Municipal Housing in Vienna. History, facts & figures DID YOU KNOW? A great achievement The Karl-Marx-Hof extends over 1,100 metres along Heiligenstädter Straße, making it the longest contiguous residential building in the world. The complex covers an area of more than 150,000 m2, of which only just under 20 per cent are built up; the remainder is taken up by green spaces, footpaths and children’s playgrounds. A slight difference Anyone who has ever been baffled by the in- scription on the façade of a municipal housing complex on Obkirchergasse in Döbling can put their mind at rest: “Karl-Mark-Hof” is not a spelling mistake. The complex, built in 1924/25, may be in the same district of Vienna as its considerably larger and better-known brother, the Karl-Marx-Hof, but it is named after the Social Democrat politician Karl Mark (1900–91), Member of Parliament and president of the adult education association Wiener Volksbildungswerk. A proud record 1900: Vienna has over 2 million inhabitants, 300,000 of whom have no home of their own. 1934: One in ten Viennese citizens lives in municipal housing. 2016: One in four Viennese citizens lives in municipal housing. Karl-Marx-Hof, 19th district PREFACE Dear reader, giving people access to “light, fresh air and sunshine”, while also providing them with nurseries, schools, just like the giant lending libraries and communal facilities such as Ferris wheel or laundry rooms. St. Stephen’s Between the ground-breaking ceremony for Vienna’s Cathedral, the first municipal housing complex, the Metzleinstaler Karl-Marx-Hof Hof, in 1919 and the ongoing SMART flats programme, has long since together with its commitment to start constructing become a new municipal housing from 2015 onwards, the City of Viennese land- Vienna has built 220,000 municipal dwellings for half a mark. And that million tenants and overseen the building of a further is no coincidence, because not only is it impressive from 200,000 subsidised flats. A successful model that is an architectural point of view; it also symbolises the recognised as such both at home and internationally, long history of social housing in Vienna. For almost the City of Vienna’s municipal housing programme con- a century now, this singular housing policy has been tinues to make a decisive contribution to the excellent helping to shape our city. housing standards and quality of life in our city. The roots of these extraordinarily innovative urban planning activities lie in the interwar “Red Vienna” period, when thousands of municipal dwellings were built. The aim was to provide affordable homes of good quality for broad sectors of the population, but Dr. Michael Häupl Dr. Michael Ludwig in practice much more was achieved. The housing Mayor of Vienna Executive City Councillor for scheme created complexes which met the criteria of Housing and Urban Renewal Municipal Housing in Vienna 3 Karl-Marx-Hof As well as providing 1,382 flats for some 5,000 tenants, the Karl-Marx-Hof in the 19th district, built in 1927–30, also boasted an array of com- munal facilities including nurseries, an advice centre for mothers, a youth centre, a lending library, a dental clinic, a health insurance office with an integrated outpatients’ clinic, a chemist, a post office, doctors’ surgeries, cafés, shops and meeting rooms for political organisations. Although all of the flats had running water from the outset, bathrooms did not yet come as standard in those days, so the complex also incorporated two bath-houses with a total of 20 baths and 30 showers, plus two communal laundries with 62 sink units. 4 Municipal Housing in Vienna HISTORY AIMING HIGH The century of radical change: how Vienna’s municipal housing programme transformed people’s lives. home of one’s own, or at least a poorer sections of which lived in Republic of Austria, the Social Demo- A room … for many Viennese at the appalling conditions: so-called bed cratic Workers’ Party took power at dawn of the 20th century this was a lodgers who couldn’t even afford the Vienna City Hall. Jakob Reumann dream that was never likely to be re- rent for a room but merely had the use became the city’s first Social Demo- alised. The disastrous housing short- of a bed for a few hours a day. Or sub- crat mayor, heralding in the so-called age was to some extent attributable tenants who had a tiny room to call “Red Vienna” period. The housing to the huge influx of people flocking their own – but in an overcrowded situation having been further ex- to the imperial capital from all cor- tenement flat with no running water, acerbated by galloping inflation, a ners of the Habsburg Empire. How- no toilet, no daylight and poor ven- post-War influx of refugees and po- ever, it was also partly due to the fact tilation, where disease was rife and litical instability, the City of Vienna that most housing was owned by pri- spread quickly. responded by launching a large-scale vate landlords who let their property programme of housing construction. with an eye to maximising their own The interwar period: profits. At the outbreak of the First “Red Vienna” The intention behind the building World War in 1914 Vienna already Following the end of the First World of municipal housing was not only had a population of two million, the War and the proclamation of the to provide living space, but also Municipal Housing in Vienna 5 Reumannhof, 5th district Hugo-Breitner-Hof, 14th district to generally furnish people with a and landscaped areas; communal gramme’s success was the housing better basis for a “normal” healthy facilities like bath-houses and tax initiated specifically for this life. The aims were ambitious: the nurseries were provided to make purpose by city treasurer Hugo Breit- dismal, grimy holes in which many everyday life easier and help raise ner, which – together with other resided were to be replaced by living standards. newly introduced levies – allowed bright flats flooded with daylight the ambitious projects to be real- and equipped with a living room, The dream comes true ised. As a result, in the interwar pe- kitchen, hall and even their own Even today it remains a wonder that riod over 61,000 flats were built in toilet and running water; instead they managed to achieve all this, 348 municipal housing complexes of peering into filthy air wells given the dire economic situation and over 5,000 dwellings erected people would look out over gardens at the time. A key factor in the pro- on 42 estates of terraced houses. 6 Municipal Housing in Vienna Per-Albin-Hansson Estate, 10th district Schmelz Estate, 15th district Among them were the City of Vien- (1924–28), the largest of its time ers entrenched themselves inside it na’s first large-scale housing estate with over 1,500 flats; and the Karl- against the attacking forces of the on the area known as the Schmelz Marx-Hof (1927–30), an outstand- Corporative State. (1919–24), comprising 150 houses ing example of the accomplished and allotment gardens where peo- architecture and urban planning Soon after, with the proclamation of ple could grow their own food; the of the period that still enjoys inter- the Ständestaat, housing construc- Metzleinstaler-Hof (1916–25), the national renown today. Like many tion ceased almost completely, which first “proper” municipal housing of the city’s other large municipal not surprisingly continued to be the complex, equipped with a bath- housing complexes it became a bat- case under the subsequent National house, lending library, laundry and tleground in February 1934, when Socialist dictatorship and through- nursery; the Sandleiten complex Social Democrat resistance fight- out the Second World War. Municipal Housing in Vienna 7 HISTORY A new start primarily devoted itself to urban Once the War was over, the recon- renewal and housing refurbish- struction effort began, and in 1947 ment schemes. Then, in the 1990s, the City of Vienna resumed its hous- the demand for housing began to ing programme with the building of rise again, driven by the growth the Per-Albin-Hansson Estate (the in single-person households, a concrete for which was made from new wave of immigration and recycled brick rubble). It was swift- ever-increasing expectations in ly followed by a multitude of small- terms of living standards; in re- er complexes, and subsequently sponse, a new housing offensive in the 1960s by the pre-fabricated was launched. The last municipal high-rise developments typical of housing complex for which Vienna this period like the Großfeld Estate, City Council acted as building the aim being to construct as much contractor, at Rößlergasse no. 15, affordable housing as possible in was completed in 2004. That year, as short a time as possible. 1969 the city’s entire subsidised hous- witnessed the completion of the ing construction programme was 100,000th flat since the end of World outsourced to non-profit housing War Two. associations and cooperatives. Today, one in four Viennese citi- In the 1970s and 1980s, the im- zens lives in one of the city’s 1,800 mediate housing shortage having or more municipal housing com- Hasenleitenhof, 11th district been alleviated, the City of Vienna plexes. 8 Municipal Housing in Vienna Metzleinstaler-Hof The Metzleinstaler-Hof on Margaretengürtel was the city’s first “proper” municipal housing complex. Planned during the First World War, it was completed in several phases ending in 1925. With its bright, comfortable (though by today’s standards tiny) flats it stood for the dawn of a new era and the transition from profiteering private landlords to social housing.