Seducing men was her profession. Stephanie Dorninger was a very pretty whore who knew her trade. She was considered to be the prettiest spy at the time of Emperor Franz I. People’s true feelings were always revealed in their most intimate moments. The decision-makers in the emperor’s secret police knew this too and recruited more and more courtesans. For the ladies of the horizontal trade, the “appointment to the civil service” was a lucrative sideline, as the aim was to track down the emperor’s critics and enemies, especially among the male population.
Sensuality with a political mission
The Emperor’s “agents” were assigned to establishments such as the “Mehllucken “, a dance hall and entertainment venue. One evening, a portly man, who was a banker, wooed the beautiful Viennese woman. She thought about it, she needed a success with her superior, the head of the imperial police. She spent the whole evening telling the man how bad the emperor was. He parroted everything. He shouted “Revolution“ in the middle of the restaurant, “Long live Napoleon Bonaparte!“. Plainclothes policemen, disguised as guests, noted the behavior and told Stephanie: “Take him to the city wall in a hackney carriage and play a love adventure for him.” Stephanie Dorninger didn’t have to do much more with the drunk man. The public servants took the poor man into custody.
The beautiful spy appeared at a party before His Majesty Emperor Franz I. “I have a special assignment for you. She is to go to the theater with the painter Anton Möllhammer !” He regularly insulted the imperial family. However, Stephanie fell in love with the painter. Vienna’s high society met in Rosenberg’s halls in what is now Piaristengasse. A young man stopped in front of her, it was Anton Möllhammer… “Steffi is that you?” The woman looked at her counterpart wordlessly for a few seconds. ” No, I’m not Steffi, I’m her twin sister. Steffi became a decent girl and went into a convent because she couldn’t get you to marry her ” she lied to him. Möllhammer couldn’t believe what he was hearing and withdrew.
Time Travel Tip: The low house entrances in Naglergasse, often below street level, bear witness to wine cellars until the beginning of the 20th century. The ladies of the night also held a rendezvous here until the 1960s.
Find out more about sensuality in our blog post: Erotic Vienna
Editor: Michael Ellenbogen
Sources: Czeike, Felix: Der Graben, (Wiener Geschichtsbücher, Band 10), 137 pages, Vienna, Zsolnay 1972, ISBN:978-3552024014; Welfenburg, Hubert: Die frivolsten Geschichten aus dem alten Wien, 305 pages, Vienna, Elektra, 1980, ISBN:978-3272070162;Czeike, Felix: Unbekanntes Wien 1870-1920, 22 pages, 44 sheets of illustrations, Lucerne, 1998, ISBN:978-3765812170)
