The human body has always been a central feature at the Prater, often figured in highly problematic sets: idealized vs. real, normal vs. abnormal, alien vs. native, powerful vs. weak.
Anatomical cabinets displayed the human body’s insides, their wax specimens making spectacles of sickness or deformation. Sideshows presented people with disabilities as attractions. Entrepreneurs brought entire villages from Africa and Asia, exhibiting people as living specimens and fanning racist and sexist ideas in the process. The dramas of modern sports – boxing, wrestling, tennis, soccer – also had their Viennese beginnings at the Prater.
To this day, many Prater attractions rely on extremes of bodily experience: dizziness, shock, and panic. It is a rare place of thrill seeking within the confines of modern city life.