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TOURISM

In Austria, Vienna’s horse-drawn carriages feel the heat

As much of Europe stifles under record high temperatures, Vienna's "fiaker" horse carriage drivers fear for their future with animal rights activists turning up the heat.

Published: 21 July 2022 15:34 CEST
A coachman of horse driven carriages (Fiakers) passes by Hofburg palace in Vienna on a hot day. (
A coachman of horse driven carriages (Fiakers) passes by Hofburg palace in Vienna on a hot day. Photo: JOE KLAMAR / AFP

At the stables of one of the Austrian capital’s leading fiaker businesses, driver Marco Pollandt explains how the animals are coping with increasingly hot weather and how much time off they enjoy.

Rights activists want horses to stop work as soon as temperatures hit 30C (86F) and not 35C as under current rules — a demand that fiaker or carriage drivers say will destroy their centuries-old profession.

“We can all live with the 35C but going down more is actually not good for the horses, and we also have to discuss the economic results of this,” Pollandt tells AFP.

The 28-year-old Viennese says horses trained to pull carriages need the exercise, while their caretakers need the income.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: Will Austria ban horse-drawn carriages?

On hot days, fiaker drivers ensure the horses drink enough, while the places where they wait for customers are shady in the afternoon.

“The climate is changing and it’s getting more and more hot,” Pollandt says.

“And of course it makes a difference if we have seven days a year that we are not allowed to ride or if we have 30 days a year we are not allowed to ride.”

High demand

Pollandt — who used to work in gastronomy and started to offer dining in a fiaker five years ago — has been running a website to inform people about the horses and the carriage driving profession. He also runs stable tours offering a glimpse behind the scenes. 

A coachman of horse driven carriages (Fiakers) prepares his horse at the stables of a leading fiaker business prior leaving stables for daily tourist tours in Vienna, Austria, on July 13, 2022.(Photo by JOE KLAMAR / AFP)

Three hundred horses still pull carriages through Vienna, past the town hall and other tourist sites, generating thousands of jobs, he notes.

“I realised no one actually explains to people how everything works,” says Pollandt pointing to strict regulations and regular veterinary checkups to keep the horses fit.

READ ALSO: One day in Vienna: How to spend 24 hours in the Austrian capital

Hurt by Covid lockdowns and travel curbs since 2020, business has picked up again swiftly this year.

But activists say the animals suffer in the big city especially in scorching temperatures.

“This work is clearly linked to animal suffering. The horses are sometimes in the sun at 34.5C and working.”

Buckets of water, rest in the shade and caring coachmen but no summer break for the famous cabs of Vienna, despite the heat wave and the pressure of animal defenders. (Photo by JOE KLAMAR / AFP)

“They are exposed to noise, exhaust fumes, traffic and of course stress,” says David Fenzl of the Association against Animal Factories.

In June, city officials considered the demands to enforce stricter regulations, but in the end decided to delay lowering the temperatures under which horses are not allowed to work, pending a study to be carried out next year.

READ ALSO: Austria bans ‘senseless’ killing of chicks with new animal welfare rules

So for now, fiakers can ride on — unless temperatures exceed 35C, as predicted later this week.

Scientists say heat waves are becoming more frequent and intense due to climate change.

Britain and France went on unprecedented heatwave alerts this week as southwest Europe wilted and ferocious wildfires devoured more forests.

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VIENNA

Could be wurst: Vienna sausage stands push for UN recognition

From top bankers and politicians to students and factory workers, Vienna's popular sausage stands heaving with bratwurst and meaty delicacies are a longstanding cultural legacy they hope to have recognised by UNESCO.

Published: 23 June 2024 08:31 CEST
Could be wurst: Vienna sausage stands push for UN recognition

The owners of 15 stands in the Austrian capital have formed a lobbying group and applied last week to have the “Vienna sausage stand culture” inscribed as intangible cultural heritage by the UN agency.

“We want to create a kind of quality seal for Vienna sausage stands,” said 36-year-old Patrick Tondl, one of the association’s founders whose family owns Leo’s Wuerstelstand — Vienna’s oldest operating sausage stand.

“At the sausage stand, everyone is the same… No matter if you’re a top banker who earns hundreds of thousands of euros or if you have to scrape together the last euros to buy a sausage… You meet here, you can talk to everyone,” he adds.

High inflation driving consumers looking for affordable meals, plus a new wave of vendors with updated flavours, have helped keep the stands busy.

Tondl’s great-grandfather started their business in the late 1920s, pulling a cart behind him and selling sausages at night.

The family’s customers have included former chancellor Bruno Kreisky, recalls Vera Tondl, 67, who runs the shop together with her son Patrick.

Leo’s is one of about 180 sausage stands in Vienna today, out of a total of about 300 food stands, selling fast food at fixed locations and open until the early hours, according to the city’s economic chamber.

Whereas the number of stands has remained similar over the last decade, more than a third have changed from selling sausages to kebabs, pizza and noodles, a spokesman for the chamber told AFP.

‘Momentum’

But sausage stands have seen a “mini boom” in customer numbers recently, according to Patrick Tondl.

Many have been drawn back to the stands by high inflation, where a meal can be had for less than 10 euros ($11) with lower overheads than restaurants.

New stand operators have also brought a “bit of momentum”, said Tondl, bringing the likes of organic vegetarian sausages with kimchi.

Tourists are already drawn in droves.

“When you come to Austria, it’s what you want to try,” 28-year-old Australian tourist Sam Bowden told AFP.

The cultural legacy of Vienna’s sausages is far-reaching, including the use of the term “wiener” for sausages in the United States, which is believed to have derived from the German name for Vienna, Wien.

However Sebastian Hackenschmidt, who has published a photo book on the stands, said the legacy of the “Vienna phenomena” is more complex.

He says that for many in multicultural Vienna, the sausage stands hold little appeal — equally for the growing number of vegetarians — and their universal appeal is something of a “myth”.

“Vienna is a city in great flux… With the influx of people, cultural customs are also changing,” Hackenschmidt told AFP.

Some 40 percent of Vienna’s two million inhabitants were born outside the country, where the anti-immigrant far-right looks set to top September national polls for the first time.

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