Wurstelprater in Vienna

My plans for today were very different from what it became after all. I just let me in the arms of a kitschy world, if this expressions does really exist! I was here in September 2007 and once again last June.
As a descriptive term, kitsch originated in the art markets of Munich in the 1860s and the 1870s, describing cheap, popular, and marketable pictures and sketches. 
In Das Buch vom Kitsch (The Book of Kitsch), Hans Reimann defines it as a professional expression "born in a painter's studio".
The study of kitsch was done almost exclusively in German until the 1970s, with Walter Benjamin being an important scholar in the field^.
Hermann Broch argues that the essence of kitsch is imitation: kitsch mimics its immediate predecessor with no regard to ethics — it aims to copy the beautiful, not the good. According to Walter Benjamin, kitsch is, unlike art, a utilitarian object lacking all critical distance between object and observer; it "offers instantaneous emotional gratification without intellectual effort, without the requirement of distance, without sublimation".

The Kitsch Movement is an international movement of classical painters, founded in 1998 upon a philosophy proposed by Odd Nerdrum and later clarified in his book On Kitsch in cooperation with Jan-Ove Tuv and others, incorporating the techniques of the Old Masters with narrative, romanticism, and emotionally charged imagery.
Buying in April a "Low Austria Card" I have access - until 30th of March 2016 - to over 300 discounts or even free of charge tickets on entertainment, travel, cultural level. The card costs 50 euros, it can be ordered on-line and you get it per post in about one week. It is valid for Vienna and the entire Low Austria Area, of course, as the name says.

The Wurstelprater is an amusement park and section of the Wiener Prater (a park) in the second district of Vienna, Leopoldstadt.
This institution dates back to the time of the Austrian Empire, when Emperor Josef II. made the Prater (which has been serving as Imperial hunting ground until then) open to public in 1766. Soon the first snack bars, stalls and bowling alleys opened up on the grounds and the Wurstelprater was born.
The best-known attraction is the Wiener Riesenrad, a Ferris wheel. 

The Wiener Riesenrad was constructed in 1897 by the English engineer Lieutenant Walter Bassett Bassett (1864-1907), Royal Navy. Its purpose was to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Emperor Franz Josef I, and it was one of the earliest Ferris wheels ever built. Bassett's Ferris wheel manufacturing business was not a commercial success, and he died in 1907 almost bankrupt.

By Anka Berger - 08.05.2015

A permit for its demolition was issued in 1916, but due to a lack of funds with which to carry out the destruction, it survived.
It originally had 30 gondolas, but was severely damaged in World War II and when subsequently rebuilt only 15 gondolas were replaced.
The wheel is driven by a circumferential cable which leaves the wheel and passes through the drive mechanism under the base, and its spokes are steel cables, in tension.

Watching over Vienna from the huge wheel in motion - 8th of May, 2015 - by Anka Berger

When the 64.75 m tall Wiener Riesenrad was constructed in 1897, both the original 80.4 m Ferris Wheel in the US (constructed 1893, demolished 1906) and the 94 m Great Wheel in England (constructed 1895, demolished 1907) were taller. The 100 m Grande Roue de Paris, constructed in 1900, was taller still. However, when the Grande Roue de Paris was demolished in 1920, the Riesenrad became the world's tallest extant Ferris wheel, and it remained so for the next 65 years, until the construction of the 85 m Technostar in Japan in 1985.

a good look over the Madame Tussauds Wax Figures Museum - 8.5.2015, by Anka Berger

A Ferris wheel, named after George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., (sometimes called a big wheel, observation wheel, or, in the case of the very tallest examples, giant wheel) is a nonbuilding structure consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components (commonly referred to as passenger cars, cabins, capsules, gondolas, or pods) attached to the rim in such a way that as the wheel turns, they are kept upright, usually by gravity.

This second wheel I could see later as I took the Wurstelprater Train, otherwise I did not know it exist!

The park also features various rides, bumper cars, carousels, roller coasters, shooting galleries, ghost trains, a Madame Tussauds wax works cabinet and much more. 
Leaving the Wheel the roller coaster on the water won my attention, so ....

I remembered a whole night I spent in such a "Tivoli" in Germany, summer 1992, deeply in loved with a tall blond hair helicopter pilot in the German Army and so young ....

I also took the Park Train for a round-trip:

Apart from the rides, the park features various famous traditional Viennese restaurants (such as the Schweizerhaus and the Walfisch) and souvenir shops.
Next it was the visit of the Wax Figures Museum of Madame Tussaud ... this is a new chapter on blog :-), click here
The hours I spent here helped me through the day. So, never say never .... as myself I never thought I would like again to be part of this crazy world. It has a certain fascination in it if you are in the suitable mood to let you go .... just go inside and see how it feels....
Read about Madam Tussaud Wax Museum_01

By Christian Barth