Every district of Vienna takes loving care of its sights and
monuments. Inhabitants of Mariahilf, when asked where they come from,
will not simply say ‘from Vienna’, but from ‘Vienna-Mariahilf’.
Mariahilf is the Sixth District (VI). It adjoins the city centre, but
Mariahilfers have no particular need to go there, for everything they
need can be found in their own quarter: gastronomy, museums, theatres
and other cultural institutions.
And it’s only natural that Mariahilfers find their local
coffee-house culture far more authentic than the historic centre’s ‘tourist
traps’. The best-known addresses are Café Eiles (established
1840) in Josefstädterstrasse, Café Sperl (1880) in Gumpendorfer
Strasse, and Café Ritter (end of the 19th century) in
Mariahilferstrasse. Men and women gather there to have a bite to eat, to
talk, to flirt, to improve the world, to hatch plots and to become more
competent ethnologists….
The rows of houses with their secret passages and alleyways run
through the district like a net of veins. Precisely where the
neighbouring quarters of Neubau and Josefstadt begin is known only to
the shrewdest inhabitants. Mariahilf also means the bazar-like bustle on
Naschmarkt. And hidden back streets and niches.
One sees porters stacking up travelling-cases like they did a hundred
years ago, small vintners and tradesmen, amongst them silver-and
goldsmiths and gem cutters. Here, small businesses still have the upper
hand: butchers, bakers and vegetable growers are valued co-inhabitants,
and the innkeepers reside in their cafés like kings in a palace. No one
here needs to live on the street, and mutual solidarity is still an
important fact of life.
