Nußdorf, Vienna
Encyclopedia
Nußdorf was a separate municipality
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 until 1892 and is today a suburb of Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 in the 19th district
Districts of Vienna
The districts of Vienna are 23 named city sections of Vienna, Austria, which are also numbered for easy reference. For centuries, district boundaries have changed...

 of Döbling
Döbling
Döbling is the 19th District in the city of Vienna, Austria . It is located on the north end from the central districts, north of the districts Alsergrund and Währing...

.
Nußdorf
Coat of arms Map

Location: 48°15′34"N 16°21′51"E

Location

Nußdorf lies on both banks of the Nußbach (Schreiberbach), where the brook meets the Danube Canal
Donaukanal
The Donaukanal is a former arm of the river Danube, now regulated as a water channel , within the city of Vienna, Austria...

. The district extends in the south as far as the Grinzingerstraße, in the north along the Heiligenstädter Straße and the bank of the Danube up to the border to the Kahlenbergerdorf. Originally, the settlement (Alt-)Urfahr also lay within this area.

Origin of the name

Nußdorf was officially mentioned for the first time in a deed from the Klosterneuburg Monastery
Stift Klosterneuburg
Klosterneuburg Priory is a Roman Catholic monastery of Augustinian Canons in the Lower Austrian town of Klosterneuburg on the Danube river, just north of the Vienna city limits at the Leopoldsberg....

 from 1114 as Nuzdorf. The name Nußdorf (English: nut town) probably derives from the numerous nut trees and hazelnut shrubs that grew in the area as late as the beginning of the 19th century. However some also trace the name back to the Slavic
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...

 word for miserable or meagre.

Nußdorf in the Middle Ages

Historians believe that the Greinergasse, which intersects with the Hammerschmidtgasse, the Sickenberggasse and the Kahlenberger Straße, formed the historical centre of Nußdorf, as these most closely resemble the structure of a medieval village. The inhabitants were farmers, who produced primarily for their own needs. Crab hunting and fishing were also practiced. Wine was cultivated for sale.

The lords of Nußdorf named themselves after the settlement from the 12th century onwards, but their line died out in the 14th century. The cultivation of wine was the most important source of income, and many convents and monasteries in this area, in particular the Klosterneuburg Monastery
Stift Klosterneuburg
Klosterneuburg Priory is a Roman Catholic monastery of Augustinian Canons in the Lower Austrian town of Klosterneuburg on the Danube river, just north of the Vienna city limits at the Leopoldsberg....

, owned vineyards early on in history. Viticulture was the source of Nußdorf's prosperity, but Nußdorf also profited from the Fährrecht, i.e. the right to transport goods and people over the Danube. The settlement Urfar arose for this reason on the bank of the Danube, but never consisted of more than a few huts, which served primarily to accommodate the ferrymen or travellers. The settlement was often flooded and was rendered redundant by the construction of the first large bridge over the Danube before disappearing completely.

Modern Nußdorf

Nußdorf already had its own chapel in the 15th century, which was dedicated to the apostle Thomas. Nußdorf and the surrounding villages suffered heavily under the destruction caused by Hungarian troops in 1484, when Matthias Corvinus also built sconces
Sconce (fortification)
A Sconce is a small protective fortification, such as an earthwork often placed on a mound as a defensive work for artillery. It was used primarily in Northern Europe from the late Middle Ages until the 19th century. This type of fortification was common during the English Civil War, and the...

 in Nußdorf. The Ottoman wars
Ottoman wars in Europe
The wars of the Ottoman Empire in Europe are also sometimes referred to as the Ottoman Wars or as Turkish Wars, particularly in older, European texts.- Rise :...

 in 1529 and 1683 and the looting carried out by the French in 1805 and 1809 also caused serious damage. Nußdorf was only with difficulty able to recover from each round of destruction, but over the years a number of buildings were nonetheless erected also for commercial purposes. These 15 freeholds belonged to members of the lower nobility who were exempt from property taxes. Nußdorf's parish church was built in 1787, financed through the appropriation of property belonging to several religious orders by Joseph II
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I...

. Viticulture made the inhabitants of Nußdorf rich, and in 1820 more than half of the usable land in the area was covered with vineyards.

The Nußdorfer Brewery was erected in 1819 and the Franz Joseph railway to the Kahlenberg
Kahlenberg
Kahlenberg is a mountain located in the 19th District within Vienna, Austria .-General:Kahlenberg lies in the Wienerwald and is one of the most popular destinations for day-trips from Vienna, offering a view over the entire city. Parts of Lower Austria can also be seen from Stefaniewarte at the...

 turned Nußdorf into a popular destination for daytrips for the Viennese in the 19th century. The population grew rapidly during this time. In 1795 Nußdorf consisted of 109 houses with 865 inhabitants, in 1808 there were already 120 houses and 1,265 inhabitants. By 1832 there were 152 houses and 1,503 inhabitants; in 1890 the number of inhabitants had grown to 5,191.

In 1892, Nußdorf and the neighbouring peripheral settlements of Sievering
Sievering
Sievering is a suburb of Vienna and part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna. Sievering was created in 1892 out of the two erstwhile independent suburbs Untersievering and Obersievering. These still exist as Katastralgemeinden.- Geography :...

, Grinzing
Grinzing
Grinzing was an independent municipality until 1892 and is today a part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna.- Geography :- Location :...

, Oberdöbling
Oberdöbling
Oberdöbling was an independent municipality until 1892 and is today a part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna. It is also one of the 89 Katastralgemeinden.- Geography :...

, Unterdöbling
Unterdöbling
Unterdöbling was an independent municipality until 1892 and is today a part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna. It is also one of the 89 Katastralgemeinden.- Geography :...

, Heiligenstadt
Heiligenstadt, Vienna
Heiligenstadt was an independent municipality until 1892 and is today a part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna.Heiligenstadt is one of the 10 municipalities in the Döbling District.- Geography :...

 and Kahlenbergerdorf
Kahlenbergerdorf
Kahlenbergerdorf was an independent municipality until 1892 and is today a part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna. It is also one of the 89 Katastralgemeinden.- Location :...

 were turned into a district of Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

.

Economy

At the beginning of the 19th century, viticulture was the dominant industry in Nußdorf. More than half of the usable land was covered with vineyards, a further 20 per cent with agricultural crops and fruit gardens. Yet for a long time, Nußdorf's ports formed the second pillar of the local economy. From the 16th century onwards, Nußdorf was the second most important port on the Danube in Vienna, because the channels further downstream were very thin. Goods arriving there on larger ships and rafts were transferred to smaller ships and brought to Vienna. Numerous inns and hostels were established in Nußdorf to cater to the traders staying there for longer periods of time, and a tollbooth was erected in 1675. The Nußdorfer Platz was the focus of commercial activity, which concerned above all the trade in cereals, salt, animals and animal products, fruit, and products made of clay and wood. The Kuchelauer docks, located further upstream near Kahlenbergerdorf, never attained the same importance, but as a result of the regulation of the Danube in 1870-1875, even the harbour in Nußdorf was rendered irrelevant.

At the end of the 18th century, the first industries arrived in Nußdorf. In 1783, a factory producing tartar
Potassium bitartrate
Potassium hydrogen tartrate, also known as Potassium bitartrate, has formula KC4H5O6, is a byproduct of winemaking. In cooking it is known as cream of tartar. It is the potassium acid salt of tartaric acid, a carboxylic acid.-Occurrence:...

 and vinegar
Vinegar
Vinegar is a liquid substance consisting mainly of acetic acid and water, the acetic acid being produced through the fermentation of ethanol by acetic acid bacteria. Commercial vinegar is produced either by fast or slow fermentation processes. Slow methods generally are used with traditional...

 was founded, which made use of the produce and the residue created in the production of wine. The factory also manufactured rum
Rum
Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane by-products such as molasses, or directly from sugarcane juice, by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is then usually aged in oak barrels...

 and rubbing alcohol
Rubbing alcohol
Rubbing alcohol, USP / B.P. is a liquid prepared and used primarily for topical application. It is prepared from a special denatured alcohol solution and contains 97.5-100% by volume of pure, concentrated ethanol or isopropyl alcohol...

 and exported to Russia and Bavaria. A state-financed salmiac
Ammonium chloride
Ammonium chloride NH4Cl is an inorganic compound with the formula NH4Cl. It is a white crystalline salt that is highly soluble in water. Solutions of ammonium chloride are mildly acidic. Sal ammoniac is a name of natural, mineralogical form of ammonium chloride...

 and salt factory was erected in 1800, which processed the urine from the inns. This factory was also able to sell its produce abroad, but had to close in 1840. Other important industries included Ignaz Hackhofer's dye works and the Nußdorfer Brewery, which was founded in 1819 in the Hackhofergasse and which became one of the best-known industries in the district.

Nußdorfer Brewery

The brewery building was originally constructed by the Jesuits as a college for students of theology in 1690. Following the dissolution of the order in 1713, the building was first used to store weapons, before becoming private property. The industrialist Franz Xaver Bosch bought it in 1815 and founded the Nußdorfer Brewery in 1818. In 1842, a tower with a beer garden was added. After Bosch's death, his son-in-law Karl Adolf Freiherr Bachofen von Echt took over the enterprise. The brewery was expanded, obtained the status of a purveyor to the court, and exported its produce both to Europe and further abroad. The brewery was bought by the Schwechater Brewery in 1950, and everything but the facade, which had heritage status, was torn down in 1965 to make way for terraced houses.

External links

  • http://www.wien-nussdorf.at/ (in German)
  • http://www.nussdorferplatz.at/ (in German)
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