© Dagmar Fischer
Institutes field trip 2015
The first item on the agenda of this year's institute excursion on May 27, 2015 was the visit to the company Bombardier Transportation Austria GmbH at Hermann-Gebauer-Strasse 5 in Vienna's 22nd district.
© Lohner company
Old stationery with the logo of Jacob Lohner & Comp. before 1918, below the logo of the Lohner company from 1918
First we were given a brief overview of the history of the industrial family business LOHNER (founded in 1823), which developed from the Biedermeier waggon workshop to a large industrial company that manufactured cars, electric vehicles, airplanes, bodies, trams, motor scooters, mopeds and much more. built and was ultimately transferred to Bombardier Transportation Austria GmbH (today Alstom Transport Austria GmbH).
Photo of the "Lohner Porsche"
LOHNER Porsche with wheel hub electric motors in the front wheels, 1900, Vienna Technical Museum.
© Dagmar Fischer
Tram in production
Today, the trams and metro trains for the whole world are built at Bombardier Transportation, such as the trams of the Flemish public transport company De Lijn.
© Dagmar Fischer
Excursion participants in the Bombardier production hall
After the Bombardier Transportation company tour, a bus took us to Kreuzenstein Castle - one of the most beautiful historical sights in Lower Austria.
© Dagmar Fischer
Photo of the standing up picnic
Due to the weather, the planned picnic turned into a “luggage space feeding”; we thank Johannes, Helmut and Roman for organizing the lunch.
© Dagmar Fischer
Photo in the courtyard of Kreuzenstein
The tour of Kreuzenstein Castle began in the castle kitchen. Numerous kitchen utensils from the Middle Ages such as waffle irons with artistic decorations, or a "wind roaster" and the famous pasta printer, a spaghetti machine from the 16th century are just a few of the many kitchen appliances.
© Dagmar Fischer
Photo in the armory of Kreuzenstein Castle
Then we went through the armory, one of the largest private collections of historical weapons in Austria, stuffed with extraordinary exhibits and valuable individual pieces from times of war. Superbly equipped and divided into an anteroom and cannon room, the armory contains the equipment volume of a troop of almost 100 strong, as they were used to defend a castle of this size.
© Dagmar Fischer
Photo in the Knights' Hall of Kreuzenstein Castle
Through the knight's hall with the famous "Brixener closet", which dates from around 1500, we came to the prince's room with its original medieval furniture - the bedchamber of the lord of the castle. The dimensions of the approximately 500-year-old bed, which comes from southern Germany and is remarkably short in relation to its width, are unusual: on the one hand, because the average height of knights was also considerably smaller at the time, and on the other hand, because noblemen predominated in the Middle Ages slept sitting up.
The conclusion of the tour of Kreuzenstein Castle was the hunting chamber, which reflects the great passion for hunting of the castle's rebuilder, Count Johann Nepomuk Wilczek. The walls of the hunting chamber are richly decorated with weapons, powder horns, game scales and hunting knives, a special eye-catcher is the alleged horn of a legendary unicorn - actually a hunting souvenir from Count Johann Nepomuk Wilczek's polar expedition.
© Dagmar Fischer
Group photo in front of the Kreuzenstein castle
After the tour of the castle, we were treated to a fascinating flight show of free-flying birds of prey at the Kreuzenstein eagle station. The stars of this flight day were undoubtedly the griffon vulture "Schurli"
© Dagmar Fischer
Photo of a flying griffon vulture
and the "handsome Harry"
© Dagmar Fischer
Photo of a flying owl
© Ernst Kozeschnik
Photo at the Heurigen
The last item on the program and the real highlight of this institute excursion was a social get-together in the “Zur Christl” wine tavern in Stammersdorfer Kellergasse. After 11:00 p.m., the closest group around our dear head of the institute went down through the vineyards to the last 26er tram.
© Dagmar Fischer
Photo at the Heurigen