ivie, the free city guide app for Vienna, will be offering a sightseeing experience dedicated to outstanding female protagonists just in time for the start of International Women’s Week (from March 4, 2024). The city guide “7 Great Women, 7 Great Places” tells the story of Vienna as the home and adopted home of women who broke with traditional gender roles. The app presents famous figures who paid little heed to the conventions of their time and links them with Viennese places and institutions that are well worth a visit.

They include names such as the psychoanalyst Anna Freud and the hotelier Anna Sacher, but also women whose work has received far too little attention over the decades. This is because the male-dominated perception of history has obscured many exciting accounts of women’s achievements. Take Nannette Streicher, for example, one of the most remarkable women in Vienna in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Beethoven’s piano maker

Nannette Streicher (1769-1833) made her mark on Viennese music history as a gifted piano maker. Her most high-profile customer was Ludwig van Beethoven. He swore by the technical precision and the unique sound of Streicher’s fortepianos. Born into a family of piano makers in Augsburg, she learned the trade at a young age. Nannette Streicher moved to Vienna after getting married in 1794. She grew the company into one of the most important piano manufacturers in Vienna. Streicher’s works can be viewed at the Vienna Museum of Science and Technology, where one of her fortepianos is on permanent display. – One of the seven locations of “7 Great Women, 7 Great Places”.

Influential psychoanalyst

ivie also takes visitors to Berggasse 19, one of Vienna’s most famous addresses and the premier address in the world of psychoanalysis, as part of the city guide. Anna Freud (1895-1982), the daughter of Sigmund Freud, takes center stage here. She played an important role in the establishment of psychoanalysis. Her work in the field of child psychoanalysis was particularly groundbreaking. Berggasse 19 is home to the Sigmund Freud Museum, an internationally renowned museum that was significantly expanded in 2020. It offers in-depth insights into the development of psychoanalysis and also tells the story of Anna Freud.

Self-assured hotel manager

Vienna’s hotel and restaurant scenes also form part of “7 Great Women, 7 Great Places”. It was, after all, a certain Anna Sacher (1859-1930) who turned the Hotel Sacher into one of the most important hotels in Vienna. Sacher was said to be a self-confident woman, but after the premature death of her husband, nobody wanted to trust her with the sole management of the hotel. However, she impressively demonstrated the opposite and became an icon of the Viennese tourist industry, who was also known for her eccentricity.

Private apartment of a pioneer of architecture

ivie also offers a special architectural attraction in the form of the Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky Center. Opened in the fall of 2022, it is the former private apartment of Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky (1897-2000) in Vienna’s 5th district. Schütte-Lihotzky was one of the first women to study architecture in Vienna. She has gone down in history as the inventor of the modern fitted kitchen, known as the Frankfurt kitchen. “7 Great Women, 7 Great Places” also leads visitors to the Burgtheater to focus on Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek (born 1946). – This Viennese venue has been the venue for many of Jelinek’s brilliantly successful stage works such as “Ein Sportstück”.

Against court protocol

A remarkable woman awaits ivie users at the Museum of Natural History Vienna: this magnificent building on the Ringstrasse is the museum home of the Venus of Willendorf, which was excavated north of Vienna in the Wachau region in 1908 and is around 30,000 years old. The eleven-centimeter stone sculpture is the oldest depiction of a woman in Vienna, and its exact meaning is still the subject of debate. When it comes to remarkable Viennese women, there is one person who simply cannot be overlooked: Empress Elisabeth, also known as Sisi (1837-1898). Her resistance to the rigid constraints of the Habsburg court is the stuff of legend. Sisi despised the strict protocols and tight confines of imperial court life and is now regarded as an icon of female empowerment. “7 Great Women, 7 Great Places” takes visitors to the Sisi Museum Wien in the Hofburg.

One of many walks & guides

The city guide “7 Great Women, 7 Great Places” is part of the ivie Walks & Guides feature. This is a section of the app that invites users to discover Vienna on their own initiative. These are either in the form of city walks with a predetermined route (Walks) or as a collection of places that are linked by theme (Guides). Viennese Modernism takes center stage here, as does the work of Otto Wagner and Vienna’s modern architecture. Vienna’s fascinating museums, the Prater and the LGBT scene are just as much the focus as the morbid side of Vienna and activities for children. ivie also offers audio walks on the subjects of Vienna’s Ringstrasse, Beethoven and Sisi.

All the women and venues:

Anna Freud
Sigmund Freud Museum, Berggasse 19, 1090 Vienna
www.freud-museum.at

Anna Sacher
Hotel Sacher, Philharmoniker Straße 4, 1010 Vienna
www.sacher.com

Elfriede Jelinek
Burgtheater, Universitätsring 2, 1010 Vienna
www.burgtheater.at

Empress Elisabeth
Sisi Museum Wien, Michaelerplatz, 1010 Vienna
www.sisimuseum-hofburg.at

Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky
Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky Center, Franzensgasse 16, 1050 Vienna
www.schuette-lihotzky.at

Nannette Streicher
Vienna Museum of Science and Technology, Mariahilferstraße 212, 1140 Vienna.
www.technischesmuseum.at

The Venus of Willendorf
Museum of Natural History Vienna Vienna, Burgring 7, 1010 Vienna
www.nhm-wien.ac.at

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For printable versions of these images, please contact:
www.nhm-wien.ac.at
www.sacher.com

Contact

Helena Steinhart
Media Relations
+43 1 211 14-364
helena.steinhart@vienna.info