250 years - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2002 - 87 Euro Cent

In the Wiental at the Katterburg a zoo was built for hunting in 1570. After the Turkish wars the Penzinger Forstmeister Saiz restored the devastated Tiergarten. At the request of the Empress Maria Theresia, the park of Schönbrunn was built in 1750 to designs by the architect Ferdinand v. Hohenberg redesigned. In 1752 her husband, Francis I, set up a menagerie set around a pavilion, which was freely accessible from 1779 onwards. In 1921 the end of Tiergarten seemed to have come. However, the Viennese felt so connected to their animals in this truly bad time that a collection campaign secured the further existence of the zoo. In 1945, all animal houses were rendered unusable by aerial bombs. The reconstruction was slow. Criticism of animal husbandry in cages a few square meters and blatant decline in visitors lead in 1982 almost to Zusperrren. In 1991, the state zoo was successfully transformed into Tiergarten Ges m.b.H. to transform and the vet Dr. Helmut Pechlaner, former head of the Innsbruck Alpine Zoo, as director. Since then he has been able to achieve a hitherto unimaginable period of upswing. Today, almost 3,000 animals are visibly at ease in their constantly improving environment. Growing numbers of visitors, a society of friends of the zoo, hundreds of sponsorships and not least the charisma of the director also make a successful business. See also http://www.zoovienna.at.