High above the Ringstrasse, a knight with a standard has stood on the tower of Vienna’s City Hall since 1882. The Viennese simply call him the Rathausmann, and he is a landmark with a slight lean: in a storm the figure sways by up to 25 centimetres.
A clever trick above the Ringstrasse
When Friedrich Schmidt designed the new City Hall, his tower was not allowed to rise above the nearby Votivkirche and its 99 metres. Schmidt complied and built the tower to 98 metres. Then he put the Rathausmann on top. With him, the building measures a good 103 metres, and whether that still kept to the rule is something the Viennese can smile about to this day.
Copper, iron and a counterweight
Schmidt supplied the design, Franz Gastell made the model, and Alexander Nehr built the figure: hammered copper over an iron frame. The Rathausmann is 3.4 metres tall, 5.4 metres including his standard, and wears shoe size 63. According to the City of Vienna, his armour is modelled on that of Emperor Maximilian I. To keep him steady in the wind, a ball-shaped counterweight of 800 kilograms hangs beneath him inside the tower.
In 1985 the knight was restored and a copy was made. The original went back up the tower, and the copy has stood in the Rathauspark ever since, at eye level and much photographed. In 2019 experts paid him a visit, opened a hatch in his leg and lifted off his helmet to check that all was well.
Discovering the knight from below
City Hall with its arcaded courtyard, the Votivkirche, the University: the Ringstrasse tells of a city that reinvented itself in the 19th century. On a private tour we gladly include the Rathausplatz, for example on our Vienna Highlights tour or on a tailor-made tour planned around your interests.
