The
Plague pit

Feel like you’ve been transported back to Vienna’s last great plague epidemic in 1679.

What does a plague doctor look like and how does it feel to stand in the middle of a plague pit? At Time Travel you will experience what life was like in Vienna at the time of the plague and why even the plague can be survived with humor, wine and song. The street musician Augustin becomes famous with the plague when he falls down drunk one day and is taken to a plague pit outside the city. Only the next morning is he pulled out again, singing, and since then he has been known to all Viennese through the song “Oh du lieber Augustin”.

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The plague

Today, the plague is still considered the worst disease in history. The term plague was originally used to describe any disease that was of an epidemic and fatal nature . The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius is said to have died of the plague in Vienna.

The plague has plagued the city of Vienna at regular intervals since the Middle Ages and was an integral part of Viennese life. Vienna suffered particularly from the great plague of 1679 and the plague column on the Graben still reminds us of this today.

It was the Baroque era and all of life was a theater. The Spanish etiquette at court, the fashion with the huge hoop skirts and allonge wigs, the lace-trimmed vests and the high-heeled shoes, and even the emphasis on the differences in rank between the individual social estates and classes.

However, not much had changed on the streets and squares since the Middle Ages. The alleys were still dark and narrow, partly unpaved and full of pits and swamps.

Many decrees calling for cleanliness have been handed down. There were orders not to throw dirt, filth and dead animals into the alleyways, but to carry them outside the city.

Whereas in the Middle Ages, cleaning bodies in bathhouses was an integral part of Viennese life, people there now feared infection with syphilis. This led to a preference for powder, perfume and wigs. Fleas and lice multiplied rapidly.

The noble ladies wore honey-coated tubes under their skirts to catch the pesky parasites. Personal hygiene had reached a catastrophic low point.

Life during the plague

The doctors, bathers and healers were at a loss. They had their own plague doctors, so-called beak doctors . They wore a long, waxed robe and their faces were protected by a mask with a duckbill-like protrusion . This beak contained herbs and liquids called theriac, which were supposed to protect against the “vapors” of the sick .

They were wearing gloves over their hands . To avoid having to get too close to the sick, they gave their instructions with a pointing stick. They provided bloodletting, sweating cures and Theriak treatments, but none of this could prevent around 100,000 Viennese from dying.

The last plague epidemic took place in Vienna in 1713 . Better hygiene and attempts to eradicate rats made it possible tocontain the plague in Europe from around 1740 .

It was not until 1894 that the Swiss Alexandre Yersin discovered the plague pathogen and the rapid introduction of antibiotics put an end to the constant threat in Vienna. However, the plague has not been eradicated. From Madagascar, Congo, Peru to the USA, there are still deaths from the plague and infections are possible.

Oh, dear Augustin!

The “Dear Augustin” (actually Markus Augustin) is said to have actually existed in Vienna (1643-1685). Because of his indestructible sense of humor, Augustin the bagpiper was dear to the Viennese during the plague.

He was generally just called “dear Augustin” and that’s how we remember him. He was a well-known balladeer and bagpiper who lived in St. Ulrich (today’s Neubau district) and preferred to perform in pubs such as the “Roter Hahn”, the “Gelber Adler” or the “Zum roten Dachl” beer house on the Fleischmarkt, today’s Griechenbeisl.

In 1679, when the plague repeatedly raged in Vienna, dear Augustin sits alone one evening in the beer house “Zum roten Dachl”, as most people at home are mourning for their loved ones and are afraid of further infections, so they do not leave the house.

So he drinks alone and then staggers through the streets of Vienna, heavily intoxicated, falls down, remains lying down and immediately falls fast asleep. So he doesn’t notice when the plague servants come by with the hearse and load him up. They dumped the dead into the plague pit near St. Ulrich, where the Augustinbrunnen fountain is located today.

As dawn breaks, Augustin wakes from his deep sleep and is dazed. He realizes that he is sitting on a pile of corpses and it dawns on him what has happened. Out of his mind with horror and fear, he screams desperately for help, but no one can hear him. Then he grabs his bagpipes and starts to play.

Following the sounds, the morning churchgoers approach the plague pit and find Augustin. They immediately help him out of the pit. It is believed to be a miracle that he spent the night with the dead without catching the disease. Augustin lived a long and healthy life and delighted the Viennese with his music.

Oh, dear Augustin!

Emperor Franz Joseph I

The reign of Emperor Franz Joseph I until the end of the monarchy (1848 – 1918)

In 1848, Emperor Franz Joseph I – the great-great-grandson of Maria Theresa – ascended the throne. His time was characterized by many political defeats. The Battle of Königgrätz in 1866 bore witness to this, when the Habsburgs disappeared from the map of Germany as a whole. In 1867, a settlement was reached with Hungary and the Habsburg Empire was renamed the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy. The Habsburgs remained kings of Hungary until they were deposed at the end of the First World War in 1918. Emperor Franz Joseph I, the penultimate emperor, reigned for 68 years, longer than any other member of the dynasty before him. He died at the age of 86 in the middle of the First World War in November 1916. His beloved wife Elisabeth, better known as Sisi, was only at his side at the beginning. She preferred warmer climes and tried to avoid the strict ceremonial of the Viennese court. They had four children together, three daughters and a son. Her only son, Crown Prince Rudolf, committed suicide at a young age together with his lover Mary Vetsera. This went down in history as the tragedy of Mayerling.

Until the beginning of the 20th century. the Habsburgs held together the multi-ethnic state with a population of around 51 million inhabitants in 13 countries. The assassination of the heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 was one of the triggers of the First World War, which lasted from 1914 to 1918. The last Habsburg emperor was Charles I, the great-nephew of Franz Joseph I. Charles reigned for just two years from 1916 to 1918, i.e. until the end of the monarchy. He was sent into exile in Madeira together with his wife Zita, as he never officially abdicated as emperor. In 1918, the reign of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine ended after 640 years with the defeat in the First World War. The First Republic was proclaimed in Austria in November 1918.