Vienna's City History: Red Vienna from 1919 to 1934

More+Events ♦ Published: July 9, 2019; 18:09 ♦ (Vindobona)

Vienna’s first free municipal election, held in May 1919, results in an absolute majority for the SPÖ - Social Democratic Party (at that time SDAPDÖ - Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Deutschösterreichs). A reform project commences. The goal is a far reaching democratization of society as well as the dramatic improvement of workers‘ living conditions. A revolutionary fiscal policy, built around a luxury tax, provides funding for the creation of over 60,000 apartments along with numerous social, leisure, and cultural facilities by 1934.

Karl-Marx-Hof, Commemorative Courtyard with Sculpture „The Sower“, ca. 1930 / Picture: © Wien Museum

In May 1919, the first free elections to Vienna’s Municipal Council delivered the Social Democratic Workers’ Party an absolute majority. Thus began a social, cultural, and pedagogical reform project that garnered both a high level of attention internationally and bitter opposition domestically. The Red Vienna project strove toward a thoroughgoing improvement of the living conditions…