DOCSLIB.ORG

Creating the Ideal Citizen Through Politics of Dwelling in Red Vienna and Cold War Berlin

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Creating the Ideal Citizen Through Politics of Dwelling in Red Vienna and Cold War Berlin Politics and Space: Creating the Ideal Citizen through Politics of Dwelling in Red Vienna and Cold War Berlin by Margarete Haderer A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Political Science University of Toronto © Copyright by Margarete Haderer 2014 Politics and Space: Creating the Ideal Citizen through Politics of Dwelling in Red Vienna and Cold War Berlin by Margarete Haderer, Doctor of Philosophy Thesis, 2014, Department of Political Science, University of Toronto. Abstract To wield direct influence on the everyday lives of citizens, new political elites have often professed a profound interest in shaping the politics of dwelling. In the 1920s, Vienna’s Social Democrats built 400 communal housing blocks equipped with public gardens, theaters, libraries, kindergartens, and sports facilities, hoping that these facilities would serve as loci for “growing into socialism”. In the 1950s, housing construction in Berlin became a site of the Cold War. East Berlin’s social realist “workers palaces” on Stalinallee were meant to serve as an ideal flourishing ground for the “new socialist men and women”. In contrast, West Berlin's modernist Hansa-Viertel was designed to showcase an ideal dwelling culture and an urban environment that would cultivate individuality. This dissertation examines three historically situated and ideologically distinct responses to the housing question: social democracy in Red Vienna, state socialism in East Berlin, and liberal capitalism in West Berlin. It illuminates how political promises of a radical new beginning were translated into spatial arrangements—the private scale of the apartment and the urban scale of the city—as well as how citizens appropriated the social, political, and economic norms inherent to the new spaces they inhabited. More specifically, the following analyses demonstrate the fact that inherited social, technological, and economic practices often subvert political visions of a radically different future. This was the case with pedagogy in Red Vienna’s Gemeindebauten, instrumental reason in the form of Taylorism and Fordism in East and West Berlin’s mass housing, and gender relations in Red Vienna’s and East Berlin’s politics of dwelling. At the same time, this dissertation examines counter-spaces that emerged from the dialectics between political promises and actual ii socio-spatial realities, counter-spaces that both reflect critically on past hegemonic “politics of dwelling” and that foreshadow alternative political imaginations that are still relevant today. Of particular interest are counter-hegemonic practices of dwelling that embody possibilities of emancipation—of experiencing oneself as subject instead of object of social transformation, justice—of emphasizing considerations of equality and recognition, and radical democracy—of questioning power relations and of forming alliances among disadvantaged groups to transform everyday life. iii Acknowledgements First and foremost I thank my supervisor Margaret (Peggy) Kohn. I greatly appreciate the time, ideas, and constructive criticisms that she has provided throughout my graduate degree that have made the Ph.D. experience productive and stimulating. I am thankful for the excellent role model she has provided as an open-minded, eloquent, and prolific female professor and political theorist. I also thank my committee members Frank Cunningham, Kanishka Goonewardena, and Jeffrey Kopstein. Frank was always supportive of writing a dissertation that cuts across different disciplines, an undertaking that I found simultaneously exciting and intimidating. I am particularly grateful to Frank for coining the term “low political theorist” in one of our conversations, a term he used to remind me that it is perfectly legitimate to be a theorist who is not only interested in conceptual work but also in everyday practices. By now, I feel at home with this “designation” and I am confident about the meaningfulness of, for instance, analyzing floor plans in conjunction with political theory. Kanishka’s course on urban design introduced me to critical geography. I found the readings and discussions extremely stimulating and they have profoundly shaped my dissertation and thinking. I would also like to thank Jeffrey Kopstein for encouraging me to be particularly attentive to historical and sociological details. His expertise of European politics and German history was a great resource to draw on. Finally, I greatly appreciate the constructive and insightful feedback I got from my external reader Loren King, feedback that will play a crucial role in turning my dissertation into a book. I am particularly grateful to Joseph Carens. Throughout the Ph.D. program, Joe has repeatedly reminded me to keep things in perspective. As his long-term teaching assistant and as my internal reader, I’ve experienced Joe as a thoroughly thought-provoking academic as well as an utterly well- rounded human being—a combination that makes a great professor. I would also like to thank my family away from home, my friends, who have played a crucial role in the years spent in Canada, most importantly: Edda Wilde, Ozgur Gurel, Maya Eichler, Govind Rao, Martina Wadl, Patricia Greve, Kai Krueger, Brenna Enright, Gregg, Dan, and Stacy Lewis, Joerg Wittenbrinck, Carol Futtermann, Janna Luettmann, Jason Moore, Amy Nugent, James McKee, Leah Soroko, and Christiane Martin. To my friends and colleagues, Natasha Barykina, Andrea Cassatella, iv and Adrian Atanasescu I am particularly thankful for numerous stimulating discussions and for sharing the emotional burden and intellectual privilege of being a Ph.D. student. I’d like to acknowledge the great support of my parents who, due to the lottery of birth and historical circumstances, never had the access to the kind of education I have had access to. They have always proven to be convinced and understanding of my undertakings. I appreciate their open- minded support particularly not least because in their everyday life engaging with material things weighs much more than engaging with immaterial things, such as words, arguments, and texts. I am also grateful to my nieces, Lena and Hanna. We read each other countless stories over the phone when we could not sleep, be it due to perceived monsters or argumentative impasses. Last but certainly not least, I would like to thank my husband Philipp, whose moral support, encouragement, and truthful optimism were crucial for bringing this dissertation to a conclusion. And even though to my son, Iliya, this dissertation is irrelevant, as is entirely appropriate for his age, I owe him thanks as well. His natural rootedness in the present has revealed itself as truly refreshing. v Table of Contents 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Space, Ideologies, and Everyday Life ................................................................................... 10 1.2 Lived Experience: Spatialized Rationalities and Counter-Spaces ......................................... 13 1.3 The Urban: A Locus of Mediation ......................................................................................... 16 1.4 Space and Time .................................................................................................................... 17 2 “Little Red Brick, Build the New World”: Public Housing and Socialist Counter-Culture in Red Vienna (1919-1934) .............................................................................................................................. 21 2.1 Writing and Re-Writing Urban Space: From the Ringstrassen Era to Red Vienna ............... 24 2.2 For a “Slow Revolution”: On the Austro-Marxists' Concept of Democratic Socialism and its Influence on Housing Policies .......................................................................................................... 31 2.3 Building for the “New Men” ................................................................................................. 38 2.4 Toward a Socialist Dwelling Culture? ................................................................................... 48 3 Post-WWII Berlin: From Great Berlin to the Divided City ............................................................ 80 3.1 Tabula Rasa for Great-Berlin? Nature and Utopia: 1945 to 1949 ....................................... 87 3.2 East Berlin: Constructing Socialism .................................................................................... 102 3.2.1 From the City Landscape back to the Beautiful German City .................................... 102 3.2.2 Building Socialism and Socialists: In Between Construction and Transgression ........ 108 3.2.3 From the Workers’ Palace back to the Dwelling Machine ......................................... 119 3.2.4 The Allotment Garden as the Platte's Antidote? ....................................................... 130 vi 3.3 West Berlin: Constructing a Liberal Society ....................................................................... 155 3.3.1 The “City of Tomorrow” as the “City of Yesterday”? The Normalization of the Functional, Decentralized City after 1945 .................................................................................. 156 3.3.2 West German Social Housing Policies: Toward a Neo-liberal Governmentality ........ 163 3.3.3 Standardized Dwelling, Normalized Living ................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Empire in the Provinces: the Case of Carinthia
    religions Article The Empire in the Provinces: The Case of Carinthia Helmut Konrad Institut für Geschichte, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, Attemsgasse 8/II, [505] 8010 Graz, Austria; [email protected] Academic Editors: Malachi Hacohen and Peter Iver Kaufman Received: 16 May 2016; Accepted: 1 August 2016; Published: 5 August 2016 Abstract: This article examines the legacy of the Habsburg Monarchy in the First Austrian Republic, both in the capital, Vienna, and in the province of Carinthia. It concludes that Social Democracy, often cited as one of the six ingredients that held the old Empire together, took on distinct forms in the Republic’s different federal states. The scholarly literature on the post-1918 “heritage” of the Monarchy therefore needs to move beyond monolithic generalizations and toward regionally focused comparative studies. Keywords: empire; socialism; Jews; Habsburg Monarchy; Austria; Vienna; Carinthia; German Nationalism; Sprachenkampf 1. Introduction Which forms did the ideas take that allowed the Habsburg monarchy to persist, despite the diversity of nationalisms present in the small Republic of German-Austria, for so long after the end of the First World War? What was the “glue” that held this multiethnic empire together, when its collapse had been predicted since 1848, and which of its elements continued to exist beyond 1918? How was this heritage expressed in the different regions of the new republic? At least six factors can be identified as ingredients of the “glue” that held the monarchy together: first, the Emperor, a figure who symbolized the fusion of the complex linguistic, ethnic and religious components of the Habsburg state; second, the administrative officials, who were loyal to the Emperor and worked in the ubiquitous and even architecturally similar buildings of the Monarchy’s district authorities and train stations; third, the army, whose members promoted the imperial ideals through their long terms of service and acknowledged linguistic diversity.
    [Show full text]
  • Notes of Michael J. Zeps, SJ
    Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette History Faculty Research and Publications History Department 1-1-2011 Documents of Baudirektion Wien 1919-1941: Notes of Michael J. Zeps, S.J. Michael J. Zeps S.J. Marquette University, [email protected] Preface While doing research in Vienna for my dissertation on relations between Church and State in Austria between the wars I became intrigued by the outward appearance of the public housing projects put up by Red Vienna at the same time. They seemed to have a martial cast to them not at all restricted to the famous Karl-Marx-Hof so, against advice that I would find nothing, I decided to see what could be found in the archives of the Stadtbauamt to tie the architecture of the program to the civil war of 1934 when the structures became the principal focus of conflict. I found no direct tie anywhere in the documents but uncovered some circumstantial evidence that might be explored in the future. One reason for publishing these notes is to save researchers from the same dead end I ran into. This is not to say no evidence was ever present because there are many missing documents in the sequence which might turn up in the future—there is more than one complaint to be found about staff members taking documents and not returning them—and the socialists who controlled the records had an interest in denying any connection both before and after the civil war. Certain kinds of records are simply not there including assessments of personnel which are in the files of the Magistratsdirektion not accessible to the public and minutes of most meetings within the various Magistrats Abteilungen connected with the program.
    [Show full text]
  • Spring 04 2-16B.Idd
    CENTER FOR AUSTRIAN STUDIES AUSTRIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER Vol. 16, No. 1 Spring 2004 Barbara Krauss-Christensen retires by Daniel Pinkerton For 26 years—through changes of directors, location, financing, and scholarly mission—the one constant at the Center for Austrian Stud- ies has been Barbara Krauss-Christensen, our executive secretary. On July 1, 2004, she will retire, marking the end of an era, and changing CAS forever. Krauss-Christensen arrived at the Center in the fall of 1978, one year after its founding, an M.A. in German in hand. “Barbara was the rock upon which the Center was founded,” William Wright, the Cen- ter’s founding director, asserted. “She had little to work with in those lean, early days, but she never faltered or fretted. She was always there, ready to see to the welfare and mission of the Center. In later years, after prosperity brought many more people into the office, it would be easy to forget how Barbara had carried the load quite alone for many years.” Over the years, Krauss-Christensen learned more than any direc- tor or visitor possibly could about the ins and outs of university and government paperwork—visas, reimbursement forms, budgeting, and the like. “While directors have come and gone, it has been Barbara who has held the Center together and has maintained an institutional memory better and more reliably than any computer,” according to former CAS interim director Gerhard Weiss. “If it had not been for the reassurance of Barbara’s presence, I never would have accepted the Center’s interim directorship.” “Her fierce loyalty to the Center and its mission, and her willingness to put in long hours were major factors in the Center’s success,” for- mer director David Good maintains.
    [Show full text]
  • Building an Unwanted Nation: the Anglo-American Partnership and Austrian Proponents of a Separate Nationhood, 1918-1934
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Carolina Digital Repository BUILDING AN UNWANTED NATION: THE ANGLO-AMERICAN PARTNERSHIP AND AUSTRIAN PROPONENTS OF A SEPARATE NATIONHOOD, 1918-1934 Kevin Mason A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of PhD in the Department of History. Chapel Hill 2007 Approved by: Advisor: Dr. Christopher Browning Reader: Dr. Konrad Jarausch Reader: Dr. Lloyd Kramer Reader: Dr. Michael Hunt Reader: Dr. Terence McIntosh ©2007 Kevin Mason ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Kevin Mason: Building an Unwanted Nation: The Anglo-American Partnership and Austrian Proponents of a Separate Nationhood, 1918-1934 (Under the direction of Dr. Christopher Browning) This project focuses on American and British economic, diplomatic, and cultural ties with Austria, and particularly with internal proponents of Austrian independence. Primarily through loans to build up the economy and diplomatic pressure, the United States and Great Britain helped to maintain an independent Austrian state and prevent an Anschluss or union with Germany from 1918 to 1934. In addition, this study examines the minority of Austrians who opposed an Anschluss . The three main groups of Austrians that supported independence were the Christian Social Party, monarchists, and some industries and industrialists. These Austrian nationalists cooperated with the Americans and British in sustaining an unwilling Austrian nation. Ultimately, the global depression weakened American and British capacity to practice dollar and pound diplomacy, and the popular appeal of Hitler combined with Nazi Germany’s aggression led to the realization of the Anschluss .
    [Show full text]
  • Associate Professor, Department of History
    Matthew Paul Berg Professor, Department of History John Carroll University 1 John Carroll Boulevard University Heights, Ohio 44118 Office 216.397.4763 Fax: 216.397.4175 E-mail: [email protected] Education Ph.D. University of Chicago 1993 M.A. University of Chicago 1985 B.A. University of California, Los Angeles 1984 Additional Training January 2009. Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies Hess Seminar, “The Holocaust and other Genocides,” USHMM, Washington DC. 2002-2003. Participant, Association of American Colleges & Universities Workshop “The Liberal Education and Global Citizenship: The Arts of Democracy.” June 2002. United Nations International Conflict Research Seminar “Dealing with the Past.” University of Ulster/Magee Campus, Derry, Northern Ireland. January 2002. Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies Hess Seminar “The Concentration Camp System,” USHMM, Washington DC. July 2002. “Summer Academy on the OSCE.” Austrian Study Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution Schlaining, Austria. June 2000. “Foundation Course, International Civilian Peace-Keeping and Peace-Building.” Austrian Study Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Schlaining, Austria. Teaching Experience 2008 – Professor of History, John Carroll University 2000 – 2008 Associate Professor, Department of History, John Carroll University 1994 – 2000 Assistant Professor, Department of History, John Carroll University 1993 – 1994 Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Toledo 1991 – 1993 Lecturer, Social Sciences Collegiate Division and Department of History, University of Chicago Berg, CurriculumVitae, 1 Matthew Paul Berg Courses Taught •First Year Seminar. •Introduction to Human Rights. •World Civilizations to 1600 / World Civilizations since 1600. •20th Century Global History. •World War One and Modernity. •The Cold War. •Justice & Democracy in a Global Context. •History as Art & Science (departmental methods course).
    [Show full text]
  • Dank an - Thanks to Andrea, Liesbeth Waechter-Böhm, Marta Rotter, Bernadette Harrant, Jonny Foot, Sowie an Alle Gastautoren, Mitarbeiter, Fotografen Und Bauherren
    APOP ® Dank an - Thanks to Andrea, Liesbeth Waechter-Böhm, Marta Rotter, Bernadette Harrant, Jonny Foot, sowie an alle Gastautoren, Mitarbeiter, Fotografen und Bauherren ... Autoren Georg Driendl 1956 in Innsbruck geboren, 1983 Diplom an der Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Wien bei Roland Rainer und Timo Pentillä, 1983-1985 konzeptionelle Studien, städtebauliche Analysen und Arbeiten im Experimentalfilmbereich, 1985-1995 Bürogemeinschaft driendl*steixner, seit 1996 driendl*architects: wir entwickeln und erarbeiten prototypische Lösungen für Möbel, Gebäude, Infrastruktur, künstliche Umwelt, Stadt und setzen uns mit Geschichte sowie Theorie von Baukultur auseinander. Lehrtätigkeit: 2004 Gastprofessur an der Chiba University Tokyo, 2003-2004; Gastprofessur an der Universität Innsbruck; 2000, 2001 Gastprofessur an der TU Graz; 1997 Gastprofessur an der TU Cottbus; seit 1997 Kooperation mit – und mehrere Gastprofessuren an der TU Wien Auszeichnungen, Auswahl: 2009 Great Leaf Award Nominierung (GB); 2009 IOC/ IAKS International Architecture Award, Silber; 2009 ISR Architektur Award, Preis für herausragende Architektur am Berg 1. Preis (A); 2009 Green Good Design Award (USA); 2008 Staatspreis für Architektur, Zweifachnominierung (A); 2008 Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award (USA); ; 2008 1. Innovationspreis / Solidbau (A); 2008 1. Österreichischer Stahlbaupreis (A); 2007 Europa Nostra Prize (Diploma) for Cultural Heritage (EU) ; 2007 Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award (USA); ; 2007 Otto Wagner Städtebaupreis, Würdigung
    [Show full text]
  • Roland Rainer. (Un)Disputed a New Look at the Work (1936–1963) Sammlungslab #3
    Roland Rainer. (Un)Disputed A New Look at the Work (1936–1963) SammlungsLab #3 Exhibition: 20.10 – 10.12.2018, Gallery Press conference: Fri 19.10, 11:00 Opening: Fri 19.10, 19:00 At least since the study commissioned by the City of Vienna of person-related street signs, where Roland-Rainer-Platz is categorised as "a case requiring discussion", issues have arisen around the gaps the architect himself left in his biography during the Nazi period. Roland Rainer (1910–2004) numbers among the most notable Austrian architects of the 20th century. His buildings are key to the identity of modern democratic Austria. Rainer's housing estate concept for the "structured and dispersed city" is still considered the most important model of space-saving, low-level housing. During the Nazi period, Rainer acquired his knowledge of fundamental urban research at the Deutsche Akademie für Städtebau, Reichs- und Landesplanung, which served him after 1945 as the basis for a series of theoretical publications. The continuity of the concepts in Rainer's work and his professional career suggest his flexibility in adapting to different political systems. He left only a rudimentary commentary on the Nazi years in his own biographical accounts, and many questions open. The acquisition of Roland Rainer's estate by the Az W in 2015 has provided an opportunity to re-examine his oeuvre and his biography. The focus is on the period from 1936, when Rainer left for Berlin, until 1963, the year he resigned his position with the City of Vienna planning department. In the third edition of the SammlungsLab series of exhibitions, in cooperation with the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, the first findings of extensive research in archives in Austria and abroad are presented and discussed in an accompanying international symposium.
    [Show full text]
  • Karl Polanyi. Life and Works of an Epochal Thinker. (Ebook / PDF)
    BRIGITTE AULENBACHER, MARKUS MARTERBAUER, ANDREAS NOVY, KARI POLANYI LEVITT, ARMIN THURNHER (EDS.) KARL POLANYI The Life and Works of an Epochal Thinker Karl Polanyi BRIGITTE AULENBACHER, MARKUS MARTERBAUER, ANDREAS NOVY, KARI POLANYI LEVITT, ARMIN THURNHER (EDS.) KARL POLANYI The Life and Works of an Epochal Thinker Translated by Jan-Peter Herrmann and Carla Welch FALTERVERLAG The translation has been funded by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung. ISBN 978-3-85439-689-5 © 2020 Falter Verlagsgesellschaft m.b.H. 1011 Wien, Marc-Aurel-Straße 9 T: +43/1/536 60-0, F: +43/1/536 60-935 E: [email protected], [email protected] W: faltershop.at All rights reserved. Editors: Brigitte Aulenbacher, Markus Marterbauer, Andreas Novy, Kari Polanyi Levitt, Armin Thurnher Translator: Jan-Peter Herrmann, Carla Welch Illustrations: P.M. Hoffmann Layout: Marion Großschädl Production: Susanne Schwameis Printed by myMorawa With this book, we care about the packaging dispensed with plastic wrap. Table of ConTenT Brigitte Aulenbacher, Andreas Novy: Acknowledgements 7 Marguerite Mendell: Foreword 9 Armin Thurnher: Foreword of the German edition 12 I. The Renaissance Brigitte Aulenbacher, Veronika Heimerl, Andreas Novy: The Limits of a Market Society 17 Armin Thurnher: ‘Many graze on Polanyi’s pasture’ 24 Michael Burawoy: Fictitious Commodities and the Three Waves of Marketization 33 II. The Personal and the Historical Michael Burawoy: ‘Wherever my father lived he was engaged in whatever was going on’. Shaping The Great Transformation: a conversation with Kari Polanyi Levitt 41 Michael Brie, Claus Thomasberger: Freedom in a Threatened Society 53 Veronika Helfert: Born a Rebel, Always a Rebel 61 Andreas Novy: From Development Economist to Trailblazer of the Polanyi Renaissance 66 Franz Tödtling: From Physical Chemistry to the Philosophy of Knowledge 74 Michael Mesch: Milieus in Karl Polanyi’s Life 82 Gareth Dale: Karl Polanyi in Budapest 94 Robert Kuttner: Karl Polanyi and the Legacy of Red Vienna 98 Sabine Lichtenberger: ‘The Earliest Beginnings of His Later Teaching Life’ 101 III.
    [Show full text]
  • Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbo', Michigan 48106 74-3188
    INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1. The sign or "target" for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a large round black mark, it is an indication that the photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image. You will find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., was part of the material being photographed the photographer followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections with a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again — beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greatest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation.
    [Show full text]
  • 220,000 > 500,000
    STATS Social Housing for Everyone Afer the foundation of the First Austrian Republic (1918) and the creation of Vienna as a separate region (1922), the city’s ruling Social Democrats set Europe’s most ambitious program for social housing into motion. FACTS - NEARLY 65,000 new, modern and affordable GEMEINDEBAU flats were built by the city 2 government from 61 m average size of a flat 1919 to 1934, 1 METZLEINSTALER HOF 2 RABENHOF before Austro-fascists and (built 1920 & 1923/24) (built 1925-28) Nazis stopped the program. ROBERT KALESA & HUBERT GESSNER HEINRICH SCHMID & HERMANN AICHINGER 2,000 Mayor Jakob Reumann Mayor Karl Seitz The building resumed afer Vienna’s first-ever Gemeindebau was The site was intended to exude the “romantic the war, making the city of building complexes built in two stages and designed separately charms of a little town.” It also hosts the Vienna the biggest by two architects. Rabenhof theater. landlord in Europe. 220,000 flats (living units) > 500,000 residents (more than 1/4 of Vienna’s population) 3 KARL-MARX-HOF 4 PER-ALBIN-HANSSON- 5 NEW GEMEINDEBAU – (built 1927-33) SIEDLUNG FONTANASTRASSE KARL EHN (built 1947–1951 & 1954-1955) (to be completed 2017-2019) Mayor Karl Seitz FRIEDRICH PANGRATZ, FRANZ SCHUSTER, STEPHAN NMPB ARCHITEKTEN ZT GMBH WIEN 2 One of Vienna's biggest Gemeindebaus SIMONY & EUGEN WÖRLE Mayors Michael Häupl & Michael Ludwig > 13 MILLION m (150,000 m2, 1,382 flats, 5,000 residents) Mayors Theodor Körner & Franz Jonas After a 13-year hiatus, Red Vienna is once of total area rented out was the scene of fights in Austria’s The first new Gemeindebau after World War II again building new Gemeindebauten, starting civil war in 1934.
    [Show full text]
  • Socialist Culture and Architecture in Twentieth-Century Vienna
    Socialist Culture and Architecture in Twentieth- Century Vienna Manfred Blümel University of Vienna and Center for Austrian Studies December 1994; Working Paper 94-3 © 2002 by the Center for Austrian Studies. Permission to reproduce must generally be obtained from the Center for Austrian Studies. Copying is permitted in accordance with the fair use guidelines of the US Copyright Act of 1976. The the Center for Austrian Studies permits the following additional educational uses without permission or payment of fees: academic libraries may place copies of the Center's Working Papers on reserve (in multiple photocopied or electronically retrievable form) for students enrolled in specific courses: teachers may reproduce or have reproduced multiple copies (in photocopied or electronic form) for students in their courses. Those wishing to reproduce Center for Austrian Studies Working Papers for any other purpose (general distribution, advertising or promotion, creating new collective works, resale, etc.) must obtain permission from the Center. NOTE: The graphics files for the figures mentioned in the text no longer exist; the xeroxed images in the paper are not of sufficient quality for scanning. Anyone wishing to see the visual examples should order a copy of the printed paper from the Center for Austrian Studies. The cost is $3.00 (US). In the beginning was the eye, not the word. --Erwin Panowsky The city of Vienna is one of the largest residential property owners in the world and constructs between 4,000 and 7,000 apartments every year. It established its construction program in response to four major housing shortages in Vienna's history: 1) In the second half of the nineteenth century, increasing industrialization caused a dramatic situation on the housing market, resulting in a wave of private housing construction for profit.
    [Show full text]
  • The Enduring Lessons of Red Vienna
    The Enduring Lessons of Red Vienna For almost two decades at the start of the twentieth century, Austria's Social Democrats pursued a radical agenda of social progress in the country's capital – even as dark clouds gathered around them. On 15 March 1933, the Austrian chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss ordered the police to dissolve a session of the Austrian Parliament, threatening armed force against any resistance. This act of police intervention was triggered by the resignations of all three of the National Council’s presidents eleven days earlier. Reflecting on those dark hours, the Social Democratic leader and theoretician Otto Bauer wrote that Vienna’s City Hall—‘the Austrian Social Democrats’ proudest fortress’—had fallen: it is occupied by the military; right there, in the city centre, where no workers live and none could resist. Only Mayor Karl Seitz put up a fight, telling the police sent in by the fascists: ‘I will not leave my office! Two thirds of the people of Vienna have sent me here and no one has the right to remove me. I will not comply with this violation of the constitution.’ The police then violently seized him and, seeing as he would not submit, hauled this 66-year-old, sickly man—who had once served the National Council as its first president—off to prison. The violent events of 15 March precipitated the rise of Austria’s one-party, clerical fascist state, known as the Ständestaat. Using what he called the ‘self-elimination of parliament’ as a pretext for authoritarian rule, Dolfuss caused a rupture in the Austrian state which culminated in a brief but violent civil war between fascist and socialist forces in February 1934.
    [Show full text]