Skip to content
VitrineRoyal Houses of Europe
Sign in

Princess Julia of Montenuovo

1880–1961

Born
15 Nov 1880, Margarethen am Moos
Country of birth
Austria
Died
27 Jun 1961, Castle Berg
facts
5
sources
1
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

  • Birth15 Nov 1880, Margarethen am MoosProbable1 source
  • Death27 Jun 1961, Castle BergProbable1 source

A life in time

  1. Born · Margarethen am Moos

    Birth, Margarethen am Moos

  2. Child born: Duchess Maria, Duchess of Bavaria

    Birth, Vienna

  3. Died · Castle Berg

    Death, Castle Berg

What was it like?

The world around Margarethen am Moos, 1880: 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.

Princess was born the same year as Guillaume Apollinaire, Michel Fokine, and Ildebrando Pizzetti.

Born the same year

  • Guillaume Apollinaire

    French poet (1880–1918)

  • Michel Fokine

    Russian ballet dancer and choreographer (1880–1942)

  • Ildebrando Pizzetti

    Italian composer (1880-1968)

  • Hermann Friese

    German-Brazilian athlete (1882-1945)

  • Helen Keller

    American deafblind author, political activist, lecturer, scholar (1880-1968)

  • Douglas MacArthur

    United States Army general in WWI, WWII and Korea (1880–1964)

Fashion

Peasant men's holiday shirt-sleeves

On feast days, peasant men often ate in their white shirt-sleeves, as these were considered an essential part of their holiday attire indoors.

Prankish feast day dessert centerpieces

At peasant feast day dinners, a dessert centerpiece was garnished with bows of bright ribbons, flowers, and deliberately hidden thorns and stinging nettles.

Music

Landler dance in the Wechsel region

The Landler was the dominant dance in the Wechsel region, often accompanied by instruments ranging from violins and clarinets to wind instruments and the Styrian diatonic harmonika. Thousands of Landler melodies were played at celebrations like harvest festivals or in local inns.

Rural music instruments in Voralpen

In rural areas near the Semmering and Wechsel regions, music was often performed using the zither and the hammered dulcimer (Hackbrett). This contrasted with urban areas where violin and harp combinations were more common in taverns.

Getting around

Faster rail connections to Budapest

By 1900, the travel time for a direct train between Vienna and Budapest had been reduced to four and a half hours, down from the approximately six hours required when the line first opened.

Strict police control of early train travel

Initially, passengers traveling by train in Austria had to obtain a police permit the day before their journey, have it stamped at their destination, and return it upon arrival.

Daily life

Shared water taps in Vienna apartment buildings

In urban Vienna, many apartments lacked private water or toilets, requiring residents to fetch water from a shared tap in the corridor called a bassena.

Strict regulations for Austrian schools

Austrian school laws were highly detailed, regulating everything from the size of school desks and classrooms to the pupils' specific attire on examination days.

Food

Affordable ice cream for the masses

In the 1860s, street confectioners began offering portions of ice cream on the Vienna Glacis for an "old Zehnerl," served with an edible cup and spoon made of hard dough.

Beer as food and drink

In Vienna, beer was considered both a food and a drink, and it was so essential that it even appeared on the imperial dinner table.

Prices and wages
Around 1870–1879

Weekly wages in a 1870s factory

In the 1870s, unskilled laborers in a Viennese factory typically earned 5 to 6 florins (fl) per week. Skilled workers, such as toolmakers, could earn significantly more, with some skilled roles paying up to 18 florins weekly.

Around 1873–1873

High prices at the 1873 World's Fair

During the 1873 Vienna World's Fair, visitors faced high prices, such as 10 kreuzer for a buttered bread roll with ham and 10 kreuzer for a glass of beer.

Work

Common jobs and domestic service life

Common jobs included factory work, small-scale trade, and domestic service, with over 91,000 domestic servants in Vienna by 1890 alone. Female domestic servants often started as young as eight to fourteen years old and were frequently required to be on call 24 hours a day.

Harsh working conditions and daily schedules

Working days of 12 to 16 hours were standard, and many workers in brick factories were paid in tokens instead of cash, forcing them to buy supplies at overpriced company canteens. Workers often lived in miserable conditions, sometimes sleeping 50 people to a room on straw mattresses while paying rent for the privilege.

News and letters

Pneumatic Mail and City Delivery Delays

In Vienna, a pneumatic mail system allowed letters to be delivered quickly, with some reaching their destination in just ninety minutes. Conversely, standard city mail faced delays, often taking hours to reach suburban locations.

The Correspondenz-Karte: A Quick Communication Tool

Introduced in 1869, the Correspondenz-Karte allowed people to send short messages across the empire for only 2 Kreuzer. Despite its convenience, city delivery was sometimes slow, with cards mailed in the morning occasionally taking until the next day to reach recipients just a half-hour away.

During their lifetime

  1. 1883

    First national health insurance introduced

    Germany became the first country to introduce a national social insurance system with the approval of a worker's health insurance plan.

  2. 1884

    Electric street lighting installed in 1884

    In 1884, the first permanent electric street lighting system in the empire was installed in Temesvár.

  3. 1892

    Gold crown currency introduced in 1892

    In 1892, the gold crown currency was introduced, replacing the old florin system.

  4. 1910

    Life expectancy rose to 47 years by 1910

    By 1910, advancements in medicine, hygiene, and infrastructure, such as improved water and sewage systems, increased the average life expectancy to 47 years, compared to 37 years in 1871.

  5. 1914

    Wartime inflation begins, 1914

    Just after war broke out in 1914, the government began using the printing press to fund military costs, causing the money supply to expand by 977 percent by 1918.

  6. 1914

    Ten percent of households accessed electricity by 1914

    By 1914, approximately ten percent of German households had access to electricity, transforming daily life through new lighting and urban infrastructure.

Family

Spouses

Children

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.