Karl-Marx-Hof
Encyclopedia
Gemeindebau
Gemeindebau is a German word for "municipality building". It refers to residential buildings erected by a municipality, usually to provide low-cost public housing....
ten in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, situated in Heiligenstadt
Heiligenstadt, Vienna
Heiligenstadt was an independent municipality until 1892 and is today a part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna.Heiligenstadt is one of the 10 municipalities in the Döbling District.- Geography :...
, a neighbourhood of the 19th district of Vienna, Döbling
Döbling
Döbling is the 19th District in the city of Vienna, Austria . It is located on the north end from the central districts, north of the districts Alsergrund and Währing...
.
Development
Karl Marx-Hof is built on land that, until the 12th century, had been under the waters of the DanubeDanube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
, deep enough for ships to travel over the area. By 1750, all that remained was a pool of water, which was drained by Holy Roman Emperor
Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor is a term used by historians to denote a medieval ruler who, as German King, had also received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope...
Joseph II
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I...
. Gardens were then built in the area, but these were removed by the Vienna city council, then controlled by the Social Democratic Party of Austria
Social Democratic Party of Austria
The Social Democratic Party of Austria is one of the oldest political parties in Austria. The SPÖ is one of the two major parties in Austria, and has ties to trade unions and the Austrian Chamber of Labour. The SPÖ is among the few mainstream European social-democratic parties that have preserved...
, to make room for the erection of Karl Marx-Hof, financed by a special tax named after councillor Hugo Breitner, commissioning locally and internationally renowned architects.
Karl Marx-Hof was built between 1927 and 1930 by city planner Karl Ehn
Karl Ehn
Karl Ehn was a Viennese architect and city planner.Among other structures, Ehn designed the colossal Karl-Marx-Hof, the largest and best example of innovative public housing built during the Red Vienna movement. Ehn worked as technical director for the City of Vienna and was a student of Otto...
, a follower of Otto Wagner
Otto Wagner
Otto Koloman Wagner was an Austrian architect and urban planner, known for his lasting impact on the appearance of his home town Vienna, to which he contributed many landmarks.-Life:...
. It held 1,382 apartments (with a size of 30–60 m² each) and was called the Ringstraße des Proletariat
Proletariat
The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...
s, the Ring-road of the Proletariat. (Vienna's principal Ringstraße
Ringstraße
The Ringstraße is a circular road surrounding the Innere Stadt district of Vienna, Austria and is one of its main sights...
, dating from the 1850s, surrounds the city centre and had been intended as a showcase for the grandeur and glory of the Habsburg Empire). Only 18.5% of the 1,000 metres long, 156,000-m² large area was built up, with the rest of the area developed into play areas and gardens. Designed for a population of about 5,000, the premises include many amenities, including laundromats, baths, kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
s, a library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
, doctor offices, and business offices.
Austrian Civil War, Austrofascism, and the Anschluss
Karl Marx-Hof was well-known during the Februaraufstand of the 1934 Österreichischer Bürgerkrieg . Those engaged in the revolt barricaded themselves inside the building and were forced to surrender after the Austrian army, the police, and the AustrofascistAustrofascism
Austrofascism is a term which is frequently used by historians to describe the authoritarian rule installed in Austria with the May Constitution of 1934, which ceased with the forcible incorporation of the newly-founded Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938...
paramilitary Heimwehr
Heimwehr
The Heimwehr or sometimes Heimatschutz were a Nationalist, initially paramilitary group operating within Austria during the 1920s and 1930s; they were similar in methods, organisation, and ideology to Germany's Freikorps...
bombarded the site regardless of the unarmed dwellers, mainly worker families, with artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
. During the Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
, Karl Marx-Hof was renamed Heiligenstädter
Heiligenstadt, Vienna
Heiligenstadt was an independent municipality until 1892 and is today a part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna.Heiligenstadt is one of the 10 municipalities in the Döbling District.- Geography :...
Hof, but took its original name back in 1945.
Today
The heavy artillery damage to Karl Marx-Hof was repaired in the 1950s. It has been used as a filming location for some movies, most notably The Night PorterThe Night Porter
The Night Porter is a controversial 1974 film by Italian director Liliana Cavani, starring Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling.- Synopsis :...
. The building was refurbished between 1989 and 1992. At over one kilometre in length (1100m, 0.68 mile) and spanning four Straßenbahn (tram) stops, Karl Marx-Hof holds the distinction of being the longest single residential building in the world.
See also
- Heiligenstadt, ViennaHeiligenstadt, ViennaHeiligenstadt was an independent municipality until 1892 and is today a part of Döbling, the 19th district of Vienna.Heiligenstadt is one of the 10 municipalities in the Döbling District.- Geography :...
- Karl MarxKarl MarxKarl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
Other very long housing blocks
- Byker WallByker WallThe Byker Wall is the name given to a long unbroken block of 620 maisonettes in the Byker district of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The block was designed by the notable architect Ralph Erskine assisted by Vernon Gracie, and was built in the mid-1970s. The Wall, along with the low rise dwellings...
, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK - Park Hill, Sheffield, UK
- FalowiecFalowiecThe Polish word falowiec means 'wavy block' and it is a kind of building which has a wavy shape in its body and balcony. This type of building was built in Poland in late '60s & '70s of the 20th century in the Polish city Gdańsk, where there are eight buildings of this type...
, Gdansk, Poland