Welcome dear listeners, alert viewers, happenstance comrades (o; (Zufallsgenossen)
My name is Wolfgang, i was born in this City in 1956.
I have the pleasure to tell You a short Story, or better a very, very "Rohfassung"
(rough draft) of
an outstanding political period (i called) "social living experiment" in Vienna between 1918-1934.
"The Red Vienna"
Red Vienna
Red Vienna (German: Rotes Wien) was the nickname
of the capital of Austria between 1918 and 1934,
when the Social Democrats had the majority and the city
was democratically governed for the first time.
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Social situation after World War I
After World War 1 had ended with the collapse and dismemberment of the Habsburg dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary, Deutschösterreich (German Austria) was proclaimed a republic on November 12, 1918.
At the Gemeinderat (city parliament) elections of May 4, 1919, for the first time ever all adult citizens of both sexes had voting rights.The Social Democratic Party gained an absolute majority; Jakob Reumann was elected first social democratic mayor, to be succeeded in 1923 by Karl Seitz.
The city underwent many changes in these times. During the war, refugees from Austrian Galicia (now West Ukraine), which was partly occupied by the Russian army, had settled in the capital city.
At the end of the war, many former soldiers of the Imperial and Royal Army came to stay in Vienna, at least temporarily, while many former Imperial-Royal government ministry officials returned to their native lands.
The middle classes, many of whom had bought War Bonds that were now worthless, were plunged into poverty by hyperinflation. New borders between Austria and the nearby regions that had fed Vienna for centuries made food supply difficult. Flats were overcrowded, and diseases such as tuberculosis, the Spanish flu and syphilis raged. In the new Austria, Vienna was considered a capital much too big for the small country, and often called Wasserkopf by people living in other parts of the country. On the other hand, optimists saw wide fields of social and political action opening up. Pragmatic intellectuals like Hans Kelsen, who drafted the republican constitution, and Karl Bühler found a lot to do. For them it was a time of awakening, of new frontiers and of optimism.
The intellectual resources of Red Vienna were remarkable: Ilona Duczynska and Karl Polanyi, as well as several other socialist intelligentsia gladly relocated to Vienna or went there in exile from elsewhere, in addition to Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, Karl Bühler, Arthur Schnitzler, Karl Kraus, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Adolf Loos, Arnold Schoenberg and many other scientists, artists, publishers and architects, while not all socialists, did not participate in the principal opposition of the clerical conservatives but viewed the development and modernisation of Vienna with sympathy.
John Gunther characterised the overall setting of Vienna between the wars: "The disequilibrium between Marxist Vienna and the clerical countryside was the dominating Motiv of Austrian politics until the rise of Hitler. Vienna was socialist, anti-clerical, and, as a municipality, fairly rich. The hinterland was poor, backward, conservative, Roman Catholic, and jealous of Vienna's higher standard of living."
At the Gemeinderat (city parliament) elections of May 4, 1919, for the first time ever all adult citizens of both sexes had voting rights.The Social Democratic Party gained an absolute majority; Jakob Reumann was elected first social democratic mayor, to be succeeded in 1923 by Karl Seitz.
The city underwent many changes in these times. During the war, refugees from Austrian Galicia (now West Ukraine), which was partly occupied by the Russian army, had settled in the capital city.
At the end of the war, many former soldiers of the Imperial and Royal Army came to stay in Vienna, at least temporarily, while many former Imperial-Royal government ministry officials returned to their native lands.
The middle classes, many of whom had bought War Bonds that were now worthless, were plunged into poverty by hyperinflation. New borders between Austria and the nearby regions that had fed Vienna for centuries made food supply difficult. Flats were overcrowded, and diseases such as tuberculosis, the Spanish flu and syphilis raged. In the new Austria, Vienna was considered a capital much too big for the small country, and often called Wasserkopf by people living in other parts of the country. On the other hand, optimists saw wide fields of social and political action opening up. Pragmatic intellectuals like Hans Kelsen, who drafted the republican constitution, and Karl Bühler found a lot to do. For them it was a time of awakening, of new frontiers and of optimism.
The intellectual resources of Red Vienna were remarkable: Ilona Duczynska and Karl Polanyi, as well as several other socialist intelligentsia gladly relocated to Vienna or went there in exile from elsewhere, in addition to Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, Karl Bühler, Arthur Schnitzler, Karl Kraus, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Adolf Loos, Arnold Schoenberg and many other scientists, artists, publishers and architects, while not all socialists, did not participate in the principal opposition of the clerical conservatives but viewed the development and modernisation of Vienna with sympathy.
John Gunther characterised the overall setting of Vienna between the wars: "The disequilibrium between Marxist Vienna and the clerical countryside was the dominating Motiv of Austrian politics until the rise of Hitler. Vienna was socialist, anti-clerical, and, as a municipality, fairly rich. The hinterland was poor, backward, conservative, Roman Catholic, and jealous of Vienna's higher standard of living."
General politics
Initiatives of the red-black coalition in the first government of the new federation of Deutschösterreich (German Austria) resulted in the legal introduction of the eight-hour day only one week after the republic had been proclaimed in November 1918.
Furthermore an unemployment benefit system was implemented and the Chamber of Workers (Arbeiterkammer, formally Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte) founded by law as the workers' official lobby. The enthusiasm for such reforms became smaller and smaller within the Christian Social Party the more time elapsed since the end of the first World War.
In 1920, the coalition broke down, and from then until 1945 the Social Democrats were, at federal level, either in opposition or underground. But the "Reds" continued to govern the City of Vienna, where they reached a comfortable absolute majority in the 1919 elections. Their goal was to make Vienna a shining example of social democratic politics. Their measures at the time were considered outstanding or even spectacular and observed in the whole of Europe. Conservatives in Austria tended to hate this strain of politics but for the time being nothing could be done against the success of the Social Democrats in Vienna elections.
Vienna had been the capital of the state of Lower Austria for seven centuries. With their strong majority in Vienna and the workers' votes in the industrial region around Wiener Neustadt, the "Reds" even had the right to nominate the first democratic governor, the Landeshauptmann, literally "captain of the land" of Lower Austria in 1919: they chose Albert Sever.
As the rural areas did not want to be governed by "Reds" while the Social Democratic Party did not like conservative interference in their modern city politics, the two big parties soon agreed to separate "red Vienna" from "black Lower Austria".
The national parliament passed the constitutional laws to enable this in 1921; on January 1, 1922,
Vienna was created the ninth Austrian Bundesland.
Die große Demonstration der Wiener Arbeiterschaft am 12. November 1927 (Preview)
http://stadtfilm-wien.at/film/136
After 1934, Gunther commented: "In Vienna the socialists produced a remarkable administration, making it probably the most successful municipality in the world. [...] The achievements of the Vienna socialists were the most exhilarating social movement of the post-war period in any European country.
Result: the clericals bombed them out of existence."
Furthermore an unemployment benefit system was implemented and the Chamber of Workers (Arbeiterkammer, formally Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte) founded by law as the workers' official lobby. The enthusiasm for such reforms became smaller and smaller within the Christian Social Party the more time elapsed since the end of the first World War.
In 1920, the coalition broke down, and from then until 1945 the Social Democrats were, at federal level, either in opposition or underground. But the "Reds" continued to govern the City of Vienna, where they reached a comfortable absolute majority in the 1919 elections. Their goal was to make Vienna a shining example of social democratic politics. Their measures at the time were considered outstanding or even spectacular and observed in the whole of Europe. Conservatives in Austria tended to hate this strain of politics but for the time being nothing could be done against the success of the Social Democrats in Vienna elections.
Vienna had been the capital of the state of Lower Austria for seven centuries. With their strong majority in Vienna and the workers' votes in the industrial region around Wiener Neustadt, the "Reds" even had the right to nominate the first democratic governor, the Landeshauptmann, literally "captain of the land" of Lower Austria in 1919: they chose Albert Sever.
As the rural areas did not want to be governed by "Reds" while the Social Democratic Party did not like conservative interference in their modern city politics, the two big parties soon agreed to separate "red Vienna" from "black Lower Austria".
The national parliament passed the constitutional laws to enable this in 1921; on January 1, 1922,
Vienna was created the ninth Austrian Bundesland.
Die große Demonstration der Wiener Arbeiterschaft am 12. November 1927 (Preview)
http://stadtfilm-wien.at/film/136
After 1934, Gunther commented: "In Vienna the socialists produced a remarkable administration, making it probably the most successful municipality in the world. [...] The achievements of the Vienna socialists were the most exhilarating social movement of the post-war period in any European country.
Result: the clericals bombed them out of existence."
Public housing
The Imperial-Royal Government had passed a Tenant Protection Act (Mieterschutzgesetz) in 1917 which had been declared applicable in Vienna immediately. Despite the high inflation, the act ordered the rents for flats to be frozen at the level of 1914. This made new private housing projects unprofitable. After the war, demand for affordable flats therefore grew extremely high. Creating public housing projects became the main concern of the Social Democrats in Vienna.
In 1919, the federal parliament passed the Housing Requirement Act (Wohnanforderungsgesetz) to enhance the efficiency of existing housing structures. Low private demand for building land and low building costs proved favourable for the city administration's extensive public housing planning. From 1925 (the year in which a strong Schilling currency replaced the devalued Krone) to 1934, more than 60,000 new flats were built in so-called Gemeindebau
("community construction") buildings.
Large blocks were situated around green courts, for instance at Karl- Marx-Hof (one of the hot spots in the civil war of 1934) or at George Washington Court. The tenants of the new flats were chosen on the basis of a ranking system in which e.g. persons with handicaps got extra points to be chosen earlier. Forty percent of building costs were taken from the proceeds of the Vienna Housing Tax, the rest from the proceeds of the Vienna Luxury Tax and from federal funds.
In 1919, the federal parliament passed the Housing Requirement Act (Wohnanforderungsgesetz) to enhance the efficiency of existing housing structures. Low private demand for building land and low building costs proved favourable for the city administration's extensive public housing planning. From 1925 (the year in which a strong Schilling currency replaced the devalued Krone) to 1934, more than 60,000 new flats were built in so-called Gemeindebau
("community construction") buildings.
Large blocks were situated around green courts, for instance at Karl- Marx-Hof (one of the hot spots in the civil war of 1934) or at George Washington Court. The tenants of the new flats were chosen on the basis of a ranking system in which e.g. persons with handicaps got extra points to be chosen earlier. Forty percent of building costs were taken from the proceeds of the Vienna Housing Tax, the rest from the proceeds of the Vienna Luxury Tax and from federal funds.
"Rotes Wien" wird 80 (TV 2010) 2 Minuten deutsch
Using public money to cover building costs allowed the rents for these flats to be kept very low: for a worker's household, rent took 4 percent of household income; in private buildings it had been 30 percent. If tenants became ill or unemployed, rent payments could be postponed.
Werkbundsiedlung Wien 1932 -
Ein Manifest des neuen Wohnens (Bilder)
Social and health services
Parents got a "clothes package" for each baby so that "no child in Vienna has to be wrapped in a newspaper." Kindergartens, afternoon homes and children's spas were opened to enable mothers to return to their jobs and get children off the streets. Medical services were provided free of charge. Vacation grounds, recreational holidays, public baths and spas and sports facilities were offered to enhance fitness. As Julius Tandler, city councillor for social and health services, put it: “What we spend for youth homes we will save on prisons. What we spend for the care of pregnant women and babies we will save in hospitals for mental illnesses.” Municipal expenditure for social services was tripled in comparison to pre-war efforts. Infant mortality dropped below the Austrian average, while cases of tuberculosis dropped by 50%. Affordable tariffs for gas and electricity and for refuse collection, all run by the municipality, helped to improve health standards.
Financial policies
The Social Democrats introduced new taxes by state law, which were collected in addition to federal taxes (critics called them "Breitner Taxes" after Hugo Breitner, city councillor for finance). These taxes were imposed on luxury: on riding-horses, large private cars, servants in private households, and hotel rooms. (To demonstrate the practical effect of these new taxes, the municipality published a list of social institutions that could be financed by the servants tax the Vienna branch of the Rothschild family had to pay.)
Another new tax, the Wohnbausteuer (Housing Construction Tax), was also structured as a progressive tax, i.e. levied in rising percentages. The income from this tax was used to finance the municipality's extensive housing programme. Therefore many Gemeindebauten today still bear the inscription: Erbaut aus den Mitteln der Wohnbausteuer (built from the proceeds of the Housing Construction Tax). As a result of the municipality's investment activity, the rate of unemployment in Vienna dropped in relation to the rest of Austria and to Germany. All investments were financed directly by taxes, not by credits. Thus the city administration stayed independent of creditors and did not have to pay interest on bonds. Hugo Breitner, in contrast to the Austrian Social Democrats after 1945, consistently refused to take up credits to finance social services. These services consequently had to be cut down when, in the early thirties, the federal government started to starve Vienna financially.
Another new tax, the Wohnbausteuer (Housing Construction Tax), was also structured as a progressive tax, i.e. levied in rising percentages. The income from this tax was used to finance the municipality's extensive housing programme. Therefore many Gemeindebauten today still bear the inscription: Erbaut aus den Mitteln der Wohnbausteuer (built from the proceeds of the Housing Construction Tax). As a result of the municipality's investment activity, the rate of unemployment in Vienna dropped in relation to the rest of Austria and to Germany. All investments were financed directly by taxes, not by credits. Thus the city administration stayed independent of creditors and did not have to pay interest on bonds. Hugo Breitner, in contrast to the Austrian Social Democrats after 1945, consistently refused to take up credits to finance social services. These services consequently had to be cut down when, in the early thirties, the federal government started to starve Vienna financially.
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Abstract (Epilog of the Present Age)
After decades of corporatist urban governance dominated by social democracy, Vienna is undergoing a process of economic and political restructuring. This process is expressed physically in large urban development projects, Donau City being the most important. Donau City is a large real estate project on the left bank of the Danube, based on public-private partnership. Due to the liberalization of the housing market, new private actors are increasingly important, influencing decision-making in the Donau City project. In urban planning in general, growing interest in real estate investment has resulted in new planning procedures incorrectly labelled as bottom-up. In fact, this is a fragmented, privatized, opaque and ad hoc form of urban governance accompanied by a new elitist hierarchy formed by leaders of the city’s administration, business and academic worlds.
This new, unaccountable elite has elaborated a strategic plan for Vienna with little reference to the citizenry. Therefore, the new liberal form of governance goes hand in hand with important continuities concerning co-optation, exclusion and conflict avoidance.
The article ends by stressing the importance of alternative political projects that aim at participatory democracy overcoming deep-rooted authoritarian structures.
This new, unaccountable elite has elaborated a strategic plan for Vienna with little reference to the citizenry. Therefore, the new liberal form of governance goes hand in hand with important continuities concerning co-optation, exclusion and conflict avoidance.
The article ends by stressing the importance of alternative political projects that aim at participatory democracy overcoming deep-rooted authoritarian structures.
[The End of Red Vienna]: http://eur.sagepub.com/content/8/2/131.short
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WEITERE QUELLEN & FURTHER RESOURCES
From "Red Vienna" to the "Ständestaat" (1918 to 1938) - History of Vienna
Once separated from Lower Austria, Vienna embarked on a distinctly "Viennese" political course. The city became internationally acclaimed model of Social Democratic municipal government in the twenties and early thirties of this century. The popular term when speaking of this period is "Red Vienna". Against the background of constitutional changes in Vienna aimed at democratisation, radical changes in the revenue and spending policies of the city took place. These changes made the new achievements and programmes in the welfare sector possible in the first place. The main focus was municipal housing, which won acclaim beyond Austria's frontiers. The objective was to tackle what had been one of the main problems in the city since the second half of the 19th century and provide, most of all, flats equipped with running water, toilets and adequate supply of natural daylight. Special attention was also paid to providing, in these housing estates, adequate green space and recreation areas. In the years of great economic hardship just after the First World War in particular, attempts were also made to encourage settlement on the periphery. This should give people a possibility to meet some of their needs from the small gardens attached to these homes.
Social unrest and civil war
For the first time, a real policy of redistribution was implemented, with a little more than half of the local rates being imposed on the wealthy segments of the population. This gave the government some fine successes, even in areas such as education and health care. The backdrop to all this was an increasingly difficult economic situation and - closely linked to it - mounting political radicalisation. The polarisation between the two large political blocs - the Social Democrats and the Christian Socialists - became more and more pronounced. When in July 1927 riots occurred following a miscarriage of justice, a fire broke out in the so-called Justizpalast (Palace of Justice). The spiralling political and economic crisis gained more and more momentum, punctuated by the failure of one of the country's largest banks and by growing unemployment. Then watershed events occurred: In 1933 parliament was dissolved and a few months later, in February 1934, civil war broke out. Subsequently, the democratic constitution was suspended and a period of clerico-fascist authoritarian government ("Ständestaat") began. Vienna no longer had an elected legislature either. The new government hoped to create employment by commissioning large- scale projects, mostly road construction projects. These years must take credit for the panorama road snaking up Austria's highest mountain, the "Großglockner-Hochalpenstraße", and a similar road in Vienna up the city's small local mountain, Kahlenberg.
[From Socialism to Fascism - History of Vienna]: https://www.wien.gv.at/english/history/overview/socialism.html
[From Socialism to Fascism - History of Vienna]: https://www.wien.gv.at/english/history/overview/socialism.html
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Liste der Wiener Gemeindebauten
Karl-Marx-Hof vom 12.-Februar-Platz aus. Der Name „12. Februar“ bezieht sich auf den Tag des Ausbruchs des Österreichischen Bürgerkriegs im Jahre 1934.Die Liste der Wiener Gemeindebauten bietet einen Überblick über die Wohnhäuser, -höfe und -siedlungen, die von der Gemeinde Wien im Rahmen des kommunalen Wohnbaus errichtet wurden. Vor allem die Wohnbauten aus den 1920er Jahren sind wegen ihrer architektonischen Besonderheiten international bekannt. Während der Ersten Republik wurden in Wien 382 Gemeindebauten nach Plänen von 199 Architekten errichtet. In Summe wurden von 1919 bis 1934 fast 65.000 Wohnungen fertiggestellt. Einzig im 1. Bezirk wurde kein Gemeindebau errichtet. Mit der Machtergreifung der Austrofaschisten 1934 erlosch die Bautätigkeit des Roten Wien. Es wurden allerdings einige Arbeiterasyle und Assanierungsbauten errichtet. In der Nachkriegszeit wurde die Bautätigkeit ab 1947 wieder aufgenommen – die Per-Albin-Hansson-Siedlung war der erste große Neubau. Auf Grund des großen Wohnungsmangels in dieser Zeit wurden bis 1970 weitere 96.000 Wohnungen geschaffen. Heute besitzt die Stadt Wien rund 220.000 Wohnungen in mehr als 2.300 Gemeindebauten mit über 500.000 Bewohnern. Die Liste ist wie folgt aufgebaut: Name des Gemeindebaus (falls vorhanden), Adresse, Baujahr, Architekt, Anzahl der Wohnungen
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der_Wiener_Gemeindebauten
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Zwischen Tradition und Moderne. Die Architektur des Roten Wien
Wien war Anziehungspunkt für hunderttausende Zuwanderer aus allen Teilen der Habsburgermonarchie, die sich hier ein besseres Leben
erhofften. Die Versorgung der Menschen mit dem nötigen Wohnraum war jedoch gänzlich dem privaten Markt überlassen; aufgrund von
Bauspekulation und Profitmaximierung waren die Wohnverhältnisse katastrophal.
[Forschungszentrum für historische Minderheiten - Aktuelles]: http://www.fzhm.at/de/index.php?nav=1411&id=277
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[From Socialism to Fascism - History of Vienna]: https://www.wien.gv.at/english/history/overview/socialism.html
From "Red Vienna" to the "Ständestaat" (1918 to 1938) - History of Vienna
Communal block of flats "Sandleiten" (1927)
Once separated from Lower Austria, Vienna embarked on a distinctly "Viennese" political course. The city became internationally acclaimed model of Social Democratic municipal government in the twenties and early thirties of this century. The popular term when speaking of this period is "Red Vienna". Against the background of constitutional changes in Vienna aimed at democratisation, radical changes in the revenue and spending policies of the city took place. These changes made the new achievements and programmes in the welfare sector possible in the first place. The main focus was municipal housing, which won acclaim beyond Austria's frontiers. The objective was to tackle what had been one of the main problems in the city since the second half of the 19th century and provide, most of all, flats equipped with running water, toilets and adequate supply of natural daylight. Special attention was also paid to providing, in these housing estates, adequate green space and recreation areas. In the years of great economic hardship just after the First World War in particular, attempts were also made to encourage settlement on the periphery. This should give people a possibility to meet some of their needs from the small gardens attached to these homes.
Once separated from Lower Austria, Vienna embarked on a distinctly "Viennese" political course. The city became internationally acclaimed model of Social Democratic municipal government in the twenties and early thirties of this century. The popular term when speaking of this period is "Red Vienna". Against the background of constitutional changes in Vienna aimed at democratisation, radical changes in the revenue and spending policies of the city took place. These changes made the new achievements and programmes in the welfare sector possible in the first place. The main focus was municipal housing, which won acclaim beyond Austria's frontiers. The objective was to tackle what had been one of the main problems in the city since the second half of the 19th century and provide, most of all, flats equipped with running water, toilets and adequate supply of natural daylight. Special attention was also paid to providing, in these housing estates, adequate green space and recreation areas. In the years of great economic hardship just after the First World War in particular, attempts were also made to encourage settlement on the periphery. This should give people a possibility to meet some of their needs from the small gardens attached to these homes.
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Municipal politics: "Red Vienna" - a success story
The first elections for the Vienna City Council were held on 4 May 1919 in accordance with the universal, equal, direct and secret right to vote for both men and women. The elections resulted in a landslide victory and an absolute majority for the Social Democratic Party. On 22 May, Jakob Reuman was elected mayor by 99 Social Democrats, eight Czechs and three representatives of the Jewish National Party. He was the first to take this office in a truly democratic way by will of the people. The problems Vienna was facing at the time were enormous: the Municipality had to cope with an empty treasury, an army of unemployed people, a tense energy supply situation, hunger, severe health problems and not least a dire need for housing. Municipal housing: farewell to the "old times" In order to really understand the achievements of municipal housing in interwar Vienna, one has to go back some time. The housing situation at the end of the 19th century is probably best described in the words of the workers' poet Alfons Petzold: "Thirty windows, stuck together and starving for light, from each the hungry voice of poverty for comfort cried …" Life in the blocks of flats had little to do with "life per se". In 1910 almost 100,000 people were subtenants; another 75,000 were so called "Bettgänger", people who rented a space to sleep on and had basically no roof over their heads at all. In Ottakring, one quarter of the flats consisting of a kitchen and a single room accommodated six to ten people. This housing situation also led to enormous health problems. In 1900 the average life expectancy of an unqualified worker was a mere 33 years. Of 100 children an average of 24 died during their first year of life. In his book "Wiedergeburt einer Weltstadt" (Rebirth of a Metropolis) Karl Ziak wrote a particularly remarkable sentence about this situation: "If it were possible to take houses to court, the Viennese blocks of flats would have to be put in the dock &" Exemplary for the world: public housing in "Red Vienna" Today's social housing in Vienna looks back to a long tradition. The first initiatives were taken in 1919 followed by a decision of the City Council in 1923 to build 25,000 flats from tax revenues. This resulted in a public housing model which was to achieve world fame: large multi-storey blocks with green inside courts and playgrounds and affordable flats equipped with running water, toilets and gas mains. The programme was made possible by a constitutional law which separated Vienna from Lower Austria turning Vienna into a separate Bundesland (state) with financial sovereignty and her own taxing authority. From 1919 to 1934 more than 60,000 flats were built creating housing space for approximately 220,000 people. The financial basis for this large-scale public housing planning was a tax system introduced by the Socialist City Councillor for Finances, Hugo Breitner, who opened up new tax resources for municipal politics. These "Breitner taxes" included a Luxury Tax, taxes on land, rents, commercial units, traffic and the Housing Tax adopted in 1922 as well as a tax on domestic servants and on luxury goods. Additional cornerstones introduced by the Viennese Municipal Administration from 1919 to 1934 were Public Health and Social Services.
Contact for this page: Dr. Ingeborg Bauer-Manhart (Municipal Department 53
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Kampf um die Stadt -
Politik, Kunst und Alltag um 1930
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