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In the 1920s, the Social Democrats’ municipal government of “Red Vienna” realized a tremendous amount of building projects comprising more than 65,000 tenements and housing complexes. Yet what was even more remarkable than the quantity was the quality of this new social housing, which not only made homes affordable, but also offered a comprehensive infrastructure meeting peoples’ everyday needs, including such community facilities and places of solidarizing communication as kindergartens, libraries, and theaters.
The graduates from Otto Wagner’s School of Architecture at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts played a significant role in the implementation of the City Government’s public housing program. They were entrusted with the planning of the largest and most prestigious municipal tenement projects, and their architectural solutions still inform our idea of Vienna social housing in the 1920s.
WAGNER’S STUDENTS IN RED VIENNA AND THEIR BUILDINGS
Hermann Aichinger (Fuchsenfeldhof, 12th district, Matteotti-Hof, 5th district, Rabenhof, 3rd district, etc.);
Leopold Bauer (Vogelweidhof, 15th district);
Alfred Chalusch (Gall-Hof, 9th district, and collaboration on the Goethe-Hof, 22nd district);
Camillo Fritz Discher (Pernerstorfer-Hof, 10th district, and Am Wienerberg housing scheme, 12th district, with Gütl, Frass, Dorfmeister, and Perco);
Karl Franz Dorfmeister (Professor-Jodl-Hof, 19th district, with Frass);
Karl Ehn (Bebel-Hof, 12th district, and Karl-Marx-Hof, 19th district);
Rudolf Frass (Am Wienerberg housing scheme, 12th district); Rudolf Goebel (Rebec-Hof, 19th district);
Paul Gütl (Pernerstorfer-Hof, 10th district, and Anton-Kohl-Hof, 3rd district, with Discher);
Alfons Hetmanek (Friedrich-Engels-Hof, 11th district, with Kaym and Gorge);
Emil Hoppe (collaboration on the Sandleitenhof, 16th district, and Strindberg-Hof, 11th district);
Franz Kaym (Friedrich-Engels-Hof, 11th district, with Hetmanek);
Ernst Lichtblau (in charge of the BEST interior decoration information center at the Karl-Marx-Hof; semi-detached house, Werkbundsiedlung, 13th district);
Engelbert Mang (Viktor-Adler-Hof, 10th district, and Widholz-Hof, 11th district);
Franz Matuschek (collaboration on the Sandleitenhof, 16th district);
Konstantin Peller (Rosa-Toepler-Hof, 18th district, and various municipal tenement houses);
Rudolf Perco (Professor-Jodl-Hof, 19th district, and collaboration on the Am Wienerberg housing complex, 12th district);
Rudolf Perthen (Marianne-Hainisch-Hof, 3rd district);
Heinrich Schmid (Speisinger Hof, 13th district, Reismann-Hof, 12th district, and Fuchsenfeldhof, 12th district);
Otto Schönthal (collaboration on the Sandleitenhof, 13th district, and Reismann-Hof, 12th district);
Heinrich Schopper (Gall-Hof, 9th district, and Hueber-Hof, 10th district).
HUBERT GESSNER: THE RIGHT TO BEAUTY
The work of Hubert GESSNER, to whom a separate section will be devoted in the exhibition, deserves special mention. He achieved a breakthrough with his design for the
Favoriten Workers’ Hostel (1901), thus laying the foundation for a year-long collaboration with the Social Democratic Party and a personal friendship with Viktor Adler.
He eventually became the most important architect of the Social Democrats in Austria, realizing the building of the Vorwärts [Ahead] publishing house (1909) and the
Arbeiterwille [Workers’ Will] party headquarters and publishing house in Graz (1909), as well as buildings for the Co-operative Society and the Austrian Workers’ Bank.
Within his huge municipal housing projects, he translated the design principles of his teacher, Otto Wagner, into the reality of Red Vienna. In expanding the
Metzleinstaler Hof (1920–23), which had been started by Robert Kalesa, Gessner created the prototype of Vienna’s new social housing scheme.
His Reumann-Hof (1924–26),
directly adjacent to the latter, is the showpiece on Vienna’s Margaretengürtel, the “Boulevard of the Working Classes,” while his Lassalle-Hof (1924) is considered an
outstanding example of Constructivism-inspired architecture. Gessner’s most important residential complex and the embodiment of public housing per se is the so-called
Jedlesee Garden City (today’s Karl-Seitz-Hof) in the district of Floridsdorf.
RED VIENNA
Around the turn of the century, 95 percent (!) of all tenements were furnished neither with water closets nor with water supplies, with each home merely consisting of a
kitchen facing the staircase and a single room. In their municipal political program of 1914, the Social Democrats called for the construction of public tenements, which
until 1918, however, were almost exclusively funded by private sponsors. The collapse of the monarchy aggravated the housing situation in Vienna even further. Having become
homeless and jobless, tens of thousands of former officials and state employees poured into Vienna from the eastern countries, which had become insecure; so did war refugees,
including numerous Jews.
The establishment of Lower Austria as a federal province separate from Vienna on January 1, 1922 ensured Vienna’s fiscal sovereignty, so that the city government was equipped
with funds to implement its political program. This facilitated the birth of “Red Vienna” – a development whose significance went far beyond Austria’s borders.
Vienna was
then indeed the world’s only metropolis governed by Social Democrats. International attention, both on a political scale and in terms of the media, was thus accordingly high.
Housing was to become the focal point of the new municipal policy. The difference between Capitalist rent profiteers and Socialist municipal policy was supposed to be directly
experienced in the sphere of everyday life.
Housing encompassed more than mere dwelling: “municipal housing” was essentially understood as a concerted spatial
expression of a new society and included a wide spectrum of
infrastructure, such as education, health, and culture. Architecture became the vehicle of this social utopia.
Besides numerous community facilities and the central courtyard
as a place of communicative exchange, it was first and foremost the aesthetic concept and the quality of the architecture that were supposed to visualize social progress. The
structures, spread out across the entire urban area, turned into symbols of power, with their names (Marx, Engels, Adler, Bebel, Liebknecht, Matteotti, etc.) substantiating
the working classes’ entitlement to a history of their own. Red Vienna’s most symbol-laden ensemble was the Karl-Marx-Hof, built after plans by Karl Ehn,
a student of Otto
Wagner’s and official at the Vienna Municipal Planning Office.
The amazing accomplishments of Red Vienna often cause us to ignore the short period of time during which this reform program was implemented: in approximately fifteen years,
until the abolition of the democracy in 1934 – or rather, ten years, if one takes into account the negative impact of the world economic crisis on building activities. The
overall performance of Red Vienna’s municipal housing policy was nevertheless impressive. Within fourteen years, the Vienna City Government provided for a total of 61,175
apartments in 348 residential complexes, 42 housing schemes comprising 5,257 buildings, and 2,155 retail stores. By 1934, one tenth of the Viennese population lived in municipal
housing facilities.
After 1945, during the phase of reconstruction, projects only rarely reached the qualities of the 1920s when
it comes to urban development and architecture. These qualities
were only rediscovered later on, when a new generation of architects sought to find alternatives to a Modernism they felt to have become faceless.
They discovered them in the
municipal housing projects of Red Vienna, particularly in those designed by the students of Otto Wagner, who had put their mark on urban housing.
Today these buildings, which
are protected as cultural heritage, are carefully renovated as architectural and cultural-political highlights among Vienna’s municipal housing schemes,
which comprise a total
of 220,000 apartments.
Plakat zur Ausstellung "Wagner-Schule: Rotes Wien. Architektur als soziale Utopie"
Entwurf: Ideal Communications
© WAGNER:WERK Museum
Heinrich Schmid, Hermann Achinger
Rabenhof (1925–1928), Wien 3.,
Baumgasse 29 - 41
Kindergarten, Lustgasse 3
Foto: Walter Zednicek
© WAGNER:WERK Museum
Hubert Gessner, Josef Bittner
Jakob Reumann-Hof (1924–1926), Wien 5.,
Margarethengürtel 100 - 110
Springbrunnen im Ehrenhof
Foto: Walter Zednicek
© WAGNER:WERK Museum
Karl Ehn
Karl Marx-Hof (1927–1930), Wien 19.,
Boschstraße 1 - 19
Ansicht vom Ehrenplatz
Foto: Walter Zednicek
© WAGNER:WERK Museum
Hubert Gessner
Karl Seitz-Hof (Gartenstadt Jedlesee, 1926–1931)
Jedleseer Straße 66 - 94
Lattenwerk mit keramikverkleideten Platten
Foto: Walter Zednicek
© WAGNER:WERK Museum
Karl Ehn
Karl Marx-Hof, Wien 19.,
Boschstraße 1 - 19
Eingang zum Waschsalon
Foto: Walter Zednicek
© WAGNER:WERK Museum
Karl Ehn
Karl Marx-Hof, Wien 19.,
Boschstraße 1 - 19
Entwurfszeichnung
© Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv,
Fotoarchiv Gerlach
Anton Hanak, Die Früchteträgerin, 1924
Gipsmodell für die Portalfiguren am Viktor Klosehof,
Wien 19., Philippovichgasse 1
(Entwurf: Josef Hoffmann)
185 x 126cm x 79 cm
Leihgabe an den Museumsverein Langenzersdorf aus Privatbesitz
© HANAK Museum
Karl Ehn
Karl Marx-Hof, Wien 19.,
Boschstraße 1 - 19
Modell
© WAGNER:WERK Museum
„Aussigschmiss’n hob is’!“
Entwurf: Viktor Slama, 1927
Druck: Waldheim Eberle, Wien
188 x 185 cm
Hubert Gessner, Josef Bittner
Jakob Reumann-Hof (1924–1926), Wien 5.,
Margarethengürtel 100 - 110
© WAGNER:WERK Museum
Hubert Gessner, Josef Bittner
Jakob Reumann-Hof (1924–1926), Wien 5.,
Margarethengürtel 100 - 110
© Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv,
Fotoarchiv Gerlach
Hubert Gessner, Josef Bittner
Jakob Reumann-Hof (1924-1926), Wien 5.,
Margarethengürtel 100 - 110
© Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv,
Fotoarchiv Gerlach
Hubert Gessner
Karl Seitz-Hof (Gartenstadt Jedlesee, 1926-31)
Jedleseer Straße 66 - 94
© WAGNER:WERK Museum
Hubert Gessner
Karl Seitz-Hof (Gartenstadt Jedlesee, 1926-31)
Jedleseer Straße 66 - 94
Foto: Walter Zednicek
© WAGNER:WERK Museum
THE WAGNER SCHOOL: RED VIENNA.
Architecture as a Social Utopia |
| Venue |
WAGNER:WERK Museum Postsparkasse
of the BAWAG PSK Group
Großer Kassensaal / Main Hall
Georg-Coch-Platz 2, A-1018 Vienna
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| Exhibition dates |
July 6 to August 28, 2010 |
| Opening hours:
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Mon–Fri 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., Sat 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.,
closed on Sundays
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| Admission to the WAGNER:WERK
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Full rate: € 5.00
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| Museum Postsparkasse
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Reduced rate: € 3.50 (for pupils, students, senior citizens, and groups)
Free admission for BAWAG PSK customers against presentation of an account card
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| Visitors’ information
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www.ottowagner.com, T +43 1 534 53-33825
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| Curators |
Dr. Wolfgang Förster (head)
Prof. Dr. Peter Haiko
Dr. Eva B. Ottillinger |
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| Director |
Monika Wenzl-Bachmayer
WAGNER:WERK Museum Postsparkasse
Georg-Coch-Platz 2, A-1018 Vienna
T +43 1 534 53-33088
F +43 1 534 53-33087
E: museum@ottowagner.com
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| Catalog
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WAGNER-SCHULE: ROTES WIEN.
Architektur als soziale Utopie
Edited by Monika Wenzl-Bachmayer.
With contributions by Wolfgang Förster, Peter Haiko, and
Eva B. Ottillinger and photographs by Walter Zednicek,
approx. 136 pages, 140 illustrations, € 29.00
ISBN 978-3-200-01834-1
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Available at the WAGNER:WERK Museum Postsparkasse museum shop and at museum@ottowagner.com
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| WAGNER:WERK - MUSEUM POSTSPARKASSE - Georg Coch-Platz 2, 1018 Vienna |
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