The Vienna Hofburg between 1835 and 1918—A Residence in the Conflicting Fields of Art, Politics, and Representation

Abstract

In the nineteenth century, the imperial palace in Vienna had become the epicenter of political decision making in the Danube monarchy. The fact that the Hofburg served as the emperor's family home and at the same time as the unchallenged centerpiece of politics and administration lent its function a duality that was mirrored in the title of the town where the palace was located. Officially, Vienna was the Haupt- und Residenzstadt, that is, the empire's capital and the monarch's official residence. In this former role, Vienna was second to none. Vienna was the seat of offices and ministries, the meeting place of parliamentary deputies in the Reichsrat, and the place where the governors who represented the sovereign in the respective Crownlands had their headquarters in the Statthalterei. It was not until Budapest became the capital of the Kingdom of Hungary in the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 that Vienna had to share its rank with another city. In their role as the monarch's official residence, both Vienna's and the Hofburg's traditions went back to the Middle Ages. There had been no interruptions even when in the Baroque period the monarchs had built other residences elsewhere in what today is Vienna, among them the Favorita palace on the Wieden (today's Theresianum), the Favorita palace in the Augarten park, and Schönbrunn palace. At all times the Hofburg had been the place where the Habsburg family and the sovereign lived during the winter half-year, and furthermore, it remained the setting of the most eminent ceremonies that formed the rituals of the Habsburg sovereign (Corpus Christi procession, Anniversarium militare ceremonies in commemoration of the dead, and others). No other Habsburg palace would ever challenge the Hofburg's priority in terms of rank.