Named after the Vienna trade fair (Messe) and the Prater beside it.
The first Wiener Messe opened on 11 September 1921; its grounds lie on Ausstellungsstraße, right next to the Prater, once an imperial hunting ground. The Prater is recorded as ‘Pratter’ in 1403. A grant of land called ‘Pratum’ (Latin for meadow) in 1162 is often cited as its first mention, but that land lay further down the Danube, near Mannswörth, so it probably does not refer to the Prater.