2023-07-23 07:00:00
Ebster has selected 30 villas from which she gives an insight into the ranks of their owners. The head of the Bad Vöslau City Museum already dealt with the villas in her hometown in her dissertation. She herself grew up in the Carolinen villa, “although the namesake Caroline turned out to be particularly difficult to pin down during the research for the book,” says Ebster. She finally found what she was looking for in the person of Caroline Edle von Fischer, the daughter of the kk (Unter-)Lieutenant Josef Kantner, who married the widower Alois Ritter von Fischer, who was 35 years her senior, on October 20, 1842. Strong female personalities lived in Bad Vöslau’s villas, as did entire family clans, who shaped the social and political life of the spa town.
The actual boom in Bad Vöslau as a health resort began in the middle of the 19th century with the construction of the southern railway. Thanks to this railway connection, those seeking relaxation might travel directly from Vienna to Bad Vöslau. And the proximity to the city of Baden, where the imperial family resided, “was certainly one of the reasons why many families settled in Bad Vöslau,” says Ebster. Because the spa town of Bad Vöslau is actually a paradox: wealthy, upper-class and aristocratic families who came to take a cure in the thermal baths and in the spa park on the one hand, poor, probably also exploited workers of the worsted yarn factory on the other. “However, it is not clear from the historical sources whether and how these two worlds met in Bad Vöslau,” regrets Ebster.
Traces of personalities followed consistently
For the book, she chose villas whose owners were interesting personalities who left their mark on the history of the city. But inspector coincidence also led Ebster on the trail of unusual women like Ida Jolles. “I came across an invoice that said J.Jolles Studio. I found the term interesting,” explains Ebster. She researched further and came across a life story that Hollywood usually knits its stories out of. Ida Jolles popularized petit point embroidery on a large scale, she made the designs, following which up to 20,000 embroiderers worked at home to make things like the characteristic purses. The Nazi regime also forced her family to flee, but she continued her work in America and even managed to get “her stuff”, i.e. her property, back following the war.
Difficult reclaim negotiations of the former property
During her research, she realized how inhuman and cynical the restitution negotiations following the Second World War were. “First the villa owners had to sell at prices that were just below ground. Then the former owners had to negotiate with the new owners, who argued that they had to invest so much money in maintaining the house and demanded outrageous prices from the evictees. The return has been delayed as long as possible.”
Art appreciation inherited from generations
A dazzling family clan was also that of Sigmund Stransky. He had an unbelievable sense of art and at the age of 73 began studying medicine, which he also completed. His artistic streak was also inherited by his grandson, Ernst Goldner, born in Vienna in 1921, who made a world career in music in the USA as a Jewish exile from Austria as Ernest Gold – he was awarded the Oscar for best film music in 1961 for the film “Exodus”. And his son Andrew Gold had also inherited this talent. The musician wrote the song “Thank you for being a friend” in the 1970s, which became world-famous in the 1980s as the title song of the US series “Goden Girls”.
Ludwig Mandl also owned a villa in Bad Vöslau. The extremely wealthy industrialist never entered the Kurliste as an entrepreneur, but always as a private individual. The best-known offspring of the family is probably Fritz Mandl, the last private owner of the Hirtenberger cartridge factory. He made a name for himself not only through his businesses, but also through his marriages. Among his wives was Hedwig Eva-Maria Kiesler, who became a world star in Hollywood as Hedy Lamarr.
These families alone would fill another book. Silke Ebster does not reveal whether this will happen, “let’s see,” says the museum director mischievously and lets the hope live that it will come to that.
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