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Vienna
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 30, 2021
Darum geht's:
Wien ist und bleibt eine fasziniernde Stadt. Die Journalistin Ilsa Barea beschreibt auf über 450 Seiten die Kultur- und Stadtgeschichte von den Anfängen bis ins 20. Jahrhundert, aber auch ihre eigene Wahrnehmung ihrer Heimatstadt.
Meine Meinung dazu gibt’s hier
Wien ist und bleibt eine fasziniernde Stadt. Die Journalistin Ilsa Barea beschreibt auf über 450 Seiten die Kultur- und Stadtgeschichte von den Anfängen bis ins 20. Jahrhundert, aber auch ihre eigene Wahrnehmung ihrer Heimatstadt.
Meine Meinung dazu gibt’s hier
July 8, 2026
4.5 stars
I really enjoyed reading this - I learned so much about my chosen home city! Often, history of Vienna concentrates on the golden age at the end of the 19th century / beginning 20th century, when the city was bustling with intellectual minds (Freud, Klimt, Zweig, etc). Rarely have I heard about the city's earlier history.
Ilsa Barea tells us her interpretation of Vienna's history from the early baroque until the first world war, with heavy focus on architecture, art, music and literature. From time to time, her chapters are exclusively political or sociological, but most of the time, she writes about the arts.
The writing style is as dense as Vienna's own history and not always so easy to read. I had a slight slump somewhere in the 18th-19th century, but picked the book up again gladly when we got to the 1848 revolution.
I do think this book is mainly enjoyable for fellow inhabitants of Vienna, who know and love this city. There are numerous references to places and people of the city an outsider will not know what to do with, but to me, it gave new life to many streets and squares I pass weekly if not daily.
I really enjoyed reading this - I learned so much about my chosen home city! Often, history of Vienna concentrates on the golden age at the end of the 19th century / beginning 20th century, when the city was bustling with intellectual minds (Freud, Klimt, Zweig, etc). Rarely have I heard about the city's earlier history.
Ilsa Barea tells us her interpretation of Vienna's history from the early baroque until the first world war, with heavy focus on architecture, art, music and literature. From time to time, her chapters are exclusively political or sociological, but most of the time, she writes about the arts.
The writing style is as dense as Vienna's own history and not always so easy to read. I had a slight slump somewhere in the 18th-19th century, but picked the book up again gladly when we got to the 1848 revolution.
I do think this book is mainly enjoyable for fellow inhabitants of Vienna, who know and love this city. There are numerous references to places and people of the city an outsider will not know what to do with, but to me, it gave new life to many streets and squares I pass weekly if not daily.
July 20, 2015
Ilsa Barea takes a sharp pin and punctures the bubble of the Viennese treacly legend without falling into the trap of acidic anti-legend. This is indeed a delicate and scholarly panorama of this most fascinating of cities.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews