Origin
The "Freihaus" was a large complex of businesses and residences belonging to the Starhemberg family. It was located at the northern edge of the Wiedner suburb, separated from the inner city by the "Glacis", the ring of open land that surrounded inner Vienna for purposes of military defense.
The Freihaus attracted intensive development because by an earlier Imperial decree (1647) it was free from taxation. The complex was called the "Starhembergische Freihaus" ("free-house of the Starhembergs"), from which was derived the name "Freihaus-Theater".
Christian Rossbach, a theater director who had already been successfully mounting productions in Vienna for several years, made an application to build a new theater in the Freihaus. This was approved 16 March 1787, and construction began, following a design by the architect Andreas Zach. The building was completed within six months and was opened for its first performance on 14 October.
Read more about this topic: Theater Auf Der Wieden
Famous quotes containing the word origin:
“Good resolutions are useless attempts to interfere with scientific laws. Their origin is pure vanity. Their result is absolutely nil. They give us, now and then, some of those luxurious sterile emotions that have a certain charm for the weak.... They are simply cheques that men draw on a bank where they have no account.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“The essence of morality is a questioning about morality; and the decisive move of human life is to use ceaselessly all light to look for the origin of the opposition between good and evil.”
—Georges Bataille (1897–1962)
“For, though the origin of most of our words is forgotten, each word was at first a stroke of genius, and obtained currency, because for the moment it symbolized the world to the first speaker and to the hearer. The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)