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Rudolf Franz Erzherzog von Österreich

1822–1822

Born
25 Sep 1822, Vienna
Country of birth
Austrian Empire, today Austria
Died
11 Oct 1822
facts
8
sources
1
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

A life in time

  1. Born · Vienna

    Birth, Vienna

  2. Died

    Death

What was it like?

The world around Vienna, 1822: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Rudolf was born the same year as César Franck, Adelaide Ristori, and Louis Pasteur.

Known for

In their life

  • infant death
Born the same year

  • César Franck

    Belgian-French composer and organist (1822–1890)

  • Adelaide Ristori

    Italian actress (1822–1906)

  • Louis Pasteur

    French chemist and microbiologist (1822-1895)

  • Ulysses S. Grant

    president of the United States from 1869 to 1877

  • Rutherford B. Hayes

    president of the United States from 1877 to 1881 (1822-1893)

  • Gregor Mendel

    Moravian scientist and Augustinian friar (1822–1884)

Fashion

Custom sunshade headscarves

To protect against the sun, women sometimes inserted a strip of paper or cardboard into their headscarves to make the front edge extend further forward.

Handkerchiefs as multipurpose purses

Handkerchiefs served multiple roles: they were used for wiping sweat or the nose, and also functioned as purses to carry essentials like money or tobacco.

Music

Popular folk instruments of the era

Common village instruments included the fiddle and the hammered dulcimer, while the shepherd's pipe and jew's harp were popular for casual entertainment.

The eight-minute court waltz mandate

By imperial order, a waltz played at a court ball was required to last exactly eight minutes.

Getting around

Slow post coach travel between towns

Travel by post coach was slow, with a journey from Linz to Steyr taking ten hours in 1829 for a distance of about 90 kilometers. Passengers paid one gulden and twelve kreuzers for the trip.

Around 1830–1830

Steamship speed on the Danube

Steamboats revolutionized river travel, with the Vienna to Budapest route covered in just over 14 hours by 1830, compared to much longer times for traditional boats.

Daily life

Lack of light and running water

In rural homes, light was provided only by tallow lamps or pine splinters because there were no candles or petroleum lamps. Households lacked running water, requiring residents to wash themselves at a cold well located outside the house.

Mandatory schooling and seasonal attendance

Compulsory schooling for children aged 6 to 12 focused on religious instruction, often with schools in rural areas only operating for half the year because children were needed for pastoral labor. Classrooms were frequently overcrowded, leading some schools to split students into morning and afternoon groups to manage attendance.

Food

Price of Beef in Vienna

In Vienna, beef cost 7 Kreuzer per pound during this period, though prices fluctuated depending on the harvest and other circumstances.

Cheap Barley Coffee Substitute

Poor city dwellers bought a cheap, coffee-like breakfast drink made from roasted barley and syrup for 1 Kreuzer at wooden stalls.

Prices and wages
Around 1825–1825

Salaries in 1825

In 1825, a clerk with neat handwriting earned 200 gulden annually, while teachers at a secondary school in Graz received between 450 and 800 gulden.

Extreme food price volatility

Food prices in the Austrian Empire were highly volatile during this period, particularly around 1811 when a bushel of wheat cost 60 florins, compared to just 4 florins in 1812 and 1824. Such sharp fluctuations made it difficult for ordinary people to maintain a stable supply of basic grains like wheat and corn.

Work

Artisans Working on Site (Stör)

Tailors practiced a system called Stör, where they traveled to farmhouses to craft clothing for the entire family over several days or weeks, receiving board as part of their compensation. This practice allowed small-scale artisans to work locally while avoiding the need for their own large workshop facilities.

Long Daily Working Hours

For the working population, a typical day began early and lasted until sunset or later, often spanning 13 to 14 hours or more. The work was continuous, as domestic chores like child-rearing and food production were added to field or workshop labor.

Family

Parents

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.