From ´Kaiserforum´ to Culture Forum Hofburg-Museums-Quartier

The FWF research project on "The Building and Functional History of the Vienna Hofburg since 1918", which reached its conclusion in 2011, revealed a new dimension of significance for its subject: Through the erection of the MuseumsQuartier in the Hofstallungen (the former court stables) planned since the late 1970s and opened in 2001 the former residence complex, which had been subject to heterogeneous usage since 1918, now reacquired a functional bracket: that of the `museum or culture district`. The nineteenth-century idea of a `forum as the cultural centre of a modern capital city` received new relevance. With this shift in the function and significance of the former residence area whereby it became one of the most important European cultural and museum district, in which historical and contemporary architecture and art meet new questions have emerged, and these form the subject of the proposed project. Beyond the investigation of the numerous projects for a completion of the `forum` in the first half of the twentieth century in the predecessor project, the following new questions have arisen: The urbanistic relationship of the Hofburg area to the city since it ceased to function as a residence; the ambivalence to the forum idea in the twentieth century, and its background; the new significance of the forum idea in projects and plans for the area since the 1980s. Building on the contribution on the `Musealisation of the Hofburg between 1918 and 1948` in the predecessor project, the hypothesis is now to be investigated, that the (re-) organisation of the state museums was closely connected to the development of the area, its spatial resources, and history during the whole twentieth century, and that this also remains the case today. The approach that regards the former residence complex not only as an architectural and artistic object, but also addresses it in terms of its social significance and appropriation history, will be taken further in the proposed project with the subjects of: 1) The significance of the Hofburg district in urban life in terms of its informal, quotidian, and performative usages. ) `Living and Working in the Hofburg and MuseumsQuartier. 3) `Intangible Heritage`: Forms of courtly culture, that have been preserved in Vienna uninterrupted into the twenty-first century this means mainly dance and riding culture, the latter as a unique case of an historical `longue durée`, which reaches from 1565 into the `event society` of today should be investigated in respect to its relevance and its re- interpretation since 1918. Finally it is intended to set the former residence areas in Berlin (with the Museum Island and the planned Humboldt Forum), Paris (`Grand Louvre`), Saint Petersburg (`New Hermitage`), Istanbul (Topkapi and Dolmabahce), as well as the Paseo del Prado in Madrid and the Mall in Washington and their processes of transformation since the paradigm change of the 1980s in relation to the Viennese situation to gain insights for the Hofburg- MuseumsQuartier:. In order to meet the complexity of the topic the research team is an interdisciplinary one including the art historians Maria Welzig (projectleader), Ingrid Holzschuh und Anna Stuhlpfarrer, the culture theorist Elke Krasny and the urban ethnologist Anja Schwanhäußer, and the methodological approach is polyperspectival incorporating the methods of urban anthropology and cultural studies.

The project is based on the predecessor project The Vienna Hofburg since 1918 (P20023- G08), which investigated the Hofburgs building and functional history after it ceased to be used as a residence. The overall scientific goal of the follow-up project was to connect the research topic to urbanistic, museological and cultural discourses, to widen the view by integrating cultural-scientific perspectives and to set the development of the Vienna Hofburg from residence to museumquarter into an international context. The urbanistic context: Anna Stuhlpfarrer and Maria Welzig analysed the city of Viennas urban development plans in their relation to the state-owned Hofburg district and they examined the numerous architectonic plans which focused on the uncompleted Forum of the former residence. The research revealed that the former residence district has been at the heart of main debates on the citys urbanistic and cultural development. A specific feature of the Viennas former residence since 1918 is its importance for the city in social regard: Maria Welzig investigated The Role of the Hofburg District in Urban Life: Informal & Performative Appropriation. Ingrid Holzschuhs research on The Appropriation of the Hofburgs Imperial Heritage by the NS-Regime together with Anna Stuhlpfarrers research on the NS-era carried out in the preceding project and Martin Fritz and Anja Schwanhäußers research concerning these years set a new standard for this chapter of the Hofburg and its institutions, which has been only marginally dealt with so far. The results of Martin Fritz investigation of Museum Uses and Museum Reforms between 1936 and 1978 in the Greater Area of the Vienna Hofburg with Special Consideration of Neue Burg" together with Andreas Nierhaus research on the musealisation of the Hofburg between 1918 and 1950 and Welzigs research on the museum reform plans in connection with the re-use of the former imperial stables since the 1970s as carried out in the predecessor project tell a coherent (hi)story of Austrian state museums reform and (re-)organisation since 1918. On the basis of partly unpublished plans Ingrid Holzschuh depicts Ballhausplatz as a symptomatic political building site: In the Interplay of Politics. Building Projects on Ballhausplatz from 1937 to 1986. Urban ethnologist Anja Schwanhäußer examined The Vienna Hofburg since 1918 in the Cultural Historic Mirror of the Spanish Riding School whereby she elaborated the following turning points: The Creation of the Spanish Riding School in the First Republic, Militarisation and Staging of National Socialism, Americanisation and the Cold War in the Second Republic, Eventisation and Opening to the Urban Space Today. The investigation of the transformation of former residences to cultural quarters since the paradigm shift in the 1980s by Maria Welzig and Elke Krasny covers case studies of Paris, Madrid, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Istanbul, Turin and as a democratic role model the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The transformations correspond to globalised trends in cultural and museum development. At the same time, they reflect specific national political intentions.