a guest here in 1219.
In 1182,
Henry had the oldest buildings in Mödling still standing built, the core
of the Herzoghof or Toppelhof and also the basic structure of the
charnel house, a Romanesque round chapel and a Romanesque fortified
church, in the place of which the St. Othmar Church now stands. At this
time, the town expanded to include Pfarrgasse, Herzoggasse and
Fleischgasse, and presumably subsequently formed a meadow between the
then Hochstraße (Kaiserin Elisabeth-Straße) and Fleischgasse.
With the death of Henry's son (Henry the Younger) in 1236, the Mödling
branch of the Babenbergs died out and the rule over Mödling became the
sovereign's. In 1226, Gertrud von Babenberg, the great-grandniece of
Henry the Elder, was probably born in Mödling. She was the Duchess of
Mödling and, after the death of the last Babenberg in the male line, was
titular duchess of Austria and Styria from 1246 to 1251. In the course
of the resulting Austrian interregnum and succession dispute, attackers
from the Hungarian Béla IV, who was competing for the title, attacked
and catastrophically devastated Mödling in 1252.
After this
crisis, a significant settlement boom began that lasted until the 14th
century. Construction took place particularly towards the east, which
resulted in a meadow from Josef Deutsch-Platz (old Kornmarkt) to
Freiheitsplatz (new Kornmarkt), in place of Klostergasse and Hauptstraße
and the buildings that stand between them today, and which remained
undeveloped until the 15th century. A series of mills were built along
the Mödlingbach and the town grew across the stream to Neusiedlerstraße.
Under the Habsburg Duke of Austria Albrecht II, Medlich, as it was
then called, was elevated to a market in 1343. The market was finally
enclosed as a palisade fence across the eastern St. Merten Gate, later
Ungar Gate (at Hauptstrasse 31/35), the southwestern Neusiedler Gate
(after Neusiedler Bridge, at Neusiedler Strasse 14/15), the southeastern
Iron Gate (after Eisentor Bridge, at Eisentorgasse 6) and the northern
Enzersdorf Gate or Vienna Gate (at Enzersdorfer Strasse 2/3), which
existed until they were dismantled in the 18th/19th century. At this
time, a high Gothic column from the St. Stephen's Cathedral workshop was
erected in front of the Ungar Gate, of which only a small part is on
display in the museum park today after it was dismantled in 1876. In
1374, the Schranne (today the old town hall) was built on the market
square, today's Schrannenplatz. From the 14th century, there was
evidence of a Jewish community, which had a synagogue in Judengasse,
today's Kaiserin Elisabeth-Straße 7. However, with the expulsion of the
Jews in 1421, the community was dissolved and not re-established until
1840.
By the 15th century, Mödling had developed into one of the
most important wine towns in Lower Austria, alongside Gumpoldskirchen,
Perchtoldsdorf and Langenlois, as well as a ban market. From 1426,
Mödling was a princely mark and part of the curia of towns and markets
in the association of the Austrian Estates under the Enns. In 1458, the
market was given its own coat of arms, with the use of the Styrian
panther probably referring to the grantor, Emperor Frederick III. The
core of the meadow was also built up in the 15th century; The hospital
church and today's St. Othmar Church were built in quick succession, the
latter becoming a parish church in 1475 when the Mödling parish passed
from Melk Abbey to the Vienna Cathedral Deanery of the Diocese of
Vienna, founded in 1469, and was thus part of the Salzburg Church
Province until the founding of the ecclesiastical province of Vienna in
1722.
A large part of the city was destroyed during the first Ottoman siege
in 1529. After the medieval churches, the oldest formative Renaissance
part of the town's current historical ensemble of houses and facades
dates from the following period, the 16th (but also partly the 15th)
century, such as the numerous representative houses of the emerging
bourgeoisie or the extension of the current Old Town Hall with a tower
(1548). In 1580, 90% of the Mödling population was Protestant, slightly
more than in the whole of Lower Austria. In 1597, the vineyard workers
fought back against poor pay in the miners' revolt. At the beginning of
the 17th century, Mödling separated itself from the rule of Burg Mödling
and thus had its own regional court (high court) de facto and from 1607
de jure. In order to re-Catholicize the town, a Capuchin monastery
existed from 1631 until the Josephinian dissolution in 1785 on the site
of the current district museum in front of the Old Kornmarkt, today's
Josef Deutsch-Platz.
During the plague in Vienna in 1679, many
residents also died in Mödling. During the second Ottoman siege in 1683,
a large number of residents were killed. However, new settlers from
Styria managed to revive the town. After the second plague epidemic in
1713, in which only around 90 residents died, the baroque Trinity Column
or Plague Column, as it is known today, was built in gratitude on the
new Kornmarkt, today's Freiheitsplatz. The 18th century also brought
economic changes due to the move away from winegrowing. The first early
industrial "factories" were built, starting in 1773 with a silk
manufacturing factory in Eisentorgasse 1, which still exists today, on
the site of a manor house of the Melker Zehnthof. (The core of this
complex dates back to the 13th century, but structurally this complex
still exists today as a free farm at Franz-Keim-Gasse 5 and as the
"Mölkerhof" at Hauptstraße 41, which served as a manor house until
1783.)
In 1805 and 1809, Mödling was occupied by the French. At
that time, around two thousand people lived here. As part of the
Liechtenstein Landscape Park in what is now the Föhrenberge Nature Park,
the then bare hills were reforested with black pines from 1807 onwards,
and in 1810 the neo-romantic Black Tower was built on the foundations of
an old watchtower from 1596, and in 1813 the Hussar Temple with graves
of soldiers from the Battle of Aspern (1809) was built. These changes
also made the Mödlingbach valley, the so-called Brühl, a popular
destination for composers of the Viennese Classicism, Romanticism and
the modern Viennese school around Arnold Schönberg in the Biedermeier
period, but at the latest through Ludwig van Beethoven's work in Mödling
from 1818 onwards. There are even separate museums in the town dedicated
to these two composers who were not born in Mödling. The core of this
music and dance scene in Mödling was the pub "Zu den 2 Raben" on the
Meiereiwiese, which Beethoven praised, opposite the Königsmühle (one of
the oldest on the Mödlingbach, since the 15th century, also the
legendary Schädelmühle), in Vorderbrühl, which was not yet incorporated
at the time, and whose later building still stands today.
In 1841, the Mödling train station, which had been under construction
since 1839, was opened for traffic to Wiener Neustadt and Vienna, and in
1845 became the starting point of the Laxenburg Railway ("Kaiserbahn"),
which was used by the imperial authorities until the Second World War.
During the revolution of 1848/1849 against the Metternich system,
the workers disrupted operations, but without any willingness to
cooperate on the part of the bourgeois revolution. In 1850, a simple
health resort called Prießnitztal was established, named after the cold
water cure used by Vinzenz Prießnitz. The institution was expanded into
a sanatorium in 1880 and existed until the Second World War; in 1968, a
housing estate was built in its place. In 1851, the first coffee house
opened. From 1864, the wooden water supply from the Middle Ages was
replaced and slowly expanded. From 1866, cholera struck Mödling again,
after the first outbreak in 1831/1832, in the course of the cholera
pandemics.
The freedom of expression guaranteed by the Basic Law
of 1867 led to the formation of new interest groups in Mödling,
including workers. Evidence of an expanding brewing industry in the
region at this time is the first brewing school in Austria[29], which
was spatially and content-wise attached to the two-year agricultural
middle school Francisco Josephinum, which existed from 1869 to 1934, and
the brewery Mödling, which existed from 1849 and again from 1877 to
1885, outside the settlement area, today's Neusiedlerviertel, in 1870
and existed until 1912. Apart from that, the first Vienna high-altitude
spring water pipeline and the associated Mödling aqueduct were also run
through the local area in 1872.
From the 1860s onwards, a first
series of large industrial companies were built, such as the cement
factory along the southern railway line in Fabriksgasse, as well as a
metal goods factory Kleiner & Fleischmann (1867-1971) at the Grenzgasse
site and today's Arnold-Schönberg-Park, which was run with forced
laborers during the Nazi era. In 1872, the particularly large-scale
Mödling locomotive factory was built (from 1875 to 1902 the Fränkel shoe
factory) and in 1873 the workers' colony that still exists today. With
this first major industrialization of the town, a large-scale expansion
of the historic town area took place for the first time, despite the
global economic crisis of 1873-1896, which subsequently grew into the
Schöffelvorstadt. A little later, settlement expansion also began south
of Neusiedlerstrasse, as population growth increased dramatically at
this time until it leveled off with the First World War.
In 1875, under the mayor and savior of the Vienna Woods, Josef
Schöffel, the market town of Mödling was elevated to town status, gas
lighting was introduced, and the spa park with the spa salon, a summer
theater and the entrances to the Frauenstein were opened near the
Bürgerspitalmühle, as Mödling had developed into a health resort with
various spa houses. The following year, Klausen and Vorderbrühl were
incorporated.
In the 1880s, the hospital was built (1882) and the
first regular electric railway in Austria and at the same time the
world's first electric tram in continuous operation Mödling-Hinterbrühl
(1883-1932), with the starting point now also being the Mödling train
station, which was also underpassed. In 1887, the cork stone factory
(now austyrol insulation materials) was built, the steam tramway to
Mödling from Vienna was extended (from 1907 to 1967 operated as Vienna
tram line 360), the fire brigade and rescue services. The 1880s ended
with the completion of the Hyrtl orphanage (1889).
The district
of Mödling was founded in 1896. The Keimgasse high school was built in
1897 and today's HTL Mödling was built in 1904 as a technical military
academy outside the Francisco Josephinum and next to the Mödling
brickworks and today's Amalienhof at the foot of the Eichkogel. Also in
1904, under Mayor Jakob Thoma, the first biological sewage treatment
plant in Central Europe was built in the municipality of Wiener Neudorf
according to plans by Charles Lomax in the presence of Emperor Franz
Joseph I.
In 1904, Mödling celebrated its millennium. The
festival, which took place from September 4th to 8th, 1904, was prepared
over several months. The Mödling municipality's publishing house
published a brochure (47 pages) about this festival and a festival
program (23 pages). Both publications are in the Vienna Library. The
academic painter Carl Leopold Hollitzer was brought in from Vienna for
the large parade in historical costumes.
In 1910, the "k.k. Animal Vaccine Production Institute", today the
leading institute of the AGES business area of animal health, settled
in Mödling. In 1913, the Beka shoe factory was opened at the
north-eastern end of the station. This was closed as a result of the
global economic crisis in 1929 and the rest of the stock had to be
forcibly sold to the Nazis by the founding family Klein in 1939. Today
the building is known as the former Leiner warehouse. In 1912, the
"Mödlinger Bühne", the oldest surviving stage and former cinema in
Mödling, was built, now known as the Mödling City Theater. In 1914, the
Art Nouveau building of the Jakob Thoma School opened. The growing
Schöffelvorstadt increasingly became a focal point for the workers of
the entire district. After the founding of the Social Democratic Party
of Mödling and the Workers' Consumer Association in the district in
1892, their administrative center was located in the workers' home
(Neudorferstrasse 8) and the later Art Nouveau extension by Hubert
Gessner, today the last existing former consumer association house
(1913). In addition, the "Fünfhaus" housing estate (1914) of the Mödling
building cooperative (1912, chaired by Ferdinand Buchberger) was built
in Neu-Mödling next to the current hospital, as well as the nearby
children's friends' home (today the Josef Schöffel House), which was
moved into under Leopold Müller in 1918.
On June 22, 1919, the
first general municipal council election was held and Ferdinand
Buchberger was elected as the first socialist mayor. After the deanery
of Mödling was founded in 1913, a second parish of the Sacred Heart
Church was founded in 1925 in the Schöffelvorstadt from the Mödling
Catholic parish (St. Othmar). In 1927, the municipal waterworks improved
the existing water supply. After the closure of existing spas and baths,
including those on Neusiedlerstrasse, where the Mödling pond also
existed in the 17th and 19th centuries at the latest, the current
municipal baths were built not far away in 1928 (with a winter ice rink
from 1933).
In 1925, Mödling SDAP chairman and municipal
councillor Leopold Müller became an early victim of fascist violence by
Mödling front-line fighters in front of the Schöffel House he founded.
This was followed by a warning funeral procession from Mödling to
Vienna, accompanied by high-ranking figures such as Renner and Seitz.
During the Austrian Civil War, between 35 and 200 supporters of the
socialist republicans barricaded themselves against the executive and
the home guard at what is now the hospital in the Fünfhaus settlement,
and subsequently against the federal army, which took up positions in
the nearby St. Gabriel. Two socialists and one bystander were shot dead.
During the November pogroms of 1938, the Jewish residents of Mödling
were persecuted by anti-Semitic fellow citizens and their synagogue,
built in 1914, was destroyed. Since 2003, a memorial has been erected in
its place at Enzersdorferstrasse 6.
After the Nazis seized power
in 1938, many Mödling residents were expelled, deported and murdered,
including around 300 Jewish residents of the approximately 400-person
community. In memory of the murdered victims of the Nazi regime in
Mödling, including the regime opponent Maria Restituta, who worked at
the Mödling hospital, stumbling blocks by Gunter Demnig were laid from
August 14, 2006. After 1945, one of the few survivors, Albert Drach, who
was later nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature, returned, where
he fought legally for property that had continued to be expropriated.
Today, a memorial and museum have been set up at the Drach-Hof
(Hauptstrasse 44).
As in neighboring communities (e.g. at the St.
Gabriel site), forced labor camps were also set up in Mödling. On the
one hand, the Grenzgasse 40 forced labor camp, named after its address,
was set up for the Kleiner & Fleischmann metal goods factory, and on the
other hand, the Mödling reformatory (in the former orphanage) was set
up, where minors such as Friedrich Zawrel were tortured in cooperation
with the notorious Spiegelgrund.
Towards the end of the Nazi
regime, due to the air raids on Vienna, bunkers with various civilian
entrances were built in the hills in Mödling, in addition to the former
Seegrotte gypsum mine in Hinterbrühl, which had been converted by forced
laborers from the Mauthausen concentration camp. Today, only parts of
these are accessible and are used and made accessible by the theater in
the bunker through an entrance in the Klausen. At the same time, an
anti-aircraft position was built on the Eichkogel and was finally manned
by "Volkssturm" recruits with minors. Before the liberation of Vienna by
the 3rd Ukrainian Front of the Red Army, the Mödling NSDAP set fire to
its party buildings in Pfarrgasse and Goethegasse. After days of
fighting along the front in Guntramsdorf, the red 100th Guards Rifle
Division of the 39th Guards Rifle Corps of the 9th Guards Army liberated
Mödling on April 5, 1945, driving the notorious 2nd SS Panzer Division
from the south, and thus began the first fighting in Vienna.
Mödling remained part of Greater Vienna until 1954, along with all
other municipalities integrated into Vienna in 1938, at the request of
the Allied Commission, although the National Council had already passed
the Territorial Amendment Act for extensive re-deposition in 1946. This
legal situation from 1946 to 1954 made district council elections or any
local elections impossible in all parts of Greater Vienna. From 1946,
and until 1955, when local council elections were held again in Mödling,
a provisional municipal committee and later local council, which also
served as district council until 1954, elected a designated mayor with
voting ratios based on the results of local state elections. This mayor
was appointed mayor by the Mayor of Vienna from 1946 to 1954 and
entrusted with the municipal function of district mayor.
In the
post-war period, more and more areas were cleared for cars and roads
(e.g. widening for buses), for example. B. the Brunner Brauhof near the
train station (1959), named after the Brunner-Brau-Aktien-Gesellschaft,
Josef Deutsch-Platz, Freiheitsplatz, the first section of Badstraße, and
all local railway lines were no longer financed in favor of bus lines.
This development was counteracted in 1978 by the use of the route of the
former tram line 360 as a promenade and in 1976 by the establishment
of the pedestrian zone, which was the first time in Austria that a
federal highway leading through the city center was declared a
pedestrian zone. As a result, Freiheitsplatz and Josef Deutsch-Platz
were also partially restored by slowing down Klostergasse and especially
its entrances and making them pedestrian-friendly through indirect
access roads. The current fountains at Schrannenplatz and in the station
park both originated at Schrannenplatz, although the current fountain at
Schrannenplatz is the Old Market Fountain and was found elsewhere for a
long time via Freiheitsplatz and then from 1959 as the Europa Fountain
at Josef Deutsch-Platz. At this time, Mödling, or rather the area away
from the hills, finally became a continuously built-up area and from the
1970s onwards experienced a population increase and densification even
on hillsides.
Towards the end of the century, the court, the
district administration, the fire brigade, the tax office and the BG
Bachgasse moved from the old town to modern buildings in Schöffelstadt,
or to Neu Mödling on the other side of the railway. This development was
counteracted in 1983 by the closing of the gap along the Mödlingbach
through the Pepi-Wagner passage under the station tracks, enabling a
natural pedestrian and cycle path axis from Wr. Neudorf to Hinterbrühl.
In 1999, the Art Nouveau part of the former girls' lyceum became the
youth center and the Redbox event hall. From 2000 onwards, the
Mödlingbach was renaturalized, among other things to increase its
effectiveness against flooding. Originally lined with mills and their
tributaries, the stream was regulated in 1904, which shifted floodwaters
from the city to the lowlands. In 2004, the railway bridge was widened
and equipped with railway access, partly due to the continued increase
in car traffic in Mödling.
After the Gendarmerie Central School, which had been located on the site of the former Francisco Josephinum since 1979, moved out, the Neusiedler Quarter was created in 2016. The intensified use of old buildings and industrial areas, such as previously for the BH on the site of the former Mödling locomotive factory, has increased again in recent years, for example the current public targeted development of the former Red Cross disaster relief camp on parts of the orphanage area or plans for the grounds of the former Leiner camp.
Mödling belongs to Lower Austria and is part of its industrial
district as well as the southern conurbation of Vienna. Mödling is
located relatively centrally in the west-east oriented district of
Mödling, whose administrative headquarters it is.
The
municipality lies on the one hand with its hills in the eastern Vienna
Woods and on the other hand with its wine-growing region belongs to the
thermal region in the western slope area of the Vienna Basin.
The
Mödlingbach, which originates in the municipality of Wienerwald and
flows into the Schwechat near Achau, flows through Mödling. The western
half of the municipality is characterized by wooded hills. This at the
beginning of the 19th century. karstic hills reforested with black pines
belong to the Föhrenberge Nature Park and are part of the Liechtenstein
Landscape Park, which was co-created at that time, with buildings such
as the Hussar Temple, which is visible from afar. The eastern half of
the urban area is located in the lowlands of the Vienna Basin, although
vineyards around the Eichkogel and in the viticulture reserve at the
foot of the Jennyberg, as well as wine taverns of the old viticulture
village can still be found at the junction of the two topographical
halves, on the slopes of the hills, despite strong urbanization. The
warm limestone soils and the influence of the Pannonian climate allow
the cultivation of Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and St. Laurent.
The settlement area is geographically distinguishable from west to
east by the Vorderbrühl, the slopes towards the Vienna Basin (town
center with old Town, Neusiedler area, Jakob-Thoma district) and by the
beginning lowland beyond the southern railway tracks (Neu-Mödling /
Schöffelvorstadt). These settlement areas are connected by the
Mödlingbach and a west-east traffic axis from Brühler-, Haupt- and
Wiener-/ Neudorfer-Straße and interrupted only by the historic old town
with old town houses and a pedestrian zone. With the old town as a
common hub, Enzersdorfer- and Neusiedler-Straße form a north-south axis
along the slopes.
In the north and east, Mödling has grown together with the
communities of Maria Enzersdorf and Wiener Neudorf.
In the south,
Mödling borders on Guntramsdorf, with the border running over the
Eichkogel, which has a special fauna and flora. If you cross the
Eichkogel from Mödling to the south, you will reach Gumpoldskirchen and
only cross the uninhabited part of the municipal area of Guntramsdorf.
The inhabited Guntramsdorf can be reached to the southeast, which is
located on the eastern flank of the Eichkogel.
To the west, in
the Wienerwald hills, lies the community of Hinterbrühl, which borders
on Vorderbrühl, which today belongs to Mödling. The Vorderbrühl lies in
the Brühl Valley and is connected to the rest of Mödling by the Chiusa.
The Chiusa is a narrow valley section filled with former mills and a
traffic corridor, where the Mödling castle ruin stands on an outrigger
of the Frauenstein at the junction with the Vorderbrühl on the southern
side of the valley. The Frauenstein (Halder to Maaberg) runs along the
entire southern side of the valley and is a popular destination for
climbers with the ivy Ridge. The northern side of the Klausen Valley is
lined by the Calendar Mountain, with the Jordan pulpit, on the back of
which is Liechtenstein Castle. At its mouth into the Mödlinger Lowland,
the Chiusa is crossed by the First Viennese high-spring water pipeline,
in the form of a brick aqueduct. On the rugged rocks of the Chiusa grow
the rare, but typical for Mödling umbrella tubes (Pinus nigra var.
austriaca) and have contributed significantly to the charm and
popularity of the valley as a versatile local recreation area since the
Biedermeier.
In the southwest lies the Mödlinger Forest area
(Mödlinger, formerly Liechtenstein Forest) on the northern foothills of
the Anninger. The forest borders on the Brühl in the west, or through
the Phoenix Mountain of the Kleiner Anninger and the Hussar Temple,
first on the Hinterbrühl, and then circling the Meiereiwiese and
Vorderbrühl via the Matterhörndl rock and Alexanderberg. It continues
with the area around the former Broad pine tree, which runs along the
border with Gaaden, south of the Frauenstein, the Golden Stairs,
Jennyberg, its quarry and the Friedrichshöhe to the Prießnitztal and
merges with the Eichkogel into vineyards.
Water
Water bodies
can be found, in addition to the Mödlingbach, which used to be much used
by mills, at the edges of the Meiereiwiese (Salamander spawning pond and
Pepi's fairy tale pond), the wetland biotope on the railway embankment
opposite the "Figur" biotope complex, and at the beginning of the
Prießnitz Valley a wetland biotope with three ponds.
The
Prießnitz Valley also contains the source and the high-reservoir basin
of the Mödlinger Wasserwerk, where a Roman fountain (probably a horse
drink) was already found and later there was a cold water spa named
after Vinzenz Prießnitz, which gave the valley its current name. The
water supply of the municipality is also secured by purchase from
Moosbrunn and additionally by a deep well in the area of the
Meiereiwiese.
In the past, there were also various spring baths
and ponds, for example, the city bath is located near past ponds and
baths along Neusiedlerstraße.
As a karstic, characterized by striking limestone cliffs to Dolomite
walls and at the same time a former surf terrace of the Paratethys Sea
about 15 million years ago, during the time of the Bathenium in the
Miocene, Mödling, like many places in the thermal region, is not only
appreciated by wine growers and climbers, but also rich in fossils, such
as on various steep slopes at the Golden Staircase with the rough Slab
for climbers, or in the deer Trench away from the Prießnitztal.
Due to the presence of lime, gypsum and lime were fired in the past in
Mödling and later cement was produced in a factory at the beginning of
Fabriksgasse.
The Pannonian and the Atlantic climate zones intersect in Mödling am Eichkogel.