Fiaker#

Fiaker, Viennese term for a two-horse, numbered hackney carriage, as opposed to the earlier, unnumbered carriages called "Janschky-Wagen" and one-horse "Comfortables"); "fiaker" also refers to the carriage driver. The term "fiaker" became a standard name for this type of carriage almost thirty years after the first fiaker was licensed (1693), and was adopted from the type of horse-drawn hackney carriages in Paris run by an innkeeper who lived in the Rue de Saint Fiacre in 1662. Around 1790 there were approximately 700 in Vienna, in their heyday between 1860-1908 there were over 1,000 fiakers. The carriage drivers were often local eccentrics, who sometimes publicly performed as whistlers or untrained singers. The annual Fiaker Ball held on Ash Wednesday also became famous and the chanteuse "Fiakermilli" was immortalised by R. Strauss in his opera "Arabella". In 1997 there were approximately 100 fiakers available for tours around the city for tourists. In 1984 women began driving fiakers as well. Since 1998 a special fiaker driving license has been required. Vienna's 17th district is home to a fiaker museum.

Literature#