Österreich - Die ganze Geschichte S02E16 - Drama im Prater

Whether in food, personal care, or medicine, our modern lives are built on hygiene—a concept that, historically, is relatively new. Well into the second half of the 19th century, household wells in tenement buildings were often located dangerously close to cesspits, creating breeding grounds for deadly infections. This was starkly evident during the 1873 World Exhibition at the Donau Hotel near the Prater, where cholera epidemics claimed tens of thousands of lives. Salvation came with the Vienna Mountain Spring Pipeline, which brought clean alpine water to the city, finally freeing it from this scourge.

Hospitals of the time were no better. Handwashing was dismissed as eccentric, and gynecologists unwittingly transferred cadaveric toxins from autopsies to the blood of laboring mothers, many of whom succumbed to puerperal fever.

This episode follows two pioneers of Austrian hygiene—epidemiologist Anton Drasche and surgeon Ignaz Semmelweis—in their tireless fight for cleanliness and the lifesaving changes it brought to society.