Vienna for Database Researchers

Vienna for Database Researchers Christoph Koch Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853, USA [email protected] ABSTRACT The Turkish army brought coffee to Vienna. Let me The paper is a guide to Vienna for the attendees of VLDB briefly retell the story. The Viennese sent a Polish (on 2007. While motivated by similar guides of earlier years other accounts, Ukrainian) adventurer named Kolschitzky, (e.g., VLDB 2004 in Toronto), this one sacrifices scientific who spoke Turkish, to sneak through the Turkish lines at exactness (and the experiments section) for space to present night, disguised as a Turkish soldier. Kolschitzky succeeded some ancedotes and factoids for which in many cases no and delivered an important message to the Emperor, then sources can be provided but which should give you a first camped in Passau, and returned to Vienna with the news taste of Vienna. To adjust your expections, I start with that the relief army was close to ready. For this he was re- some history. After that I discuss the topics usual to such a warded, after the end of the siege, with the permission to guide. take as much coffee as he cared for from what the Turk- ish army had left in their camps (supposedly a substantial amount). Kolschitzky thus started the first Kaffeehaus (cof- 1. A BRIEF HISTORY OF VIENNA fee house/café) in Vienna, the third in Europe. He suppos- The Bronze Age was effectively the golden age of the re- edly also invented a local coffee specialty, the Melange. The gion, whose celtic culture led archeologists to name an entire part about Kolschitzky's founding of the first café (not his 1 era after { well, Hallstatt, another place in Austria. Since achievements as a secret agent) is now considered an urban then Vienna slowly declined, with the exception of 1993, legend, albeit an old one (from the 18th century). Even so, when ICDE took place here. the first factual coffee house was established in Vienna soon In 180 AD, Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius died in Vi- after the end of the siege, in 1685. enna (then called Vindobona) after a protracted war against Speaking of rewards, the Polish King Jan III Sobiesky, German tribes, not killed by Commodus but by illness, it is whose cavalry charge had played an important role in the said. Ever since then the region has seen major wars every relief of Vienna, was presented by a Jewish pastry baker few decades. With very few exceptions, these wars were lost of Vienna with bread shaped like a Steigbugel¨ (stirrup) or by the faction that Vienna belonged to. Nevertheless a large Beigel (Viennese, from Yiddish beygl). This story is con- Empire was created by dynastically smart marriage with the tested as well but may be true. At least, this is the likely official motto Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube! (lat. reason why many bagel places abroad have adopted German- \Let others wage war, you - happy Austria - marry!", as sounding names. Bagels do go well with coffee too. Austrian children are taught rather early on). Felix Austria You will remember that the SIGMOD 2004 conference now is a locally popular brand of tomato ketchup. banquet (buffet) took place in the Salle Wagram in Paris. In 1529 and 1683, Vienna was unsuccessfully besieged Now, in the Battle of Wagram, Napoleon defeated the Aus- by the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire, who really were not so trians just outside Vienna. To put things into perspective, much interested in Vienna but wanted to conquer Europe. in the same week Napoleon was defeated, for the first time Vienna could not be avoided because of geographical and in a battle of comparable forces, by the Austrians at Aspern- other considerations. Vienna was a fortified town then and Essling (now within the city limits of Vienna).2 The VLDB some remains of the fortifications can be found just across 2007 banquet will not take place in the Salle Aspern-Essling Ringstrasse from the conference venue. That piece of the (as no such place exists, to my knowledge), but in the City wall is called Mölkerbastei. Hall, the venue of the famous and very colorful Life Ball, a 1This was probably somewhat before the first settlement at yearly AIDS charity event that attracts international stars, the location of Vienna. and the equally famous Vienna Christmas Market. Vienna was the center of the Holy Roman and later the Austrian and Austro-Hungarian empires under the Habs- burg family, who were active builders (see the Hofburg and Schönbrunn palaces) and, some of them, collectors (see museums). During their tenure, Vienna also attracted many major composers, such as Mozart, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Schu- bert, the Strauss family, Mahler, and quite a few others, and 2The truth of this is not contested, maybe because Aspern- Essling took place three days before Wagram. became big in music. VLDB and they currently have a thirteen years waiting list The decades around 1900 saw a short renewal of the bronze for weekend subscriptions5. You probably could get a sub- age in Vienna. The city became a major center of the arts scription now for the year in which SIGMOD takes place in and sciences for a few decades, and much greatness now to Vienna.) There are many music shops in which you can buy be admired in the museums (typically by tourists) was pro- CDs of what you miss. duced. If you would like to read up on some of the people of that time on the Web, I suggest to start with Alma Mahler ´ on Wikipedia, who is to Viennese notables what Paul Erdös 2. CAFES is to mathematicians and Kevin Bacon is to actors3. Most of the cultural life of Vienna in the decades around The rest of the 20th century consisted of a long chain of 1900 took place in the coffee houses, and much of the litera- fiascoes for Vienna and shall be skipped. Only this little: ture of the time was written there (including Hugo von Hoff- mannsthal, Arthur Schnitzler, Stefan Zweig, Karl Kraus, or • Viennese are somewhat obsessed with death. You can Peter Altenberg). Communities of intellectuals developed, find a museum there in which you can see the car in who tended to be loyal to certain cafés. At the time, many which Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the throne people, including most of the creative ones, lived in small, of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was assassinated in dark, barely heated appartments, and spent their daytime 1914, the triggering event for World War I. The incor- in the coffee houses to warm up and be/work in more pleas- ruptible blood and gore is still in the car. There is also ant surroundings (if not without a due amount of quibbling the concept of the Schöne Leich' (beautiful corpse), and fighting). A custom that has been preserved from that which I don't want to go into here. Suffice to add that time is that it is completely fine and usual to order coffee some of the fanciest guides cover the town's cemeteries. and then stay for a very long time (all day, if you like) in the coffee house, reading the current newspapers that are • The Viennese university that notoriously refused to ad- available there for free. If you have the time, try it (and mit Hitler as an art student in 1907 and 1908, and left yes, some places offer free WiFi, too). him looking for a different calling, likely the strongest If you want to go on a historical Kaffeehaus tour, though, case for liberal university admission criteria history has unfortunately, some that the most famous Bohemiens and to offer, is not the one at which VLDB takes place. artists have frequented, such as Café Herrenhof, now do not exist anymore. Café Central (1010, Herrengasse 14)6 is one The 20th century has left the Viennese a very nostalgic of these places that still (or again) exists, known not so and pessimistic people, and even one hundred years ago Sig- much for writers and journalists but for great chess players mund Freud could choose his objects of study from an amaz- 4 and revolutionaries. From Wikipedia: A well-known story ing pool of tortured souls. The local breed of humor is also states that an Austrian politician, asked about the possibility often quite black. of a revolution in Russia, remarked sarcastically: \Who is Advice: Expect some crabbiness on the side of locals. Vi- going to make a revolution? Perhaps that Trotsky from the ennese do believe their grumpiness to be a lovable one (in Café Central?". The interior of Café Central is worth seeing, the sense of Matthau/Lemmon, probably). Note in partic- and it is close to the conference venue. ular that a certain grumpiness is part of some job descrip- Some more cafés that are worth visiting: Café Landt- tions here. For example, the top coffee houses are supposed mann (1010, Dr. Karl Lueger-Ring 4), Café Schwarzenberg to have only waiters that are above 40, male, wear worn (1010, Kärntner Ring 17), Café Museum (1010, Operngasse tuxedoes, and always look a bit angry. Regarding the essen- 7), and Café Sperl (1060, Gumpendorferstrasse 11). These tial difference between grumpy waiters in Vienna and Paris are quite magnifient inside, and like the Café Central at- (where allegedly a similar situation is to be observed), it has tract many tourists. The incredibly expensive Café Sacher been said that while the attitude of the waiters in Paris is may enforce a dress code.

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