Above: Alexander Girardi (1850-1918) as he appeared when he introduced Wiener Fiakerlied at its first public performance.
Source: Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek (Austrian National Library).
Appendix:
The following translation combines Google Translate with a complete ignorance of German plus some speculation as to meaning. Not the best combination perhaps, but it will have to do until something better comes along.
The German verses were seemingly written to reflect the Viennese accent. For example, "fiaker" is consistently spelled "fiaka".
Verse 1:
I drive two black horses. My cab stand is in the Graben, but like those two horses you don't see me there much. I never use a whip, I just click my tongue, tsk tsk. If I did more than that they'd wreck the cab. I can make it from the Lamm to the Lusthaus in twelve minutes. We don't gallop, we don't run, we just go trot, trot, trot. But when we really take off I feel like I've got the right stuff, like I'm a real cab driver. Anyone can be a coachman, but to be a cabbie in Vienna you really have to know how to drive.
The Graben is Vienna's famous Graben Square. According to the Werbeka Netshop web site (6), "Lamm" refers to the Golden Lamb restaurant located at one end ot the Hauptallee, the thoroughfare that runs for 4.4 km (1.75 miles) through the Prater, Vienna's famous amusement park. The Lusthaus (Pleasure House) is at the other end of the Hauptallee. Dating back to the 1780s, the Lusthaus was a favourite meeting place for Viennese upper classes. It was almost totally destroyed by bombing in World War II but was rebuilt in 1949.
If the Werbeka theory is right, the Fiakerlied cabbie would have to travel at 22 km or about 14 miles per hour to make the trip. In the absence of radar guns, nineteenth century traffic cops had to rely on the characteristic gaits that horses adopt at different speeds to estimate how fast a horse was going: 3 to 5 mph for a walk, 7 to 12 mph for a trot, 10 to 17 mph for a canter and 25 to 35 mph for a gallop.
Nineteenth-century guides to Vienna found on the web do not mention a Golden Lamb restaurant, but they do mention a Golden Lamb Hotel. For instance, Baedeker's 1891 guide to Southern Germany and Austria mentions a Continental Hotel (formerly the Goldnes Lamm) located at Praterstrasse 7 (7). Google maps puts the distance from Praterstrasse 7 to the Lufthaus at 8.3 km or a little over 5 miles. This would increase the required speed to about 42 km or 26 miles per hour. Refrain:
I'm proud to be a true child of Vienna, a cabbie the likes of which you don't find every day. My heart is as airy and light as the wind, I'm a true child of Vienna.
Gustav Pick and Wiener Fiakerlied (continued)