Palais Eskeles

The "princely house of Kaunitz – now  of Arnstein"
The history of Dorotheergasse 11, its owners and occupants

Legend and reality

Like many other buildings in Vienna’s old inner city, the building at Dorotheergasse 11, which has been the home of the Jewish Museum Vienna since 1993, has had a chequered history: because of the numerous changes of ownership it has no continuous institutional or family tradition, but for this very reason numerous legends have been created around it.

In 1829, Anton Behsel’s register of buildings listed Baron Bernhard von Eskeles as the owner of the house ‘Dorotheergasse 1110’. On the basis of this single inaccurate reference, the house is designated by later writers as the Baron’s residence. According to Wilhelm Kisch, who wrote a book about the streets of Vienna in 1883, the famous salon run by Cäcilie von Eskeles met in this house, and his assertion was repeated in subsequent publications. The connection between the house and the banker Eskeles did nothing to harm the owner’s reputation: when the Dorotheum celebrated its move to the newly renovated ‘art palace’ in 1982, the Eskeles salon was again mentioned, although the salon’s heyday was moved a decade to the 1820s. Finally, by the time it was announced in 1993 that the building was to house the Jewish Museum Vienna, it was referred to as the ‘Palais des Hofjuden (palace of the court Jew) and was styled by the press as having been an important meeting place “where the high society of Vienna would gather with the representatives of the world of art and science.

A closer examination of the widely dispersed documents on the house’s history, owners and occupants tells a somewhat different story.

The Dorotheerhöfe

Since the 14th century a chapel dedicated to St. Dorothy has existed in ‘Färbergasse’ (Dyers Lane), as it used to be called. An Augustine chapter, the Dorotheerstift, was founded close by in 1414. The Augustine monks managed to steadily enlarge their holding by buying up neighbouring properties. By the early 16th century the chapter extended back as far as Spiegelgasse and the entire complex ran from what is now Dorotheergasse 11, beyond Plankengasse to Dorotheergasse 15. At this point, however, the maintenance costs were beyond the means of the monks, who rented part of the complex (occupied today by Dorotheergasse 11) and sold some of the rest.

In 1782 the Emperor Joseph II decreed that the Chapter of St. Dorothy be administered by the monastery in Klosterneuburg. It was closed down four years later and the monastery thus became the owner of all the land that had originally belonged to the chapter, including the building at Dorotheergasse 11. The Klosterneuburg monks rented the former church and other parts of the complex to an auction house. The church was used as the auction room of what was later to become the ‘Dorotheum’.

Towards the end of the 18th century the Klosterneuburg monks decided to remodel the premises and to rent it as accommodation. In 1803 work started on a new complex (which did not include No. 11) designed by the later court architect Johann Amann. The building costs exceeded the budgeted amount – not least because of the need to consolidate the neighbouring buildings. Thus Dorotheergasse 11, according to a 17th century litigation, shared a wall with the chapter. The Klosterneuburg monastery had to take out loans to cover the building costs. Amongst the creditors were the bankers Herz and Uffenheimer.

History of the building in the 19th and 20th century

Ownership once again changed hands in the early 19th century: in 1804 the building came into the possession of one August Edlen von Holzmeister, who sold it a year later to Anna Maria von Dietrichstein. The aristocratic owners did not live there but used it as an investment and source of income. In the Dietrichstein era the building housed a number of tenants. One of these, between 1805 and 1807, was Constanze, widow of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and her sons Wolfgang and Carl. At this time the building must have been quite run down and it is possible that it was even uninhabitable after 1808.

In 1812 the house was owned by Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy von Galantha, who in turn sold it a year later to Prince Alois Kaunitz-Rietberg, one of the sons of the statesman Kaunitz. Prince Kaunitz owned the building for ten years. It is doubtful that any repairs were carried out during this time and it was probably not even habitable. In 1823, Kaunitz, who was apparently in debt, was forced to cede the house to one of his creditors, the Arnstein and Eskeles bank. The local court of Klosterneuburg issued a proclamation on 3 September 1823:

The Stiftgericht Klosterneuburg hereby issues the following proclamation: by virtue of an order made out by the Royal and Imperial Court of Law of Lower Austria upon request of the Royal and Imperial Privileged Wholesalers Arnstein and Eskeles against Prince Alois von Kaunitz Rittberg Gunstenberg, the building situated in the City of Vienna, land register designation Dorotheergasse No. 1110, estimated value 130,000 f, will be sold by auction; three dates have been set for this purpose, namely the coming 15 October as the first, 12 November as the second, and 15 December as the third, with the proviso that, if the above-mentioned property is not sold at the reserve or higher price on the first or second dates, it may be sold below the reserve price on the third date.
Persons interested in the property are therefore requested to present themselves at the local public office of Klosterneuburg at 9 am on the dates set, where the conditions of sale may also be preliminarily inspected.

Stiftgericht Klosterneuburg, 3 September 1823.

Apparently, no “persons interested in the property appeared at the first date set for the auction, because the court repeated the announcement on 15 October, this time inviting potential buyers not to the court at Klosterneuburg but to ‘house no. 1110 in Dorotheergasse’. Once again, no buyer could be found, so the building passed into the hands of the creditors, Arnstein and Eskeles. In 1825 the land register gives the owners as ‘Arnstein et Eskeles, Banquiers’. In the same year Dr. Hornuker, the lawyer representing Arnstein and Eskeles, applied to the court in Klosterneuburg for cancellation of a mortgage on the house in favour of Franz von Müller zu Müllegg. In the document certifying this act the building is called “fürstl. Kaunitzsches - jetzt Arnsteinisches Hause.
Two years later the bank of Arnstein and Eskeles sold the building to the Hungarian nobleman Count Nako de Szent Miklos. Just one year after, Nako applied for permission to make modifications to the building, which were completed in 1830. Thereafter, Count Nako lived in the palace with his family and a large number of servants. The building remained in Nako’s family for some time and it was not until 1895 that Count Koloman Nako de Szent Miklos sold it the builders Ignaz Fleischer and Salomon Stein. They ordered the inner courtyard to be covered over and a canopy to be fitted over the main entrance, which still exists today.
In 1896 they sold the building to the art dealer Hugo Othmar Miethke, who intended to use it as an art gallery and residence. In that year he had an entrance built on the side facing Dorotheergasse 15 and moved his gallery from Platz Am Hof to its new home. At the turn of the century the gallery, which was run by the artist Carl Moll, was probably the most well-known specialist in modern art in Vienna. It exhibited works by Anton Feistauer, Max Oppenheimer, Egon Schiele, Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. In 1936 the descendants of the art dealer, who had died in 1922, sold the house to the Dorotheum, which, after extensive structural alterations, installed its postage stamp and art auction department there.
In 1981/82 the building was completely refurbished at the instigation of the Dorotheum. During the renovations a fresco (covered over today) was installed on the ceiling of the second floor. It had been taken from Palais Kaunitz in the 6th district, which was demolished in 1970, and presented to the Dorotheum with the instruction that it be restored and installed in the building. The fresco, painted by Antonio Marini (* 1788 Prato, Italy) shows Ganymede offering a goblet of nectar to Jupiter and Juno. In 1993 the Dorotheum moved its offices back to the main building at Dorotheergasse 17 and the Jewish Museum Vienna moved in. At this time the house was generally referred to as Palais Eskeles and this is the name that has stuck although it was owned by the bankers Arnstein and Eskeles for only a very short time.

References
Dorotheum Kunstpalais neu eröffnet. In: arte factum. Journal für zeitgenössisch-klassisch-konservative Kunst und Kulturpolitik, 4. Jg., Nr. XIV (1982), 10-16.
Paul Harrer: Wien, seine Häuser, Menschen und Kultur. 6. Bd., II. Teil, (Msch. Ms. im Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv) 1957, 284 f.
Wilhelm Kisch: Die alten Straßen und Plätze Wiens. Bd. 1, Wien 1883, 432.Floridus Röhrig: Die Klosterneuburger Stiftshöfe in Wien. In: Jahrbuch des Stiftes Klosterneuburg, NF Bd. 9 (1975), 21-65.

Bernhard Purin