Weekly Online Lesson Online Lesson Archive Grade Level: 7-10 Subject: Geography/Humanities

Vienna Loses the Sofiensäle

Austrians are mourning the loss of an historic cultural landmark, the Sofiensäle (Sofie Hall), a festival hall where composer Johann Strauss once staged concerts and the Viennese (including a young Adolf Hitler) attended masqued balls. The hall was also built to be used as a public swimming pool.

The Sofiensäle was gutted by a fire that broke out on the roof early Thursday, August 16, 2001, and raged out of control into Friday. Musicians who were inside rehearsing alerted firefighters after they noticed smoke pouring from the roof, and the players tried unsuccessfully to douse the flames with buckets of water before fleeing.

The heat was so intense it melted the steel beams and left only the outside walls standing. The blaze destroyed the hall's famed parquet floors, gold-gilded balconies, Roman statues and giant crystal chandeliers, despite the efforts of 150 firefighters.

In this week's lesson you will learn about the Sofiensäle, Vienna, and the music of Johann Strauss.

The Sofiensäle

To better appreciate the beauty of the Sofiensäle, named after the Duchess Sofie, you can visit the Sofiensäle online. Unfortunately, it's all in German. But in case you're not bilingual, you can read this computer translation of the site. It's not very clear, but you should be able to understand some of it.

Start by clicking History and read (or try your best to read) the history of this building). What's interesting here is an old picture of the interior swimming pool. Go back to the main page and click Pictures from Former Times, and then Pictures of the Halls. Look at these seven images, and then go back and click Pictures After the Fire. Now that you have seen the before and after photos of this building, how would you describe what many Viennese must be feeling? Do you think it's worth rebuilding the Sofiensäle?

Johann Strauss

Vienna has had two great musicians named Johann Strauss, a father and a son. Both were highly regarded and accomplished musicians, but Johann Strauss the younger exceeded his father in all things, including notoriety.

To learn more about "The Waltz King" and the impact he had on Viennese culture, visit the Austria Tourism site, where you can learn all about the life of this great composer and musician. Read the introduction, and then click each of the links on the right. Why is Strauss known as the Waltz King? How popular was Strauss in Vienna and throughout the world?

To better understand the popularity of Strauss, it helps to understand the popularity of the waltz, a dance that became an enormous hit across Europe and in America. You can learn more about the waltz at Bob January's Waltz History page. You may hear the famous Strauss waltz, "The Blue Danube," as you are reading. Other Strauss music can be heard by clicking the links at the bottom of the page. (Try "Tales from the Vienna Woods" and "Emperor's Waltz".)

Now that you have studied Strauss and his music, you may be interested in taking an online Strauss Trivia quiz. Click start, and then the correct answer (1-4). If you answer the question right you get 10 points; answer wrong and you lose 5 points. How well did you do?

Visit Vienna

You've learned a little about the history of Vienna. Now it's time to take a virtual tour of this great European cultural center. Go to Virtourist, click Europe, and then click Vienna. The tour begins, appropriately, with a photo of the Strauss memorial in Stadtpark (Vienna's city park). Use the navigation bar along the top to navigate through the tour. Just click Next Photo. What was your favorite stop of the tour? How many stops on the tour are music or art related? What does this tell you about the Viennese people?

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