Safes and dance music do not seem to have much in common. In Vienna in 1869 they came together all the same, and the result has even been heard at the New Year’s Concert.
A promise made of steel
In 1852 Franz Wertheim founded a factory for strongboxes in Vienna. His promise: fireproof safes. To prove it, as early as 1853 he had three safes placed on a burning pyre, and when the flames had died down, their contents were unharmed. In 1857 he repeated the fire test in Constantinople, according to the company chronicle in front of the Sultan and his ministers. A year later a safe was even sent through the kiln of the imperial porcelain manufactory at more than 1,000 degrees. The papers inside survived that too.
A party for the 20,000th safe
On 13 March 1869 F. Wertheim & Comp. celebrated its 20,000th safe in the halls of the Horticultural Society on the Ring, with a banquet for 1,200 guests. The workers dined at long tables in the basement, the dignitaries upstairs, and everyone danced together until dawn. The ball was opened by Josef Strauss, brother of the Waltz King, with a polka française written for the occasion: “Feuerfest!”, fireproof, op. 269. The score calls for an anvil, and at the premiere the hammer blows rang through the hall.
The Vienna Philharmonic has played “Feuerfest!” several times at its New Year’s Concert. In 2012 the conductor Mariss Jansons struck the anvil himself, and the Vienna Boys’ Choir sang along.
Discovering musical Vienna
We tell stories of waltz dynasties, opera scandals and polkas with an anvil on our music tour around the State Opera. And if you would like something entirely personal, we will put together a tailor-made tour on music in Vienna with you.
