3 - The ‘old’ Burgtheater

Summary

FROM PÁLFFY TO SCHREYVOGEL

The monopoly of the largest theatres by the art-loving nobles who formed the Gesellschaft der Kavaliere, nine of them to begin with, lasted from 1807 to 1814. The association was quick to dissolve, partly because of a financial crisis which was caused by the war against Napoleonic France in 1809: the Emperor, always resistant to appeals for financial support, rejected appeals for compensation out of the public purse, except in respect of décor in store which had been lost during the French invasion of Vienna in May 1809. For two years inflation raged and the value of the Gulden sank. The crisis ended with the state itself in effect bankrupt, and with an enforced devaluation of paper money in 1811. The currency was eventually stabilized with 100 Gulden (fl.) in the traditional silver currency, known as Conventionsmünze (C.M.), worth 250 Gulden in paper money (known as ‘Schein’ or ‘Wiener Währung’, W.W.). This arrangement remained in force until 1857, and as both currencies remained in circulation together, financial calculations are often subject to imprecision.

The financial crisis of the Napoleonic period led to a reorganization of the court theatres in the autumn of 1810, the two houses being given distinct functions. The Kärntnertortheater was designated the home of opera and ballet, with higher prices charged in all parts of the house, and the Burgtheater, whose ‘dilapidated state and poor condition in other respects’ made it ‘wholly unsuitable for large-scale productions’, was designated the home of German drama.