About this walk
For fifteen years, Vienna built palaces for workers—and then its own army opened fire on them.
The stops
Walk them in order; each story plays when you reach its pin.
- 1Stop 1
The street that wasn't meant for the rich
Along the Ring, the wealthy built their palaces. On this strip, the city built sixty thousand homes for workers.
- 2Stop 2
The Ringstraße of the Proletariat
Gates, towers and a courtyard of honour, built for families who had their own tap for the first time.
Read the story - 3Stop 3
The showpiece
The block that ended up on the postcards, built like a palace for working-class families.
Read the story - 4Stop 4
Where it began
Vienna's first real municipal housing block, half still from the imperial era and half already Red Vienna.
Read the story - 5Stop 5
The Poet on the Facade
A housing block named after a poet who wrote that every wheel grinds to a halt the moment the strong arm wills it.
Read the story - 6Stop 6
The Names They Chiselled Off
In 1934, the names of dozens of municipal housing blocks were chiselled off their façades. This one got its own back.
Read the story - 7Stop 7
An Italian in Margareten
Vienna named an apartment block after Mussolini's most famous victim, even as its own government was busy courting good relations with Rome.
Read the story - 8Stop 8
The Arbeitergasse and the bed renters
At night, someone different slept in the bed than during the day. This is how Vienna lived before the municipal housing arrived.
Read the story - 9Stop 9
Seven springs and a village
Beneath the apartment blocks lies a village with vineyards, still visible in the curves of the streets.
Read the story - 10Stop 10
What had to come besides homes
Every newborn Viennese received a package of nappies from the city. Homes alone were not enough.
Read the story - 11Stop 11
The Man Who Sent the Bill
Sixty thousand homes, built without a single loan. The man behind that feat was thoroughly hated for it.
Read the story - 12Stop 12
February 1934
On the twelfth of February 1934, the party headquarters was stormed, and four days later the republic had become a dictatorship.
Read the story - 13Stop 13
What's Left of It
Vienna still owns well over two hundred thousand municipal flats, and that's why housing works differently here.
Ready when you are
Walk Red Vienna with ROODS.
13 stops through Vienna. Open ROODS in your browser, walk to the first pin and the story plays.
- Stories on a map, with narrated audio
- Walk at your own pace, stop where you like
- Runs in your browser. An app is optional.
