Follow in the footsteps of Vienna Blood star Juergen Maurer and find out why he loves this city of culture
Claire Webb - 13 November 2019
A new BBC2 crime drama will transport viewers back to turnof-the-century Vienna’s glittering concert halls, grand cafés and baroque streets this week. Based on the bestselling Liebermann novels by Frank Tallis, Vienna Blood is set in the 1900s, when the city was the centre of the 600-year Habsburg Empire and Europe’s intellectual and artistic capital. The show’s hero is a young English doctor, Max Liebermann, who is a student of Sigmund Freud, the founding father of psychoanalysis.
“In the early 1900s, Vienna was a cultural melting pot,” explains Austrian actor Juergen Maurer, who lives in Vienna and plays a detective inspector who grudgingly accepts Max’s help. “The Austrian Empire was huge and people came to the city from every corner of it – Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, Romanians. More than 75 per cent of the population were not Austrian, and that was the fertile soil in which this rich artistic and cultural scene took root.”
Thanks to Kaiser Franz Joseph’s immense wealth and ambition, Vienna was one of Europe’s grandest cities. “In the second half of the 19th century, the Emperor decided to give the city a new look,” says Maurer. “The fortifications that protected the inner city were torn down and the Ringstrasse was built – a circular road that gave Vienna that very special imperial look it has today, which is the background for many of our scenes.”
It took over 50 years to build all the civic and cultural palaces that line the broad three-mile boulevard. The drama’s sumptuous locations include the Natural History Museum, which is lavishly decorated with oil paintings, sculptures and a vast ceiling fresco.
At the end of episode one, Max and his sweetheart stroll past a wing of the neighbouring Hofburg Palace, the home of the Habsburgs, whose long reign was ended by the First World War. Nowadays their extravagant state apartments are open to the public, and the palace’s endless wings and stables house museums, but you can still watch elegant Lipizzaner stallions being put through their paces at its Spanish Riding School.
In the early 1900s, Vienna’s liberal circles were shocked by a radical new art movement, and Max admires a golden vision by its founder, Gustav Klimt, in episode one: his sensuous Beethoven Frieze, which is still on display in the Secession Building. The Vienna Secession movement was the beginning of modern art in Vienna. “The Ringstrasse is an example of the ornamental, conservative architecture and art of the late 19th century – Modernism was a reaction against that, and the artists built their own exhibition hall,” explains Maurer. “The Secession Building was very avant-garde for the time and is one of the finest examples of Art Nouveau architecture in Vienna.” More of Klimt’s erotic masterpieces and the tortured portraits of his protégé Egon Schiele are on display at the Leopold Museum, a light-filled cube dedicated to the Austrian modernists.
In fin-de-siècle Vienna, the city’s coffeehouses were hotbeds of creativity. Freud favoured Café Landtmann, while Klimt, Schiele and fellow artistic revolutionaries could often be found in Café Museum. “We shot in Café Braunerhof, which is very authentic and not too touristy. Around the corner from Braunerhof is another of my favourites – Café Hawelka, which was popular with artists in the 1960s. When their bill was high, lots of artists paid with a piece of work, which made the owner one of the richest collectors of Austrian art of that period. I visited very often when I was a fine arts student and once gave him two of my prints as payment. I’m very proud that he accepted them!”
In the drama, the British doctor attends concerts when he’s not solving murders, and the city still lives up to its reputation as a classical music mecca. The Art Nouveau Konzerthaus pops up in episode one, and Vienna’s most venerable venue is the Musikverein, with its plush Golden Hall. “The Musikverein has amazing acoustics. The Vienna New Year’s Concert is held there and broadcast all over the world. We also have two opera houses and music festivals throughout the year. Vienna is very proud of its cultural scene – just as it was 120 years ago.”
The city’s famous giant ferris wheel, the Riesenrad, also has a cameo in the first episode. Erected in 1897 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the reign of the Emperor, it had a star turn in Orson Welles’s 1949 film The Third Man. “Like the Eiffel Tower, it was supposed to be temporary, but they decided to keep it. I like it because it’s slow, which is a very nice contrast to modern life.”
Maurer has lived in Vienna for over 30 years, but still found the shoot eyeopening. “I was astonished how many places we could find to film that didn’t need to be dressed up or digitally altered – beautiful little streets that I pass every day, but never notice. This project really made me appreciate where I live.”
“In the early 1900s, Vienna was a cultural melting pot,” explains Austrian actor Juergen Maurer, who lives in Vienna and plays a detective inspector who grudgingly accepts Max’s help. “The Austrian Empire was huge and people came to the city from every corner of it – Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, Romanians. More than 75 per cent of the population were not Austrian, and that was the fertile soil in which this rich artistic and cultural scene took root.”
Thanks to Kaiser Franz Joseph’s immense wealth and ambition, Vienna was one of Europe’s grandest cities. “In the second half of the 19th century, the Emperor decided to give the city a new look,” says Maurer. “The fortifications that protected the inner city were torn down and the Ringstrasse was built – a circular road that gave Vienna that very special imperial look it has today, which is the background for many of our scenes.”
It took over 50 years to build all the civic and cultural palaces that line the broad three-mile boulevard. The drama’s sumptuous locations include the Natural History Museum, which is lavishly decorated with oil paintings, sculptures and a vast ceiling fresco.
At the end of episode one, Max and his sweetheart stroll past a wing of the neighbouring Hofburg Palace, the home of the Habsburgs, whose long reign was ended by the First World War. Nowadays their extravagant state apartments are open to the public, and the palace’s endless wings and stables house museums, but you can still watch elegant Lipizzaner stallions being put through their paces at its Spanish Riding School.
In the early 1900s, Vienna’s liberal circles were shocked by a radical new art movement, and Max admires a golden vision by its founder, Gustav Klimt, in episode one: his sensuous Beethoven Frieze, which is still on display in the Secession Building. The Vienna Secession movement was the beginning of modern art in Vienna. “The Ringstrasse is an example of the ornamental, conservative architecture and art of the late 19th century – Modernism was a reaction against that, and the artists built their own exhibition hall,” explains Maurer. “The Secession Building was very avant-garde for the time and is one of the finest examples of Art Nouveau architecture in Vienna.” More of Klimt’s erotic masterpieces and the tortured portraits of his protégé Egon Schiele are on display at the Leopold Museum, a light-filled cube dedicated to the Austrian modernists.
In fin-de-siècle Vienna, the city’s coffeehouses were hotbeds of creativity. Freud favoured Café Landtmann, while Klimt, Schiele and fellow artistic revolutionaries could often be found in Café Museum. “We shot in Café Braunerhof, which is very authentic and not too touristy. Around the corner from Braunerhof is another of my favourites – Café Hawelka, which was popular with artists in the 1960s. When their bill was high, lots of artists paid with a piece of work, which made the owner one of the richest collectors of Austrian art of that period. I visited very often when I was a fine arts student and once gave him two of my prints as payment. I’m very proud that he accepted them!”
In the drama, the British doctor attends concerts when he’s not solving murders, and the city still lives up to its reputation as a classical music mecca. The Art Nouveau Konzerthaus pops up in episode one, and Vienna’s most venerable venue is the Musikverein, with its plush Golden Hall. “The Musikverein has amazing acoustics. The Vienna New Year’s Concert is held there and broadcast all over the world. We also have two opera houses and music festivals throughout the year. Vienna is very proud of its cultural scene – just as it was 120 years ago.”
The city’s famous giant ferris wheel, the Riesenrad, also has a cameo in the first episode. Erected in 1897 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the reign of the Emperor, it had a star turn in Orson Welles’s 1949 film The Third Man. “Like the Eiffel Tower, it was supposed to be temporary, but they decided to keep it. I like it because it’s slow, which is a very nice contrast to modern life.”
Maurer has lived in Vienna for over 30 years, but still found the shoot eyeopening. “I was astonished how many places we could find to film that didn’t need to be dressed up or digitally altered – beautiful little streets that I pass every day, but never notice. This project really made me appreciate where I live.”