0:00:03 > 0:00:05Throughout the 20th century,
0:00:05 > 0:00:09great cities have seduced and inspired us.
0:00:10 > 0:00:15But sometimes, one city shines brighter than all the others.
0:00:15 > 0:00:19Sometimes, one city defines an entire age.
0:00:19 > 0:00:23In my opinion, there were a handful of moments
0:00:23 > 0:00:25in the 20th century when, for some reason,
0:00:25 > 0:00:30one particular city exploded into life.
0:00:30 > 0:00:34When one city became a hub of new art and ideas,
0:00:34 > 0:00:37that went on to influence the entire world.
0:00:37 > 0:00:42This series tells the story of three exceptional cities
0:00:42 > 0:00:45in three exceptional years.
0:00:46 > 0:00:48Vienna in 1908.
0:00:51 > 0:00:52Paris in 1928.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59And New York in 1951.
0:00:59 > 0:01:01Three cities, one century -
0:01:01 > 0:01:05the century when so much changed.
0:01:13 > 0:01:15And this episode is about Vienna
0:01:15 > 0:01:20at the height of its legendary Golden Age in 1908.
0:01:20 > 0:01:25This was the year Gustav Klimt painted his most famous picture
0:01:25 > 0:01:29and Adolf Loos invented modern architecture.
0:01:29 > 0:01:34When Sigmund Freud discovered the Oedipus Complex
0:01:34 > 0:01:36and when a new generation took art and music
0:01:36 > 0:01:39in an unsettling direction.
0:01:43 > 0:01:48But 1908 was also the year that would set Vienna
0:01:48 > 0:01:51and Europe on the road to destruction.
0:01:54 > 0:01:59Vienna in 1908 was the crucible of the 20th century.
0:01:59 > 0:02:03And it gave birth to the best and worst of the modern world -
0:02:03 > 0:02:07its most beautiful dreams and its most catastrophic nightmares.
0:02:19 > 0:02:22If you wanted to be an artist in 1908,
0:02:22 > 0:02:25Vienna was a good place to come.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28And at the beginning of that year,
0:02:28 > 0:02:31one man made his own pilgrimage from the provinces.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36He had with him a letter of introduction to a famous painter
0:02:36 > 0:02:40who worked here at the Royal Opera House.
0:02:40 > 0:02:44The letter was supposed to be the young man's ticket to success.
0:02:48 > 0:02:51But things did not go quite to plan...
0:02:51 > 0:02:57As he reached the threshold, his courage wavered.
0:02:57 > 0:03:00He tried to overcome his nerves.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04But, eventually, they overcame him.
0:03:05 > 0:03:11And he fled, leaving his one artistic opportunity behind.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17Later in life, that young man confessed
0:03:17 > 0:03:19that things would have been so much easier
0:03:19 > 0:03:21had he had the confidence to make
0:03:21 > 0:03:24that introduction and to become an artist.
0:03:24 > 0:03:28He was right. And it wouldn't only have been easier for him,
0:03:28 > 0:03:32it would have been easier for millions of other people, too.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36Because that young man's name was Adolf Hitler.
0:03:39 > 0:03:42Vienna may not have helped Hitler become an artist,
0:03:42 > 0:03:46but it did introduce him to the resentment and racism
0:03:46 > 0:03:50that would inspire his monstrous ambitions.
0:03:55 > 0:04:01And that's what I find so fascinating about Vienna in 1908.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04In this city, art and politics,
0:04:04 > 0:04:06dreams and nightmares,
0:04:06 > 0:04:09creation and destruction,
0:04:09 > 0:04:11were locked in a fatal embrace.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19Not that anyone would have known it at the time...
0:04:21 > 0:04:23At the beginning of the 20th century,
0:04:23 > 0:04:26Vienna seemed to be a gilded city.
0:04:29 > 0:04:33The grand capital of a 1,000-year-old Hapsburg Empire,
0:04:33 > 0:04:36the largest and most ancient in Europe.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41An empire that many believed would last for ever.
0:04:44 > 0:04:48And in 1908, Vienna was busy celebrating.
0:04:50 > 0:04:54For this was the year of the Emperor's Diamond Jubilee.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00While the rest of Europe had shifted towards democracy,
0:05:00 > 0:05:05the now doddering Franz Josef had ruled his Empire for 60 years.
0:05:09 > 0:05:10To celebrate the Jubilee,
0:05:10 > 0:05:14Vienna's art world staged a vast exhibition
0:05:14 > 0:05:18that summed up the optimistic spirit of the times,
0:05:18 > 0:05:23and its star attraction was a certain Gustav Klimt.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28In 1908, Klimt was 45 years old
0:05:28 > 0:05:31and despite his bohemian reputation,
0:05:31 > 0:05:34he was now a staunch member of the establishment.
0:05:43 > 0:05:47The 1908 Art Exhibition was Klimt's brainchild -
0:05:47 > 0:05:51his way of sucking up to the Emperor yet further.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55And at the show's opening he even overcame his usual shyness
0:05:55 > 0:05:58to give a passionate, inspiring speech
0:05:58 > 0:06:01about the Empire's artistic excellence.
0:06:01 > 0:06:07But he thought nothing was more excellent about it than his own art.
0:06:07 > 0:06:09He had a point.
0:06:09 > 0:06:11For Klimt was about to reveal
0:06:11 > 0:06:15some of the most irresistible paintings of his career.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19Luxuriant portraits of the city's great beauties,
0:06:19 > 0:06:24surrounded by a sparkling constellation of ornament.
0:06:29 > 0:06:36Margarethe Wittgenstein, sister of the philosopher Ludwig.
0:06:36 > 0:06:41Fritza Riedler, the wife of a wealthy engineer.
0:06:44 > 0:06:48And this ravishing portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.
0:06:59 > 0:07:02But the most famous of them all,
0:07:02 > 0:07:05and also the most revealing,
0:07:05 > 0:07:08is surely this one - The Kiss.
0:07:12 > 0:07:16No painting has done more to capture and bottle
0:07:16 > 0:07:20the myth of Vienna's Golden Age than this one.
0:07:22 > 0:07:24And you can see why.
0:07:24 > 0:07:30It's beautiful, it's sexy and it seems to present its entire age
0:07:30 > 0:07:36as an incandescent fantasy of love, of glamour and of romance.
0:07:36 > 0:07:39And that's why it's become one of the most famous
0:07:39 > 0:07:43and one of the most popular paintings in the world.
0:07:44 > 0:07:49But I think everyone's got this painting wrong.
0:07:49 > 0:07:55I think all of us have fallen for its own myth.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00Just look closer. And don't look at him.
0:08:00 > 0:08:02Look at her.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07Her body is tensed uncomfortably,
0:08:07 > 0:08:11one of her hands is trying to pull his away,
0:08:11 > 0:08:13the other is scratching his back.
0:08:13 > 0:08:18Her eyes are closed, her face is turned away from his.
0:08:18 > 0:08:22And he... He is all over her.
0:08:28 > 0:08:30Now, maybe I'm wrong,
0:08:30 > 0:08:32but if that's a kiss,
0:08:32 > 0:08:35it isn't very mutual.
0:08:41 > 0:08:46So what are we to make of this ambiguous embrace?
0:08:46 > 0:08:52I think it reveals what was really going on in Vienna in 1908.
0:08:52 > 0:08:55Because, behind its serene surface,
0:08:55 > 0:08:59violent forces were beginning to gather.
0:09:05 > 0:09:10It was this tension that would give Vienna its singular creative energy,
0:09:10 > 0:09:13and the best place to find that energy
0:09:13 > 0:09:15was in the Viennese coffee house.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21The coffee house has long been a Viennese institution.
0:09:21 > 0:09:23At the turn of the century,
0:09:23 > 0:09:26there were more than 1,000 of them in the city -
0:09:26 > 0:09:29providing all classes with a place to drink,
0:09:29 > 0:09:32think and set the world to rights.
0:09:34 > 0:09:36But they'd never had such an extraordinary
0:09:36 > 0:09:41clientele as they did in 1908.
0:09:45 > 0:09:50If you had come here to the Cafe Central on any single day in 1908,
0:09:50 > 0:09:53you would have seen some remarkable people.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02Leon Trotsky, who was in exile from Russia,
0:10:02 > 0:10:04used to play chess here.
0:10:04 > 0:10:08Apparently, he still owes the place about £3.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13Hitler, who was almost always on his own,
0:10:13 > 0:10:16would pore over the free newspapers,
0:10:16 > 0:10:19obsessed with international politics.
0:10:22 > 0:10:25And back here, with a short black coffee
0:10:25 > 0:10:30and a long brown cigar, sat Vienna's very own Dr Freud,
0:10:30 > 0:10:33watching absolutely everybody.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40The coffee house was also where rebellious thinkers
0:10:40 > 0:10:43came together to argue about art and politics,
0:10:43 > 0:10:48and to question Vienna's old-fashioned ways.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55The vibrant atmosphere of the coffee house
0:10:55 > 0:10:57led to some spectacular fallings out.
0:10:57 > 0:11:01But it also produced a flurry of new, bold
0:11:01 > 0:11:03and radical ideas.
0:11:03 > 0:11:07And these ideas helped turn ancient Imperial Vienna
0:11:07 > 0:11:11into the unlikely centre of a cultural revolution.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18One of the most outspoken of the new young rebels
0:11:18 > 0:11:23was a firebrand architect called Adolf Loos.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26Loos was something of an outsider.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29But he was talented, ambitious
0:11:29 > 0:11:32and burning to make his mark on the city.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37For Loos, Vienna had one pathological problem -
0:11:37 > 0:11:40it was addicted to ornament.
0:11:44 > 0:11:49To him, its grand interiors weren't beautiful, but dishonest -
0:11:49 > 0:11:51covered in fake gold,
0:11:51 > 0:11:53fake damask
0:11:53 > 0:11:57and fake bronze.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02And in 1908, he wrote a manifesto attacking it all
0:12:02 > 0:12:07which he called Ornament And Crime.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12"I have made the following observations
0:12:12 > 0:12:15"and have announced them to the world
0:12:15 > 0:12:18"The evolution of culture is synonymous with
0:12:18 > 0:12:21"the removal of ornament.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24"We have outgrown ornament.
0:12:24 > 0:12:29"We have fought our way through to freedom from ornament.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32"The ornament disease is recognised by the state
0:12:32 > 0:12:34"and subsidised by state funds..."
0:12:34 > 0:12:37'They were bold ideas.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40'And Loos had a bold solution -
0:12:40 > 0:12:44'he would give the Viennese something they'd never seen before.'
0:12:44 > 0:12:47"..by the past."
0:12:50 > 0:12:53A matter of months after writing his manifesto,
0:12:53 > 0:12:57Loos won a commission to design his first building,
0:12:57 > 0:13:00right opposite the Emperor's Palace.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09Today, it is called the Looshaus.
0:13:09 > 0:13:13And it's one of the first truly modern buildings in Europe.
0:13:15 > 0:13:17Now, it may look pretty unremarkable today,
0:13:17 > 0:13:20but Loos's building was a game-changer
0:13:20 > 0:13:22in Viennese architecture.
0:13:22 > 0:13:24And to understand quite how revolutionary it was,
0:13:24 > 0:13:28all you need to do is compare it to this building,
0:13:28 > 0:13:32its neighbour, which was only finished a few years earlier.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35This building is a charming example of traditional
0:13:35 > 0:13:40Viennese architecture, and above all, it's covered with ornament.
0:13:41 > 0:13:44But Loos's building, however,
0:13:44 > 0:13:46is covered in nothing.
0:13:46 > 0:13:48It's completely plain.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52The ornamental facade has been entirely removed.
0:13:58 > 0:14:02The people of Vienna were appalled by Loos's new building.
0:14:06 > 0:14:10The press called it the "dung-crate", the "prison",
0:14:10 > 0:14:13the "matchbox", the "house without eyebrows".
0:14:16 > 0:14:18The city council was so horrified
0:14:18 > 0:14:20that they tried their best to tear it down.
0:14:23 > 0:14:28And the Emperor himself allegedly had his curtains permanently closed
0:14:28 > 0:14:30so he didn't have to see it.
0:14:35 > 0:14:38The hostility brought Loos close to suicide.
0:14:45 > 0:14:48But if only his many critics had stopped
0:14:48 > 0:14:53obsessing about the facade and stepped inside.
0:14:57 > 0:15:02Because the interior of the Looshaus is staggering.
0:15:12 > 0:15:16You know, nothing can prepare you for the experience of this place.
0:15:16 > 0:15:20It's like walking into a huge architectural kaleidoscope
0:15:20 > 0:15:24because the whole thing shimmers and sparkles
0:15:24 > 0:15:25and reflects off itself,
0:15:25 > 0:15:29so you never quite know where it ends,
0:15:29 > 0:15:34but, above all, it is unbelievably, unbelievably beautiful.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37The simple surfaces of the polished mahogany
0:15:37 > 0:15:39and the shining brass
0:15:39 > 0:15:43and the cut-glass mirror are utterly irresistible,
0:15:43 > 0:15:45and they're proof, I think,
0:15:45 > 0:15:50that you don't need ornament to be beautiful, because this...
0:15:50 > 0:15:53This is a new kind of beauty.
0:15:56 > 0:15:58Adolf Loos had produced
0:15:58 > 0:16:02one of the first great buildings of the 20th century.
0:16:07 > 0:16:11But he'd also exposed an important truth about Vienna.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15Trapped between the past and the future,
0:16:15 > 0:16:18the city was increasingly ill-at-ease with itself.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22And so, too, were its inhabitants.
0:16:35 > 0:16:41In 1908, the people of Vienna seemed to be unusually unhappy.
0:16:41 > 0:16:44The city had one of the highest suicide rates in Europe
0:16:44 > 0:16:47and in the coffeehouses and the salons,
0:16:47 > 0:16:52Vienna's intellectuals discussed this widespread malaise.
0:16:53 > 0:16:55But none of then knew what caused it
0:16:55 > 0:16:58and none of them knew what to do about it.
0:17:04 > 0:17:08One Austrian writer captured the mood.
0:17:08 > 0:17:13"Our epoch is shot through with a wild torment
0:17:13 > 0:17:18"and the pain has become no longer bearable.
0:17:18 > 0:17:22"Is this then the great death which has come upon the world?"
0:17:28 > 0:17:33Vienna, in short, was sick, and no-one knew why.
0:17:33 > 0:17:37But one man was determined to find out.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49Sigmund Freud was born into a large Jewish family
0:17:49 > 0:17:51who had moved to Vienna
0:17:51 > 0:17:55to give their children the best possible education.
0:17:57 > 0:17:59He had originally trained as a doctor,
0:17:59 > 0:18:03but gradually, he began to grow interested
0:18:03 > 0:18:05in the inner lives of his patients.
0:18:07 > 0:18:12Later in his life, in his only known voice recording,
0:18:12 > 0:18:14Freud recalled his discovery.
0:18:48 > 0:18:53In 1891, he set up a private clinic in the centre of town
0:18:53 > 0:18:56and the anxious Viennese began to come here,
0:18:56 > 0:18:59first in a trickle, then in droves,
0:18:59 > 0:19:05to see if psychoanalysis could soothe their unquiet minds.
0:19:05 > 0:19:11So, this is Sigmund Freud's waiting room and over the years,
0:19:11 > 0:19:15hundreds of Viennese men and women would have sat patiently
0:19:15 > 0:19:18in this very room, on these very seats,
0:19:18 > 0:19:20waiting for the great Dr Freud
0:19:20 > 0:19:24to cure them of their anxieties, their phobias,
0:19:24 > 0:19:27their obsessions and their panic attacks -
0:19:27 > 0:19:29problems for which neither they,
0:19:29 > 0:19:33nor anyone else for that matter, had any explanation.
0:19:37 > 0:19:40Freud encouraged his patients to talk
0:19:40 > 0:19:43about every detail of their lives.
0:19:43 > 0:19:45Meanwhile, he was developing his theories
0:19:45 > 0:19:49about the hidden desires that underpin human behaviour.
0:19:50 > 0:19:54You know, being here is a really odd experience,
0:19:54 > 0:19:56because all that I can think of
0:19:56 > 0:20:01are the thousands of secrets that were revealed within these walls,
0:20:01 > 0:20:05the fears, the nightmares, the illicit desires,
0:20:05 > 0:20:07the affairs, and in many ways,
0:20:07 > 0:20:12it feels like this is the subconscious of Vienna itself.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17And it was in 1908 that Freud encountered a patient
0:20:17 > 0:20:21that would lead him to his most famous theory.
0:20:30 > 0:20:34In January, a friend of Freud's told him about a peculiar anxiety his son
0:20:34 > 0:20:38had recently, and distressingly, developed.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46The five-year-old boy - known as Little Hans -
0:20:46 > 0:20:49had acquired a violent fear of horses.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54He was scared they'd bite off his finger,
0:20:54 > 0:20:56afraid of the noise they made.
0:20:57 > 0:21:01But he was particularly terrified of white horses
0:21:01 > 0:21:05with black mouths and blinkers.
0:21:06 > 0:21:08With horses everywhere,
0:21:08 > 0:21:13poor Hans became too scared to even leave the house.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18Freud began to study the case for himself.
0:21:20 > 0:21:25He questioned the father, he interrogated the boy,
0:21:25 > 0:21:29and then he started to think,
0:21:29 > 0:21:31"Why is he afraid of horses?"
0:21:31 > 0:21:35"Why horses? Why horses with black mouths?
0:21:35 > 0:21:37"Why horses with blinkers?
0:21:37 > 0:21:41"Why is he afraid of his finger being bitten off?
0:21:41 > 0:21:43"And what about the father?
0:21:43 > 0:21:46"Is the father implicated?"
0:21:46 > 0:21:51And then, at last, the revelation came.
0:21:56 > 0:22:00Freud concluded that the horse was a symbol
0:22:00 > 0:22:02for Little Hans's father,
0:22:02 > 0:22:04and his fear of biting
0:22:04 > 0:22:07was actually a fear of castration.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13Why? Well, Freud believed that Little Hans
0:22:13 > 0:22:17had begun to develop sexual feelings for his mother,
0:22:17 > 0:22:22and his father, now, his rival, was going to punish him for it.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26But Freud didn't think this phenomenon
0:22:26 > 0:22:28was unique to Little Hans.
0:22:28 > 0:22:33He thought it was a common part of every boy's development.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37And he called his theory the "Oedipus Complex".
0:22:42 > 0:22:47How important was Little Hans in the development of Freud's theory?
0:22:47 > 0:22:51His interpretation was to him important
0:22:51 > 0:22:53but also to the whole community
0:22:53 > 0:22:57because he could show how it works.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01In complete, not only theoretically.
0:23:01 > 0:23:05Saying that Little Hans is jealous,
0:23:05 > 0:23:09that his father is with his mother,
0:23:09 > 0:23:14and he projected his fear to horses
0:23:14 > 0:23:17which was connected with his father.
0:23:17 > 0:23:20- And do you think he was right? - Yes, sure.
0:23:20 > 0:23:25He showed that already, children have sexuality.
0:23:25 > 0:23:29That was, it's hard to say - not polite,
0:23:29 > 0:23:31but right.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34- So this was very shocking at the time?- It was shocking.
0:23:34 > 0:23:38Do you think Freud could have come up with his ideas in any other city?
0:23:38 > 0:23:40Some say Freud could only do it in Vienna
0:23:40 > 0:23:43because the Viennese are so neurotic.
0:23:45 > 0:23:48But I also say Freud could do it
0:23:48 > 0:23:53because it was a place for creativity.
0:23:54 > 0:23:58And it was this creative conception of a theory
0:23:58 > 0:24:03needs to have a lot of emotional back-up.
0:24:03 > 0:24:06And this he found in Vienna.
0:24:07 > 0:24:12Freud's legacy is, of course, bigger than the Oedipus Complex.
0:24:12 > 0:24:16He showed that behind all of our public facades
0:24:16 > 0:24:19lies a huge reservoir of hidden,
0:24:19 > 0:24:22but powerful sexual urges.
0:24:22 > 0:24:24And in doing so,
0:24:24 > 0:24:28he transformed our understanding of human nature itself.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33While Freud's theories shocked old Vienna,
0:24:33 > 0:24:36a new generation was ready to embrace them.
0:24:42 > 0:24:44Amongst them were two painters
0:24:44 > 0:24:47and a composer.
0:24:47 > 0:24:52All three would use their art to attack Viennese conventions
0:24:52 > 0:24:56and to test the dangerous limits of psychological expression.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59Their own spectacular Oedipal rebellion
0:24:59 > 0:25:04would make the city the centre of a new, introspective modernism.
0:25:04 > 0:25:06And astonishingly,
0:25:06 > 0:25:10they would all make their dramatic entrance in 1908.
0:25:13 > 0:25:18The first of them was a 22-year-old artist called Oskar Kokoschka.
0:25:21 > 0:25:24Kokoschka was inspired by Freud throughout his long life,
0:25:24 > 0:25:28and he'd certainly have made a revealing case history,
0:25:28 > 0:25:33because his childhood was unusually dark and violent.
0:25:36 > 0:25:41Oskar Kokoschka grew up in poverty and misery.
0:25:41 > 0:25:44His father was bitter, his mother was controlling,
0:25:44 > 0:25:49and the whole family seemed to lurch from one disaster to another.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52Unsurprisingly, Oskar turned out to be a lonely,
0:25:52 > 0:25:54and socially awkward child.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58And he sought escape from his depression here, in his local park.
0:26:07 > 0:26:12In the park, the young Oskar took a fancy to a genteel young girl.
0:26:12 > 0:26:14One day he noticed an ant colony
0:26:14 > 0:26:18near where she played and desperate to impress her,
0:26:18 > 0:26:21he set an explosive charge on top of it.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29But things went terribly wrong.
0:26:29 > 0:26:31The explosion was so powerful
0:26:31 > 0:26:33it catapulted the girl off the swing.
0:26:39 > 0:26:45She survived, but little Kokoschka was thrown out of the park for good.
0:26:45 > 0:26:48This mood of lust, violence,
0:26:48 > 0:26:52guilt and transgression never left Kokoschka.
0:26:52 > 0:26:56It informed everything he ever made as an artist.
0:26:56 > 0:27:00And in 1908, it shocked the whole of Vienna.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15Kokoschka was thrust into the limelight
0:27:15 > 0:27:19when he was asked to exhibit at Gustav Klimt's prestigious art show.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24But one of his works caused an uproar.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32It was a fairy tale that Kokoschka had been asked
0:27:32 > 0:27:35to write and illustrate for some children.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38But it was certainly not suitable for the young.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54This is The Dreaming Boys.
0:27:54 > 0:28:00Kokoschka wrote it, he illustrated it, he printed it
0:28:00 > 0:28:03and he bound it.
0:28:03 > 0:28:06And look who he dedicated it to -
0:28:06 > 0:28:11his hero, Vienna's hero, Gustav Klimt.
0:28:12 > 0:28:16But this so much darker, so much more mysterious
0:28:16 > 0:28:19than Klimt's work...
0:28:19 > 0:28:21It begins charmingly,
0:28:21 > 0:28:24like nearly all fairy tales.
0:28:24 > 0:28:28We have a beautiful young maiden with this long blonde hair.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31She's trapped on a little island
0:28:31 > 0:28:35and she's waiting for this noble white stag to come and rescue her.
0:28:37 > 0:28:40The images that follow capture this fairy-tale world
0:28:40 > 0:28:43of exotic plants and animals,
0:28:43 > 0:28:47and waving seas and epic journeys.
0:28:47 > 0:28:51But the text is much, much darker.
0:28:51 > 0:28:54"Red fishling, fishling red,
0:28:54 > 0:28:58"with a triple-bladed knife, I stab you dead.'
0:29:00 > 0:29:02This is no fairy tale.
0:29:10 > 0:29:14This is the product of a really major artist.
0:29:14 > 0:29:16It's so beautiful, so magnificent to look at.
0:29:16 > 0:29:20The use of colour, the use of line, the way the text
0:29:20 > 0:29:22and the images are organised.
0:29:25 > 0:29:27Yet, underneath it,
0:29:27 > 0:29:31there lies an explosive emotional charge.
0:29:31 > 0:29:33And I think that's the point of it,
0:29:33 > 0:29:36I think Kokoschka wants to show that, beneath us all,
0:29:36 > 0:29:42behind all of our facades, there are uncontrollable, writhing emotions.
0:29:48 > 0:29:52Kokoschka, like Freud, had explored the sexual
0:29:52 > 0:29:55frustrations of the Viennese people.
0:29:55 > 0:29:59But another artist would go even further.
0:30:01 > 0:30:03Egon Schiele.
0:30:04 > 0:30:09A man gripped by a desire to strip the human form naked
0:30:09 > 0:30:12and to capture its most painful secrets.
0:30:14 > 0:30:17Egon Schiele was four years younger than Kokoschka,
0:30:17 > 0:30:21but he had had something of a head start.
0:30:23 > 0:30:24According to his mother,
0:30:24 > 0:30:27he was drawing before he was even two years old.
0:30:33 > 0:30:36And in 1906, at the age of just 16,
0:30:36 > 0:30:38the young prodigy was admitted
0:30:38 > 0:30:42to the prestigious Vienna Academy of Fine Arts,
0:30:42 > 0:30:46where he was the youngest student in his class.
0:30:59 > 0:31:04When it came to life class, Schiele outperformed all of his peers.
0:31:04 > 0:31:08Students here were required to make one drawing a day.
0:31:08 > 0:31:10But while the others struggled to complete that task,
0:31:10 > 0:31:15Schiele produced an exquisite drawing every single hour.
0:31:21 > 0:31:25Schiele grew frustrated with the Academy's conservative approach,
0:31:25 > 0:31:27and so, in 1908,
0:31:27 > 0:31:31in the same year that Kokoschka broke onto the arts scene,
0:31:31 > 0:31:34he decided to mount an exhibition of his own.
0:31:39 > 0:31:43From that point on, Schiele developed
0:31:43 > 0:31:46an expressionistic style that was unlike anyone else's
0:31:46 > 0:31:48and a far-cry from Klimt's Kiss.
0:31:53 > 0:31:58His pictures portray bruised and emaciated people...
0:32:01 > 0:32:03..contorted with pain and desire...
0:32:06 > 0:32:12..where every beautiful line becomes an insidious act of transgression.
0:32:16 > 0:32:21But his greatest works are, in my opinion, his self portraits.
0:32:21 > 0:32:26And none is greater than this one...
0:32:26 > 0:32:30Where does one even begin with an image like this?
0:32:31 > 0:32:36It is a portrait of Egon Schiele when he was 20 years old.
0:32:36 > 0:32:42But it's also a portrait of isolation and despair.
0:32:43 > 0:32:49Schiele is alone, trapped in this white emptiness.
0:32:49 > 0:32:55So, the picture and the frame itself becomes a kind of cell.
0:32:55 > 0:32:59And he has no way of making contact with anyone.
0:32:59 > 0:33:02His feet have been chopped off.
0:33:02 > 0:33:06His hands are missing, his eyes are dead.
0:33:06 > 0:33:10Everything he would normally use to make contact
0:33:10 > 0:33:13with the outside world has been taken away.
0:33:15 > 0:33:18And the figure itself... is haunting.
0:33:20 > 0:33:22It looks like an emaciated corpse.
0:33:22 > 0:33:25The body is so brittle and angular
0:33:25 > 0:33:30it seems like it's on the verge of snapping.
0:33:32 > 0:33:37Schiele was a famously brilliant draughtsman,
0:33:37 > 0:33:41and the line here, the quality of line, is so sharp, so precise.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44It looks like it was drawn with a razor blade.
0:33:45 > 0:33:48And that's a good way to think about this picture.
0:33:48 > 0:33:51It's not just about getting under the skin,
0:33:51 > 0:33:54it's almost as though Schiele has used a knife
0:33:54 > 0:33:56to cut away his own epidermis,
0:33:56 > 0:34:01to cut away his own surface self to reveal what's going on underneath.
0:34:04 > 0:34:09For me, this is a portrait of the true Vienna.
0:34:09 > 0:34:13The Vienna beneath the surface and behind the facade.
0:34:13 > 0:34:17But I think it's more than this.
0:34:17 > 0:34:21It's also a portrait of humanity itself,
0:34:21 > 0:34:24of what it's really like to be human.
0:34:31 > 0:34:35Unsurprisingly, Vienna did not respond well
0:34:35 > 0:34:37to this uncompromising new art.
0:34:37 > 0:34:40Kokoschka was attacked in the press...
0:34:43 > 0:34:46..and Schiele was arrested for making indecent images.
0:34:52 > 0:34:57But, across town, the last of Vienna's young rebels
0:34:57 > 0:35:01was about to transform the city's favourite art form -
0:35:01 > 0:35:03music.
0:35:07 > 0:35:11His name was Arnold Schoenberg.
0:35:11 > 0:35:17Schoenberg was born into a poor Jewish family in 1874.
0:35:17 > 0:35:19When his father died suddenly,
0:35:19 > 0:35:23he had to quit school at the age of 16 and earn his living in a bank.
0:35:23 > 0:35:27He didn't like the work one bit.
0:35:27 > 0:35:29Counting out money.
0:35:29 > 0:35:31Filling out forms.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35Kowtowing to the rich and pompous bourgeoisie of Vienna.
0:35:35 > 0:35:38This was not for Arnold Schoenberg,
0:35:38 > 0:35:42because Arnold Schoenberg wanted to be a composer.
0:35:43 > 0:35:47Like Kokoschka and Schiele and Freud before him,
0:35:47 > 0:35:52Schoenberg wanted to explore the darkest depths of human nature.
0:35:54 > 0:35:57"Art belongs to the unconscious!
0:35:57 > 0:36:00"One must express oneself! Express oneself directly.
0:36:00 > 0:36:03"Not one's taste, or one's upbringing,
0:36:03 > 0:36:06"or one's intelligence, knowledge or skill.
0:36:06 > 0:36:10"But that which is inborn, instinctive."
0:36:10 > 0:36:14Luckily for him, the bank went bust.
0:36:14 > 0:36:16Schoenberg was liberated.
0:36:17 > 0:36:21And 1908 would be the most explosive year of his life.
0:36:25 > 0:36:28Because in that year, Schoenberg's wife, Mathilde,
0:36:28 > 0:36:31would fall in love with this man -
0:36:31 > 0:36:34a young painter called Richard Gerstl.
0:36:38 > 0:36:40The affair nearly destroyed their marriage
0:36:40 > 0:36:43and ended with Gerstl's suicide.
0:36:48 > 0:36:51Yet, it was during this catastrophic period
0:36:51 > 0:36:55that Schoenberg produced a revolutionary piece of music -
0:36:55 > 0:36:58his second string quartet.
0:37:01 > 0:37:05We'll never know if it was the crisis in his marriage
0:37:05 > 0:37:08that led Schoenberg to turn the whole
0:37:08 > 0:37:11of musical history on its head.
0:37:11 > 0:37:14But we do know that on the front page of his score,
0:37:14 > 0:37:19he wrote a dedication of three, short words that read,
0:37:19 > 0:37:21"To my wife".
0:37:26 > 0:37:29Four days before the Christmas of 1908,
0:37:29 > 0:37:35Schoenberg's Second String Quartet premiered in Vienna.
0:37:42 > 0:37:46The piece starts conventionally.
0:37:46 > 0:37:48But it quickly transforms.
0:37:49 > 0:37:52Plunging the listener into an unsettling world.
0:37:56 > 0:37:59And it does so by doing something
0:37:59 > 0:38:02that had never really been done before.
0:38:02 > 0:38:07It changes key, again and again,
0:38:07 > 0:38:11slipping from one mood to another.
0:38:11 > 0:38:13As if the notes themselves,
0:38:13 > 0:38:16like his emotions, are all at sea.
0:38:24 > 0:38:28SHE SINGS HAUNTINGLY
0:39:06 > 0:39:10Now, I'll admit, it doesn't sound like Mozart,
0:39:10 > 0:39:15but it is a haunting piece of music,
0:39:15 > 0:39:18and, my God, does it carry an emotional punch.
0:39:20 > 0:39:27It's almost as if a wave of intense emotion is washing over you.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31SHE SINGS HAUNTINGLY
0:39:44 > 0:39:47It would be fair to say that it didn't go down well.
0:39:47 > 0:39:50At the first performance, in 1908,
0:39:50 > 0:39:55the audience booed, hissed and laughed throughout.
0:39:55 > 0:39:56One newspaper wrote that it,
0:39:56 > 0:39:58"sounded like a convocation of cats"
0:39:58 > 0:40:02and another concluded that Schoenberg must have been tone-deaf
0:40:02 > 0:40:05and needed to be examined by the Department of Health.
0:40:07 > 0:40:11Later in life, Schoenberg still felt the pain
0:40:11 > 0:40:14of being so roundly attacked.
0:40:14 > 0:40:16Personally, I have the feeling,
0:40:16 > 0:40:21I seem to have fallen into an ocean of boiling water
0:40:21 > 0:40:23and, not knowing how to swim,
0:40:23 > 0:40:28I do not know what saved me, why I was not drowned or cooked alive.
0:40:28 > 0:40:30There was nobody to help me.
0:40:33 > 0:40:35Schoenberg's music is challenging
0:40:35 > 0:40:39because it rips up the rules of classical composition,
0:40:39 > 0:40:43replacing familiar harmonies with atonal harmonies.
0:40:43 > 0:40:46- Thanks for having me. - Pleased to meet you.
0:40:46 > 0:40:50'It's an acquired taste, as pianist Susana Zapke explains.'
0:40:50 > 0:40:53- I hoped you enjoy Vienna? - I'm loving it.
0:40:53 > 0:40:56- I think I will play something, yes?- OK.
0:40:56 > 0:40:58These will be a tonal scale, yeah?
0:40:58 > 0:41:02SHE PLAYS HARMONIOUS CHORDS
0:41:02 > 0:41:05And then... SHE PLAYS HARMONIOUS CHORDS
0:41:05 > 0:41:07- These are tonal intervals.- Right.
0:41:07 > 0:41:11And now, I play atonal intervals.
0:41:11 > 0:41:15SHE PLAYS DISCORDANT CHORDS
0:41:19 > 0:41:20You can hear the difference?
0:41:20 > 0:41:23- I can hear the difference. It doesn't sound so good.- No!
0:41:23 > 0:41:27BOTH LAUGH
0:41:27 > 0:41:30- Maybe you have to hear more. - OK, get used to it.
0:41:30 > 0:41:34- More familiarity, and then you will know it.- OK.- That's the way.
0:41:34 > 0:41:40- Do you like the Second String Quartet?- I love it. I love it.
0:41:40 > 0:41:42Why do you love it?
0:41:42 > 0:41:45It's a completely new world
0:41:45 > 0:41:49with metaphorical associations.
0:41:49 > 0:41:52It's so full of emotions
0:41:52 > 0:41:58and of, of very inspiring ideas.
0:41:58 > 0:42:01What do you think makes it such a revolutionary piece of music?
0:42:01 > 0:42:05I think this is the culmination of this
0:42:05 > 0:42:09kind of searching for a new musical language.
0:42:09 > 0:42:16I think he was an amazing artist with incredible,
0:42:16 > 0:42:20strong conviction to change
0:42:20 > 0:42:25the direction of the music, of the classical music.
0:42:25 > 0:42:29He strikes me as being so strong, and he never gave up, did he?
0:42:29 > 0:42:35No, he never gave up, he was absolutely convinced by his music
0:42:35 > 0:42:43and he said, "My music will be understood in 100 years, not now."
0:42:43 > 0:42:50I don't know if we have attained this level, this stage.
0:42:52 > 0:42:56Schoenberg, like Kokoschka, Schiele, and of course, Freud,
0:42:56 > 0:42:59had captured the restless angst-ridden mood
0:42:59 > 0:43:04of the Viennese people. But the city had problems of its own
0:43:04 > 0:43:09and by 1908, it could no longer afford to ignore them.
0:43:22 > 0:43:25One of these problems was prostitution.
0:43:28 > 0:43:32According to the Viennese writer Stefan Zweig,
0:43:32 > 0:43:36prostitution was like "a dark underground vault
0:43:36 > 0:43:38"over which rose the gorgeous structure
0:43:38 > 0:43:41"of middle-class society."
0:43:43 > 0:43:46For behind the facade of traditional family values,
0:43:46 > 0:43:49Vienna's husbands, fathers and sons
0:43:49 > 0:43:52kept more than 50,000 prostitutes
0:43:52 > 0:43:56gainfully employed across the city.
0:43:56 > 0:44:00While the women themselves were unprotected by law,
0:44:00 > 0:44:03vulnerable and voiceless.
0:44:03 > 0:44:08Until one remarkable woman decided to tell their story.
0:44:08 > 0:44:12Her name was Else Jerusalem.
0:44:12 > 0:44:15In 1908, Else Jerusalem started writing
0:44:15 > 0:44:18an audacious book that would capture
0:44:18 > 0:44:22the miserable reality of life for women in Vienna.
0:44:22 > 0:44:26It would perhaps be the first Viennese novel
0:44:26 > 0:44:28in history to be set in a brothel.
0:44:30 > 0:44:32It begins...
0:44:32 > 0:44:35"Just around the corner from the city's glowing heart
0:44:35 > 0:44:38"begins the realm of darkness.
0:44:38 > 0:44:40"The houses shrink in on themselves,
0:44:40 > 0:44:43"doorways disappear in shadow,
0:44:43 > 0:44:48"and a single red lantern encloses its immediate vicinity
0:44:48 > 0:44:50"in a circle of blood."
0:44:52 > 0:44:56The Red House tells the harrowing story of a young woman
0:44:56 > 0:45:00called Katerine who ends up working in a brothel.
0:45:02 > 0:45:07She's used by one man after another until her health gradually declines.
0:45:09 > 0:45:13When she dies, her young daughter, who has grown up in the brothel,
0:45:13 > 0:45:16becomes a prostitute in her place,
0:45:16 > 0:45:19dreaming of escape and a better life.
0:45:23 > 0:45:26The Red House became a huge best-seller.
0:45:26 > 0:45:29In fact, within two years of its publication,
0:45:29 > 0:45:32it went through 22 editions.
0:45:32 > 0:45:34The people of Vienna couldn't stop buying it
0:45:34 > 0:45:37and they couldn't stop talking about it either.
0:45:39 > 0:45:44I asked professor of German literature, Brigitte Spreitzer,
0:45:44 > 0:45:47why so little is known about this extraordinary writer.
0:45:47 > 0:45:52We have no documents and no autobiographical texts,
0:45:52 > 0:45:56but what we know is that she was born in Vienna in 1877,
0:45:56 > 0:46:01in a bourgeois Jewish family, and at the age of 16,
0:46:01 > 0:46:05she wanted to study at the university.
0:46:05 > 0:46:07But the doors of the university in Vienna
0:46:07 > 0:46:10were closed at this time for women.
0:46:10 > 0:46:13So, she did irregular studies.
0:46:13 > 0:46:14So, she forced away into the university?
0:46:14 > 0:46:17Yes, yes. She was a strong woman, I think.
0:46:18 > 0:46:20And, at the age of 22,
0:46:20 > 0:46:24she already wrote short stories.
0:46:24 > 0:46:28I would say she invented the stream of consciousness
0:46:28 > 0:46:30in German literature.
0:46:30 > 0:46:35She was a really remarkable woman, wrongfully forgotten.
0:46:35 > 0:46:37So, what do you think Else Jerusalem
0:46:37 > 0:46:40was trying to tell the people of Vienna
0:46:40 > 0:46:44with this novel? What was her ambition? What was her agenda?
0:46:44 > 0:46:48She wanted to do a sharp critique of hypocrisy in Vienna.
0:46:48 > 0:46:52She wanted to break taboos. It was a city of double standards.
0:46:52 > 0:46:56On the one hand, bourgeois daughters should have been virgins,
0:46:56 > 0:46:59on the other hand, young men should have made...
0:46:59 > 0:47:01should make their experiences.
0:47:01 > 0:47:05So, what would they do other than to go into brothels?
0:47:05 > 0:47:10And on the other hand, she wanted to show
0:47:10 > 0:47:14- that women want to have a sexuality, too...- Yes.
0:47:14 > 0:47:16..without being prostitutes.
0:47:16 > 0:47:21I just think... I just find her tremendously impressive, as a woman.
0:47:21 > 0:47:24Because there was so much against her, and yet,
0:47:24 > 0:47:26she fought through all of the prejudice
0:47:26 > 0:47:29and made a voice for herself and a voice for women.
0:47:29 > 0:47:33I think she was a really outstanding woman.
0:47:34 > 0:47:36She was courageous,
0:47:36 > 0:47:38she didn't care about taboos.
0:47:38 > 0:47:41She made her way through modernity.
0:47:46 > 0:47:49Else Jerusalem is virtually forgotten today.
0:47:49 > 0:47:53But she had exposed one of Vienna's darkest secrets.
0:47:57 > 0:47:59And it was by no means the only one.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10That same year, a photographer called Hermann Drawe
0:48:10 > 0:48:14and an investigative journalist called Emil Klager,
0:48:14 > 0:48:16embarked on a project
0:48:16 > 0:48:20to tell the story of Vienna's other forgotten victims.
0:48:23 > 0:48:27Many of whom had taken refuge in a second Vienna,
0:48:27 > 0:48:30a city BENEATH the city.
0:48:48 > 0:48:52I'm now standing right in the middle of Vienna's sewer system
0:48:52 > 0:48:58and I'll be honest with you, it's dark, it's cold,
0:48:58 > 0:49:02it stinks and there are rats everywhere.
0:49:02 > 0:49:04And to think that back in 1908,
0:49:04 > 0:49:08there were people actually living down here,
0:49:08 > 0:49:10is too appalling for words.
0:49:10 > 0:49:13And for those people, the Vienna that we know,
0:49:13 > 0:49:15the Vienna of coffee houses,
0:49:15 > 0:49:17the Vienna of grand palaces,
0:49:17 > 0:49:20the Vienna of Gustav Klimt must have seemed
0:49:20 > 0:49:22like an altogether different world.
0:49:29 > 0:49:34Klager and Drawe journeyed deep into Vienna's underworld
0:49:34 > 0:49:38to interview and photograph the lost souls who lived there.
0:49:40 > 0:49:43They found people struggling to survive
0:49:43 > 0:49:45in the most desperate of circumstances.
0:50:06 > 0:50:09When they'd finished, they showed these images
0:50:09 > 0:50:13to the public in a series of illustrated lectures.
0:50:17 > 0:50:19Klager and Drawe's lectures
0:50:19 > 0:50:22were a pioneering piece of social investigation,
0:50:22 > 0:50:27and in 1908, they were the hottest ticket up in town.
0:50:27 > 0:50:31Their harrowing images of this world beneath the city
0:50:31 > 0:50:34amazed and appalled the people of Vienna.
0:50:37 > 0:50:39They made it difficult to deny
0:50:39 > 0:50:44that the city was in the midst of a crisis.
0:50:44 > 0:50:48Its population had quadrupled in just four decades
0:50:48 > 0:50:53And the result was poverty, overcrowding and homelessness.
0:50:58 > 0:51:03These ever-growing problems needed scapegoats
0:51:03 > 0:51:06and one man was all too ready to provide them.
0:51:17 > 0:51:21Karl Lueger was the city's mayor, and its most powerful man.
0:51:25 > 0:51:27Lueger was handsome and effective.
0:51:27 > 0:51:30He installed the city's street lights,
0:51:30 > 0:51:33its water supply and its famous electric trams.
0:51:39 > 0:51:41Yet his charming exterior disguised
0:51:41 > 0:51:43the ugliness of his politics.
0:51:44 > 0:51:48Lueger rose to power on a tide of anti-Semitism -
0:51:48 > 0:51:51winning the votes of small shopkeepers
0:51:51 > 0:51:55by convincing them that their business had been stolen
0:51:55 > 0:51:57by wealthy Jewish industrialists.
0:51:59 > 0:52:02Lueger latched onto Vienna's growing resentment of Jews
0:52:02 > 0:52:07and turned anti-Semitism into nothing less than city policy.
0:52:07 > 0:52:10It was under his rule that anti-Semitic children's books
0:52:10 > 0:52:12were introduced into Vienna's schools,
0:52:12 > 0:52:14and Jewish teachers were sacked.
0:52:14 > 0:52:18And he became famous for one chilling phrase -
0:52:18 > 0:52:19"I decide who is a Jew."
0:52:21 > 0:52:24Lueger's racism might have been opportunistic,
0:52:24 > 0:52:28but it had consequences worse than he could ever have imagined.
0:52:28 > 0:52:33Because listening to his speeches and consuming his every word,
0:52:33 > 0:52:36was the young Adolf Hitler.
0:52:38 > 0:52:42After burning his letter of introduction back in February,
0:52:42 > 0:52:44Hitler hadn't quite given up on art.
0:52:49 > 0:52:51He'd applied to the Academy of Fine Arts,
0:52:51 > 0:52:55where he would have been classmates with Egon Schiele.
0:52:55 > 0:52:57But once again, things didn't go to plan.
0:52:59 > 0:53:02I have here a copy of the Academy's admissions papers.
0:53:02 > 0:53:06This has a list of all the applicants and at the top,
0:53:06 > 0:53:10Adolf Hitler was the 24th applicant to be rejected.
0:53:10 > 0:53:12And underneath there's a sentence.
0:53:12 > 0:53:14"Nicht zur probe zugelassen"
0:53:14 > 0:53:18which means he wasn't even allowed to take the test.
0:53:21 > 0:53:24It's not hard to see why Hitler didn't get in.
0:53:24 > 0:53:27When you compare him with his contemporaries,
0:53:27 > 0:53:31his quaint pictures of Vienna's historic landmarks
0:53:31 > 0:53:33seem embarrassingly old-fashioned.
0:53:41 > 0:53:46This is a typical watercolour by Adolf Hitler,
0:53:46 > 0:53:50and I'm slightly pained to admit, it's not actually that bad.
0:53:50 > 0:53:54There's plenty of precise architectural detail,
0:53:54 > 0:53:58there's some evidence of perspective, and actually,
0:53:58 > 0:54:00his handling of the paintbrush is quite confident.
0:54:00 > 0:54:04But you know what I find so interesting about it?
0:54:04 > 0:54:08This building, the National Theatre, didn't even exist.
0:54:08 > 0:54:10It had been demolished 20 years
0:54:10 > 0:54:12before Hitler even arrived in Vienna.
0:54:12 > 0:54:15But that's because Hitler was painting Vienna
0:54:15 > 0:54:17100 years out of date -
0:54:17 > 0:54:21a harmonious, eternal Vienna, the city that would never die.
0:54:27 > 0:54:31Unlike the great artists and thinkers of Vienna in 1908,
0:54:31 > 0:54:34Hitler was terrified by the modern world.
0:54:34 > 0:54:38He wanted to turn back time and recreate a lost Germanic past.
0:54:40 > 0:54:43He rejected art and threw himself into the factional politics
0:54:43 > 0:54:46that were taking over the Empire.
0:54:50 > 0:54:53One of his frequent haunts was the Reichsrat -
0:54:53 > 0:54:55Austria's parliament -
0:54:55 > 0:54:59a rowdy Babel where politicians argued in 11 different languages
0:54:59 > 0:55:02for the interests of dozens of ethnic groups -
0:55:02 > 0:55:06many of whom were straining to be free of Imperial rule.
0:55:10 > 0:55:11And, as it happened,
0:55:11 > 0:55:161908 was the year that the Empire made its most fateful decision.
0:55:21 > 0:55:23On 6th October, 1908,
0:55:23 > 0:55:26the Austro-Hungarian Empire here
0:55:26 > 0:55:32annexed this small part of the Balkans called Bosnia-Herzegovina.
0:55:32 > 0:55:35Now, at the time, the Viennese were delighted,
0:55:35 > 0:55:38without a single shot being fired, the Hapsburg Empire,
0:55:38 > 0:55:43the great Hapsburg Empire, had grown even bigger.
0:55:43 > 0:55:45But, that one small act
0:55:45 > 0:55:48would destroy Vienna.
0:55:48 > 0:55:50It would destroy the Empire.
0:55:50 > 0:55:55And, eventually, it would bring down the whole of Europe with it.
0:55:58 > 0:56:01Austria's occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina
0:56:01 > 0:56:04ignited a crisis in the Balkans,
0:56:04 > 0:56:08a bitter struggle for independence that would lead
0:56:08 > 0:56:12to one of the most notorious assassinations of the century.
0:56:16 > 0:56:18The shooting of Austria's Archduke Ferdinand
0:56:18 > 0:56:21on the 28th June, 1914,
0:56:21 > 0:56:25set in motion a catastrophic chain of events.
0:56:28 > 0:56:31It led every major nation into battle...
0:56:34 > 0:56:38..and it dragged Europe into the most devastating war in its history.
0:56:57 > 0:57:011908 had been an exceptional year for Vienna.
0:57:02 > 0:57:08For it was a crossroads of the past and the future, of old and new.
0:57:08 > 0:57:12And its artists and thinkers had faced that crossroads
0:57:12 > 0:57:18with strength, with bravery and with staggering creativity.
0:57:18 > 0:57:22It was their argument with the past
0:57:22 > 0:57:24that transformed our art,
0:57:24 > 0:57:28our architecture, our music.
0:57:31 > 0:57:36And above all, our understanding of human nature itself.
0:57:46 > 0:57:50One of the more prophetic writers in fin-de-siecle Vienna
0:57:50 > 0:57:56called the city "a laboratory for the end of the world".
0:57:56 > 0:57:59And that's what it turned out to be.
0:57:59 > 0:58:02But it was also a beginning.
0:58:02 > 0:58:04The beginning of a dangerous,
0:58:04 > 0:58:08experimental, exhilarating century.
0:58:11 > 0:58:15And in the next episode, we'll travel forward by 20 years
0:58:15 > 0:58:20to explore another exceptional city in another exceptional year.
0:58:22 > 0:58:25Paris in 1928.