PAID HOLIDAYS FOR EVERYONE IN THE 1st AUSTRIAN REPUBLIC (1918-1934) & HOW THE VIENNESE WORKING CLASS PROFITED FROM THIS NEW SOCIAL LEGISLATION

My great-uncle Karl Elzholz – on the right with my great-aunt Mitzi, his second wife and my grandmother Lola’s youngest sister

My grandfather Toni Kainz with my grandmother Lola (in the right photo Lola on the very right margin in company with friends; Toni on the left)

Both Karl Elzholz and Toni Kainz were enthusiastic amateur photographers and among their legacies are photographic documents of working-class holidays during the 1^st Austrian Republic. Especially precious are two beautiful photo albums of 1919 and 1933, which illustrate this research. Most holidays of Viennese workers and members of the lower middle class were spent in the Alps at lakes and along rivers in Austria.

Karl on the left; Lola and Toni on the right

Mitzi on the left; Lola and Toni on the right

The two sisters, Mitzi and Lola on the left; Lola in front of a mountain cottage on the right

In the Austrian mountains: Lola on the left; Toni and Lola on the right

Left: The cover of the photo album of 1919 in the Austrian Alps; right: Karl’s photo album of his trip to the Mediterranean in 1933

 

Statutory holiday entitlement and working hours in Austria

In the 19^th and early 20^th century holidays were a privilege of the wealthy. It was a long way from the “summer retreat of the rich” at the beginning of the 20^th century to mass tourism at the end of the 20^th century. Originally a paid obligatory annual holiday for all employees did not exist. This was the achievement of the 1^st Austrian Republic in 1919. All political parties represented in the 1^st democratic Austrian parliament, which had been elected on the basis of an equal voting right system for the first time, passed the law unanimously granting a paid annual holiday between five days and five weeks to all employees. Yet, this did not mean that all employees could afford a holiday away from home. This was reserved for a small group who earned enough to pay for travel and accommodation for a few days, mostly in the vicinity of Vienna or the Austrian Alps. Around 1900 some Austrian villages established tourist associations and village beautification societies to make holidays attractive and affordable for workers on wages that allowed a brief holiday only. For those who could not pay for hotel rooms or rent villas, rooms in private houses or farms were offered as private accommodation for the less well-to-do and in mountainous regions a host of mountain cottages were built to cater for the mountaineering enthusiasts. Most holiday makers from the working class preferred hiking in the Austrian Alps, fleeing factories and crowded, polluted cities. A bed in the dormitories of mountain huts was a cheap alternative to a bed-and breakfast, for example.

After the end of the Second World War, the “Miracle Years” of 30 years of sustainable economic growth in Europe made holidays more affordable for everyone. In the 1950s the Viennese started go on camping holidays on Adriatic beaches in the north of Italy, but the majority spent their holidays in Austria, visiting historical sites and enjoying the beautiful natural landscapes of the “Wachau” along the Danube, the Carinthian lakes or the “Salzkammergut”.

So, how did this development of granting days of recreation to the working class come about in Austria? Already in ancient Greece and Rome the slaves were offered some days off work for the purpose of recreation, but this concept was not perpetuated in the following centuries. Only the nobility and the rich enjoyed summer retreats or spas or went on “grand tours” to see the historical sites of Europe in the 18^th and 19^th century. It was argued by the ruling classes that only those who “worked with their brains “become exhausted and “their nerves are rattled”, so they were in need of rest and recreation. The manual workers, those who worked in factories for example, did not need any vacation because their occupation was “healthy”. The entrepreneurs invested in machines, which had to run the year round to be profitable; that’s why the workers had to be at the mines and factories up to 16 hours a day, six days a week and 52 weeks a year. Sundays and Christian holidays were “hunger days” because they were unpaid. Days off work were only granted on special occasions and they were not paid.

Around 1900 the newly founded trade unions resorted to collective bargaining in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy to demand paid holidays for their exhausted workers. The first occupational groups which were well organised were the book printers and the metal workers. Consequently, they reached agreements with the employers via collective bargaining to be granted some paid days off work. In 1911 such holiday concessions were made by the entrepreneurs in sectors such as the chemical industry, the textile and food industry and the gold and silver production. In contrast to blue-collar workers, white-collar workers had been granted statutory holiday entitlements in 1910. Skilled employees were in high demand in the Austrian economy and were therefore lured to take on jobs in these booming sectors by being offered fringe benefits, such as paid holidays, which varied between 10 days and two weeks depending on the duration of their employment.

With the end of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the foundation of the 1^st Austrian Republic in 1918 the law granting statutory vacation entitlement for all employees, blue- and white-collar workers alike, was passed in the Austrian Parliament on 30 July 1919. After employment of one year, the workers were entitled to one week of paid holidays a year and after five years of employment, two weeks of paid holidays. Young workers below the age of 16 were granted a paid holiday of two weeks from the start of their employment. Unfortunately, these legal regulations were often evaded by the employers after the introduction of the new law. Many workers were urged to forego their right to paid holidays or they were dismissed before reaching the end of their first year of employment. But in 1924 the Austrian Labour Inspectorate reported that most enterprises respected the statutory holiday entitlement, with the exception of some small businesses, which deprived their workers of paid holidays or withheld young workers from taking the holidays they were entitled to. Austrian white-collar workers managed to increase their holiday demands in 1921 to up to five weeks per year, for example journalists, civil servants, actors and employees of rural estates.

In the 1930s the Great Depression hit the Austrian economy hard and the entrepreneurs tried to repeal the law granting statutory paid holiday entitlement, but the workers resisted and went on strike. The first to go on strike were the workers in the meat industry in Graz in 1931. When in 1934 the Austro-Fascists took over control of the state, not only parties, for instance the Social Democratic Party, were forbidden, but also free trade unions and much of the social legislation, which was an achievement of the 1^st Republic, was abolished, or the enterprises just ignored existing labour laws without sanctions by the Austro-Fascist government. The situation of the workers worsened during the Nazi dictatorship, which started with the “Anschluss” (takeover of Austria by the Nazis) in March 1938 and ended in the spring of 1945 with the end of World War II. During the National-Socialist (NS) dictatorship there was no longer any additional pay for overtime, Sunday or holiday work and no holiday pay. Only adolescents were offered more holidays, if they spent them in the NS youth camps, where they were indoctrinated with Nazi ideology. With the establishment of the 2^nd Austrian Republic in April 1945 the statutory rights of workers of the 1^st Austrian Republic were reinstated and in 1946 two new laws were introduced: first, granting blue-collar workers 12 days paid holidays per year, which could be increased to 24 days after 15 years of employment and second, young workers were entitled to 18 days paid holidays up to the age of 18, which was increased to 24 days in 1947.

In the 19^th century there were no laws regulating daily or weekly working hours in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The liberal principle of absolute freedom of labour contract prevailed. The free contract of employment between employer and employee with no legal limits of working hours was sacrosanct, but in reality, no negotiations on equal terms between employer and employee existed. As a result, the daily working hours in industry, mining and artisan businesses were between 12 and 16 hours and the weekly working hours amounted up to 90 hours, while child labour was prevalent. The state only started to interfere, when the health of young people deteriorated drastically, so that the draft rates of healthy young men for the military dropped dramatically. In 1884 the first statutory regulations were passed in the mining industry by limiting the duration of a shift to 12 hours including breaks. This was followed by the factory workers in 1885 with 11 hours of maximum daily working time. Child labour was forbidden for children below the age of 12 in craft businesses and below the age of 14 in factories. Yet the majority of workers in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy were employed in small family businesses and agriculture, which were exempt from these statutory regulations. Anyway, many of the enterprises did not adhere to these new labour regulations. In 1890 the newly founded Social Democratic Party demanded the “8-hour-day”:  8 hours for work – 8 hours for rest – 8 hours for leisure time (“for what we will”). But these demands could only be realised after the end of the monarchy and the establishment of the 1^st Austrian Republic in 1918. The Social Democratic state secretary for social affairs Ferdinand Hanusch passed around 80 social laws between 1918 and 1919, among them the statutory holiday entitlement and the eight-hour working day, which unfortunately did not apply to workers in agriculture and forestry, who constituted a large part of the Austrian workforce, because the conservative Christian Socialist Party resisted.

Despite these new social legislations, vacations were a rare luxury for Viennese lower middle-class and working-class families. But the low rents in the newly erected social housing complexes of “Red Vienna” – the social reform period in Vienna from 1919 until 1934 – allowed some families who were lucky to be allocated such a flat, to save up for a short holiday. Furthermore, the cheap accommodation possibilities in mountain cottages and rooms in private houses and on farms in the countryside created early forms of low-cost summer tourism in the Austrian Alps and on Austrian lakes. Yet most families spent their free time in or around Vienna, in the “Prater” with its untouched nature and the fun park area, or the” Laaerberg” with the amusement park “Böhmischer Prater” or the “Heurigen” in the Vienna Woods, where the new wine was offered at affordable prices in the vineyards at the outskirts of the city. Holiday travels and mountaineering expeditions formed part of the leisure-time programme of “Red Vienna”, which wanted to offer education and experiences in nature and the enhancement of the health of the workers, while at the same time eradicating the traditional working-class vices, such as excessive drinking, smoking, gambling and unhealthy ways of life. The Nature Association “Naturfreunde” was founded as a counterpart to conservative mountaineering associations such as “Alpenverein” and “Touristenclub”.

See article: http://centraleuropeaneconomicandsocialhistory.com/the-alps-past-time-of-the-young-viennese-in-the-1920s-1930

Furthermore, the Austrian railways offered an affordable and comfortable access to the Alpine regions for Viennese workers and their families.

Post-war posters advertising Austrian tourist destinations, representing idealised landscapes, romanticised beautiful people and cute children

After the trauma of World War II and the Nazi terror regime, the governments of the 2^nd Austrian Republic tried to continue this “pure natural Alpine” image of Austria of the 1^st Republic by idealising the Austrian touristic clichés. What’s more, they hoped to instil a new “Austrian national feeling” among the population, after being a part of Germany for seven years during the Nazi rule. By propagating an “apolitical, peaceful and idyllic natural and cultural landscape” the Austrian government did not only want to attract tourists from abroad, but also create a new “Austrian identity” by idealising the “homeland” (Heimat) and by focussing on the beautiful landscapes and the glorification of the imperial Habsburg past and by that suppressing the recent terrible NS past. After 1945 the Austrian tourism industry dug up an “Austrian image” that originated during the interwar years and in the time of Austro-Fascism and revived it. In advertisements for holidays in Austria during the 1^st Republic and in the time of National Socialism the Austrian population was presented in traditional clothes, women in “Dirndl” and men in “Lederhosen”, where in posters and on postcards “Heimat” and the Austrian rural population was romanticised. Subsequently, in the 1950s this “Austrian image” was again put on stage in a colourful and trivialised way, representing the Austrians as “innocent children in Dirndl and Lederhosen” with the purpose of denying the Austrian participation in the commitment of NS atrocities and distancing the Austrians from their NS past. Furthermore, kitschy movies and stories about the glory of the Habsburg Empire were promoted, such as the famous “Sissi” films with Romy Schneider. Tourist advertising campaigns carried on the National Socialist romanticised image of “rural innocent Alpine life” as if nothing had happened during the NS dictatorship between 1938 and 1945. In continuation of the Austro-Fascist ideology, the Habsburg Monarchy was idealised because that prevented the Austrian tourist marketing experts from talking about the NS past and the Austrian complicity with the terror regime.

Austrian souvenir cups with kitschy scenes of idealised rural youngsters in “Dirndl“ and “Lederhosen”

An example of a post-war tourist information folder of a lower Austrian destination not far from Vienna, the “Weinviertel”, illustrates the Austrian attempt of representing the country as an idyllic, innocent and nostalgic location with the conservative rural charm of the 1930s and 1940s, including” traditional suits, dirndl and happy families”. Several of the photos were taken by my father, Werner Tautz:

Left: front page of the tourist folder. Right: my mother Herta Tautz and me in the Kreuttal

Left: Me in Michelstetten and my mother in the background. Right: my mother in Marchau

Left: Me in Hutsaul. Right:”romantic picknick” in Hochleithenwald

Left: “Happy family” in the nature park Leiser Berge. Right: a hunting scene in Neudorf

Austria had already been a destination for domestic and foreign tourists in the first half of the 20^th century, so in the 1950s and 1960s the tourist managers did not have to invent a new strategy or concept. Nevertheless, Austrian tourism could help finance the reconstruction after the war. Projects supported by the US “Marshall Plan” and US films about Austria, such as the musical “Sound of Music”, which was very popular abroad, helped to create a stage, where Austria could present itself as cosmopolitan, peaceful country, very different from Germany.

In reality, already in the 1^st Republic there was an open – or just slightly veiled – hatred against everything Viennese in the conservative Austrian tourist destinations, and above all, there was a latent anti-Semitism, which erupted in some regions to the extent that in 1929 around 70 tourist places in all federal states of Austria declared themselves as “judenrein” (free of Jews) and rejected Jewish guests. These attitudes were perpetuated after World War II and the indigenous, especially rural, Austrian population was not too happy about the new role they were assigned as cosmopolitan hosts, which they were supposed to play. They created “rooms for foreigners” (“Fremdenzimmer”, they were called in Austria) in their private homes or on their farms in rural tourist destinations, but they did not like these foreigners they were asked to welcome, and were suspicious of them. Yet, what they even liked less, were the Austrian city dwellers, especially from Vienna; they really detested these “guests”. The hosts were grumpy and unwelcoming to the point of being rude, but they were greedy for the money they could earn in that way; a welcome additional income easily procured. Rich foreigners would have been reluctantly accepted, yet they wanted to stay in comfortable hotels. But after the war only few Austrian hotels were in operation as tourist accommodations. Many hotels housed Allied troops or refugees, who were evicted, when the tourist boom started and the hotel were renovated. The cheap private rooms filled the gap, especially for tourists who were not too well off. Within the host families who rented rooms there was often a lot of resentment against the “foreigners”, whether they were from Vienna or from abroad, because especially during the summer season the children of the family usually had to move out of their bedrooms in order to make room for the tourists.

In the 1960s my parents and I went on holiday by bike in Austria, because we had no car and little money. At the time this was not fashionable at all, but a sign of poverty. Therefore, we sometimes had trouble finding a “Fremdenzimmer” to stay overnight. In “Waldviertel”, Lower Austria, when we passed small villages, we sometimes saw that the villagers were closing all doors in front of us.

The amateur photographers of working-class holidays during the 1^st Republic

Karl Elzholz, born in Vienna on 19 November 1890, worked as a mechanic at the Viennese tramways and was a very thrifty person. He did not smoke and did not drink excessively. As a member of the Social Democratic Party, he adhered to its principles, avoiding excessive behaviour such as gambling, binge drinking and chain smoking, which was the doom of the working class in the eyes of the party. Karl was a saver to the extent of being stingy. To his regret, he had no children. His first wife died very young from a lung disease, the “Viennese illness”, so he had no one to care for. He was a very sporty type and a skilled climber, skier and hiker. That’s why the beautiful photo album of the holidays in the Austrian mountains “Radstädter Tauern & Dachstein” in August 1919 has come down to me.  When he undertook his first sea journey in the summer of 1933 to the Mediterranean, he had saved enough money as head mechanic to travel third class on the cruise ship “Giulio Cesare”. He was still a widower then, before marrying my younger great-aunt Mitzi, Marianne Sobotka, the youngest sister of my grandmother Lola. The couple Karl and Mitzi were forced to emigrate from Vienna at the end of 1938 due to the Nazi takeover of Austria and the persecution of the Jewish population. It is a miracle how these two albums survived the Second World War and the Holocaust. Karl had probably left them with non-Jewish friends in Vienna, most likely Mr and Mrs Neubauer, who had kept them safe and then returned them to Karl, when he came back to Vienna after the war with his third wife, my other great-aunt, Käthe.

See article: http://centraleuropeaneconomicandsocialhistory.com/viennese-in-exile-in-bolivia-1938-1948

 Karl died without children in 1969 in Vienna.

He might also have left the two albums with my grandfather, Roman Catholic Toni Kainz, born on 27 February 1906, his brother-in-law, and my grandmother Lola, Marianne and Käthe’s sister. Contrary to Karl, Toni was a bourgeoise bohemian without money. He was the son of a Viennese innkeeper in the prestigious district of Währing and loved all kinds of sport, sailing, skiing, climbing and most of all tennis. During his training as a cook and waiter in preparation for taking over the inn from his parents, he spent time working in noble hotels in Austria and Switzerland and enjoyed the high life; a chain-smoker, who loved beer, wine and quality food.

See article: http://centraleuropeaneconomicandsocialhistory.com/viennese-suburban-inns-and-their-innkeepers-until-the-1950s

All his life he was short of money and struggling with debts. Although he could not afford it, he was very generous and magnanimous and tried to spoil his beloved wife Lola and his much-adored daughter Herta, my mother, with presents. After the death of his father, he was disinherited by his mother for marrying Jewish-born Lola in 1932. Consequently, Toni and Lola attempted to run a rented coffeehouse, but the project failed, also due to the Great Depression.

See article: http://centraleuropeaneconomicandsocialhistory.com/viennese-suburban-coffee-houses-until-world-war-ii

Samples of informal promissory notes of small amounts plus interest, which Toni owed in 1936. He usually borrowed only small sums of money, but the interest he had to pay exacerbated Toni’s debt problem.

A loan Toni had to pay back with interest to his sister Emilie Kainz in February 1936

After having worked in many different low-paid jobs, Toni ended up as a fishmonger with a strong taste for art and music – he painted, played the piano and made furniture.

Two documents that show some of the manual jobs Toni took on at the end of the 1930s. Left: “Latzel & Kutscha” was a company specialised in deep well drilling with headquarters in Gentzgasse, Währing. Right: Toni got a job in the textile printing business of Lola’s uncle, Willi Sobotka, until May 1939, when Toni was drafted by the NS regime and Willi Sobotka had to flee Vienna to escape persecution as a Jew.

See article: http://centraleuropeaneconomicandsocialhistory.com/the-other-side-of-the-coin-of-fin-de-siecle-vienna-living-conditions-of-workers-in-the-viennese-outer-districts-favoriten-ottakring-and-hernals-social-advancement-via-apprenticeship-and-vocati

On the right one can see the advance payments on the next wages made by the company “Latzel & Kutscha” to Toni (Vorchuß). It was common for workers to ask for an advance on their wages, because the pay often did not cover the basic needs of a family.

Toni dreamed of travelling with his family, which he could only realise after the end of World War II and the death of his parents-in-law, who lived with Toni and Lola after being freed from the NS concentration camp (KZ) Theresienstadt.

See articles: http://centraleuropeaneconomicandsocialhistory.com/the-other-side-of-the-coin-of-fin-de-siecle-vienna-living-conditions-of-workers-in-the-viennese-outer-districts-favoriten-ottakring-and-hernals-social-advancement-via-apprenticeship-and-vocati

http://centraleuropeaneconomicandsocialhistory.com/the-lives-of-people-in-mixed-marriages-and-of-mixed-race-children-according-to-the-nazi-nuremberg-race-laws-in-vienna-1938-1945

 

Despite being a spendthrift, Toni was an admirable, honest and steadfast man who stood by his Jewish-born wife Lola and “mixed-blood” (Nazi speak) daughter Herta, despite NS repression and harassment. Furthermore, he cared for his sick and abused Jewish in-laws in his home after their release from the KZ in 1945 (Rudolfine Sobotka died in 1958 and Ignaz Sobotka in 1959). Toni was a member of the working class by then, although he still saw himself as a member of the bourgeoisie and always voted for the Conservatives.  He had no monetary reserves, so the family spent all their holidays in the Austrian mountains staying in mountain cottages in the 1930s and 1940s, which was the cheapest option for over-night stays in the interwar years in Austria.

These documents, issued by the NS administration in Vienna in 1944 show that Toni (on the left) worked as shop manager (of a fish shop) and Lola (on the right) worked as a manual worker (in a lumber factory) Lola is identified as a “Jew” and “Sara” was added to her name Kainz Flora. She was obliged to do forced slave labour by the Nazis and was only protected from deportation by her marriage to Toni.

Even after the war, Toni’s money troubles did not end. Here is a note of 1950 which states that the family piano was to be auctioned off publicly to pay for Toni’s debts

This lawyer’s note mentions that Lola had attempted to prevent the public auctioning by paying part of the outstanding sum

Before marrying Toni, Lola worked as a shop assistant in different sectors; left: in a shoe shop in 1931 and in sweet shops. After caring for her sick parents, she continued her career as a shop assistant in a famous department store on Mariahilferstrasse “Falnbigl” (right), which she loved.

See article: http://centraleuropeaneconomicandsocialhistory.com/viennese-confectionary-production-sweet-shops-since-the-second-half-of-the-19th-century-the-impact-of-the-national-socialist-regime-1938-1945

She was a Social Democrat all her life, in opposition to Toni’s support of the Christian Democrats. Lola enjoyed the fun, simple entertainment and relaxed company in the mountain huts, but she detested the exhausting hikes in the mountains in order to reach the mountain tops and the cottages, while Toni and Herta greatly enjoyed mountaineering and experiencing the spectacular Alpine landscapes. It was a common saying in the family that Lola “chatted and complained her way up the mountains”. She would have much preferred a sea cruise, such as the one her future brother-in-law Karl Elzholz undertook. Fortunately, in the 1960s Lola could make the experience of travels into foreign lands with Toni for a brief period until his early death.

Unfortunately, only few years remained for Toni, when he could enjoy his much-desired travels abroad in the 1960s, because he died young at the age of 58 of a heart attack in 1964. He had become the manager of the fish shop and Lola had returned to working as a shop assistant after caring for her sick parents. As a consequence, they could afford proper holidays now and travel abroad to see Spain, Yugoslavia, Italy, Egypt, for example.

 

Holidays in the mountains

The photo album of August 1919 “Radstädter Tauern & Dachstein”:

The village of Schadming

Left: in the background the Dachstein mountain

A mountain lake: “Rissach See”

A mountain cottage and local herders at a mountain pasture

Alpine cottage with a dairy maid tending the cows on the mountain pasture and making butter and cheese there

Mountaineering with a view to the “Wildstelle” mountain

Hiking to the mountain lake “Klaffersee”

Mountain “Törl” and “Törl” lake

“KLafferkessel” panorama; lake and view below:

Reaching the top of “Greifenberg” mountain

“Sattel” lake

Climbing the mountain “Hochgolling”

Climbing at the “Rauhenberg”

“KLafferscharte” and view to the “Hochgolling”

Taking a break at the “Gollingscharte”

Having reached the mountain top of the “Golling” at 2863m

… and the hike to the “Hochgolling”

.. on the way down

Break at the Alpine pasture “Marbach”

Mountain cottage “Tauriskia” and locals

A hunter’s cottage with a view to the “Faulkogel” mountain

On route to the “Faulkogel”

Panorama from the top of the “Faulkogel”

The church Saint Rupert at “Kulm” and the way up to the “Hunnerscharte”

Taking a break and the climb up the “Großer Gjardstein”

“Hoher Dachstein” peak and shoulder

… having reached the peak

Panoramas from the top of the “Dachstein”

“Gosau” glacier and “Adamek” mountain cottage

Crossing the “Steinerscharte”

View to the mountains “Dirndln” and reaching the top (below)

Reaching an inn in the village of  Schladming for an overnight stay

Hunter’s cottage in Brunngraben

At the mountain pasture “Graualpe”

On the way home to Vienna taking the “Mariazellerbahn” train

Holidays on board – sea voyages:

“Lloyd Austriaco – Lloyd Trieste”

Historical grand sailing ship “Amerigo Vespucci” in front of the old Habsburgian harbour of Trieste

The old harbour of the Habsburg Empire in Trieste, now abandoned

A small part of the old harbour of Trieste has been renovated to house conferences and exhibitions, among them one on the “Lloyed Austriaco-Lloyd Triestino”

Left: The headquarter of “Lloyd Austriaco” and the “Assicurazione Generale”, opened in 1879 at the prestigious Piazza Grande in Trieste; both associations were founded by Austro-Hungarian bankers and shipping entrepreneurs, e.g. Morpurgo and Rivoltella. Right: the new comparatively austere headquarter in Vienna, Kärnternring 6, opened in 1905

After the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in November 1918 and the Paris Peace Treaties in 1919, the Austrians did not only have to cope with the loss of Southern Tirol, an integral part of Austrian Tirol, but also with the loss of Trieste, the gateway to the Mediterranean, which had been part of the Habsburg Empire since 1382. The national pride with respect to shipping and sea travels in the minds of the Austrians was the biggest shipping company in the Mediterranean, the Lloyed Austriaco, which had to be handed over to the Italians and became the Lloyd Triestino. The Lloyd Austriaco was founded in Trieste in 1833 on the initiative of seven insurance companies based in Trieste, modelled on the shipping company Lloyd of London. The Lloyd Austriaco concentrated on passenger and freight transport in the whole Mediterranean and the Levante. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 offered new business opportunities for the Austrian shipping industry, which had supported and co-financed the building of the canal. A voyage from Trieste to Alexandria took only three days from now on and to Port Said four days. This created a competitive advantage for the Austrians with respect to their direct competitors, Germany, Holland and England. Now destinations in Asia, such as Bombay, Port Said, Colombo, Singapore, Hongkong, Shanghai, Nagasaki and Yokohama could be served and a permanent service to East Africa was planned. Until the start of World War I Lloyd Austriaco ran regular shipping lines in the whole of the Mediterranean and Black Sea, to China, India and Japan.

Due to the enormous losses during the World War I, Lloyed Austriaco was in serious financial trouble after the end of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The board of directors resigned on 28 November 1918 and the Italian government with the help of Banca Italiana Commerciale bought the enterprise for 1,000 Italian lira per share from the Viennese Union Bank. Initially the new owners only ran freight ships, but when it became clear that the Western Allies would not claim Lloyd Austriaco and its assets as reparations in the Paris Peace Treaties, the new Italian owners re-started the passenger transport and re-named the enterprise into Lloyd Triestino with 40 remaining ships.

Exhibition in the old harbour of Trieste about shipping and Lloyd Austriaco / Lloyd Triestino shipping company

Lloyd Austriaco

The Italian passenger ship “Giulio Cesare” 1920-1944

The Giulio Cesare was an Italian passenger ship, which was in operation from 1920 until 1944, first for the shipping company “Naviganzione Generale Italiana” and later for “Italian Line”. It was a steam ship which was mainly used for passenger and freight transport between Italy and South America. The two steam ships, Giulio Cesare and Duilio, its sister ship, had been ordered before World War I by the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The Giulio Cesare was built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson in Wallsend, England, while its sister ship was built by Cantieri Navali Ansaldo di Sestri Ponente in Genova, Italy. The finishing of both ships was interrupted by World War I, whereby both wharves were located in enemy countries of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and its allies, the German and the Osman Empire. Both ships were completed after the end of World War I and started operating under Italian flags in 1923.

The Giulio Cesare in 1933

The Giulio Cesare was a modern passenger ship of the time, catering for 244 passengers in the 1^st class, 306 in the 2^nd class and 1800 in the 3^rd class. The 1^st class luxury cabins were equipped with private bathrooms, oak parquet flooring and an exclusive ball room and a two-floor- dining room with a glass cupola. 1^st and 2^nd class were located in the centre of the ship, while the 3^rd class cabins were installed on the quarterdeck. 2^nd and 3^rd class had to share a swimming pool, yet the 2^nd class on the Giulio Cesare was considered as comparable to 1^st class on older ships. The Giulio Cesare was launched in 1920 and completed in 1921. She undertook her maiden voyage in 1923 and was designed to run the shipping route Genova – Napoli – South America. But the ship was used on the route to North America, too, and as a cruise ship. In 1925 the two ships, Giulio Cesare and Duilio, were the biggest of the Italian merchant marine. In 1929 the late Pope Francis’ grandparents and his father emigrated on this steam ship from Italy to Argentina as 3^rd class passengers. In 1932 the Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini nationalised the biggest Italian shipping companies, the Navigazione Generale Italiana, based in Genova and owner of the Giulio Cesare, the Cosulich Società Triestina di Navigazione, based in Trieste and the Lloyd Sabaudo, based in Torino, and united them under the name Società Italia Flotte Riuniti or “Italian Line”.

After the cruise which Karl undertook on the ship in 1933, the Giulio Cesare was modernised in November 1933 and afterwards served the route Mediterranean – South Africa. In 1935 the ship collided with the German steamer Barenfels in the harbour of Gibraltar. The German crew was identified as the culprit of the accident and was arrested together with the German captain. The ship was then transferred to Trieste, to the shipping company Lloyed Triestino, formerly Lloyd Austriaco, the biggest shipping company of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1942 the Red Cross chartered the Giulio Cesare and used it as a hospital ship during World War II. But in 1944 she was sunk during an Allied bombing attack of Trieste. After the war the ship wreck was recovered in the harbour of Trieste and scrapped.

After having lost many ships during World War II, the “Italian Line” continued to exist after the war and was still a passenger shipping company, which operated regular transatlantic services between Italy and North and South America and offered cruises, too, with the surviving ships, as can be seen above. New ships were commissioned in the 1950s to show the world that Italy had recovered from the war and was re-establishing itself as a shipping nation. Yet a catastrophe tainted that image, namely the sinking of the “Andrea Doria” in 1956, only three years after she had been commissioned. At the time the Andrea Doria was the largest, fastest and supposedly safest ship, which undertook its maiden voyage in 1953. On 25 July 1956 it was approaching the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, bound for New York City, where she collided with the MS Stockholm of the Swedish American Line. The Andrea Doria was struck in the side and immediately started to list severely to starboard, which left half of the lifeboats unusable. Improvements in communication and the quick responses by ships in the vicinity averted a disaster in the scale of the Titanic. 1660 passengers and crew were rescued, yet 46 people died as a consequence of the collision. The evacuated luxury liner capsized and sank the next day. Andrea Doria was the last transatlantic passenger line to sink before air travel became the preferred means of transatlantic crossings.

Left: advertising for two Italian Line ships, Saturnia and Vulcania, which were similar to the Giulio Cesare with respect to the design of the 1^st class equipment. Right: 1^st class dining room of the Vulcania

Left: 1^st class reading room. Right: 1^st class cabin of the Vulcania

 

Karl’s photo album of his holiday of 1933, the journey to Genova and the cruise on the Italian “Giulio Cesare”:

Karl, a charming, much desirable and popular widower, travelled on a package tour, probably organised by the Social Democratic Viennese tram workers, first by train from the Vienna South Station to Tarvisio at the Italian border and then on to Venice in 1933. From Venice they went by train to Genova, where they boarded the Giulio Cesare. The group then sailed third class on the Italian cruise ship Giulio Cesare from Genova to Barcelona and then on via Ceuta to Tetuan on the African continent. From Tetuan the Giulio Cesare took them to Funchal and Madeira and further on to Gibraltar, Mallorca and finally to Napoli, where they visited the excavations in Pompei. Via Rapallo they reached their final destination and starting point, Genova and travelled home to Vienna by train.

Sometime later he was back touring the Austrian Alps with friends and his future second wife Mitzi:

Karl boarding the train at the Vienna South Station and Karl’s notes referring to the photos

Crossing the border to Italy at Tarvisio and the train journey along the Tagliamento river

Sightseeing in Venice

Genova and the cruise ship Giulio Cesare

Arrival in Barcelona

Karl in the harbour of Barcelona – below the Giulio Cesare and the name of the shipping company “Italia” società di navigazione

Sightseeing in Barcelona

Life, relaxation and entertainment on board

“Spanish village” in Barcelona

Bull fight in Barcelona

At the swimming pool on board

Crossing over to Africa in Ceuta

Visiting Tetuan

Life on board the Giulio Cesare

Arrival at Funchal, Madeira

Madeira

On board again

Gibraltar

At sea: sighting of the Italian ship Conti di Savoia and alarm exercise on board

On-board games and preparations for landing

Palma di Mallorca

The harbour of Napoli

Sightseeing in Napoli

Visiting the Roman excavations in Pompei

At sea again: stormy weather, on- board games and sighting of a large sailing boat

Rapallo

Choppy waters once more

Arrival in Genova, the home port of the Giulio Cesare

Sightseeing in Genova

The last day on board the Giulio Cesare

 

LITERATURE:

• Hanisch, Ernst, Der lange Schatten des Staates. Österreichische Gesellschaftsgeschichte im 20.Jahrhundert, Wien 1994
• Haus der Geschichte Ausstellung, Urlaub in Österreich, Wien 2020
• Mattl, Siegfried, Das 20.Jahrhundert. Geschichte Wiens, Wien 2000
• Mayer, Horst & Winkler, Dieter, In allen Häfen war Österreich. Die österreichisch-ungarische Handelsmarine, Wien 1987
• Sandgruber, Roman, Ökonomie und Politik. Österreichische Wirtschaftsgeschichte vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart, Wien 1995