The Reumannhof is the block that ended up on the postcards, laid out around a that opens toward the , with a central section that rises high and wings that step down toward the street, exactly the arrangement you'd find in a Baroque palace.
The original design went even further, with a central tower of sixteen floors that fell victim to the budget and was eventually built at half that height.
The block carries the name of , the first mayor of Vienna, who died shortly before it was finished. The way the city gave its such a deliberate shape was a message in two directions: to the residents, that they were getting something that looked as though it mattered, and to the opponents, that this city government would not be dismissed as a passing whim.
Foreign socialists came by the busload to see it, and in their accounts this complex is forever described as a city within the city.
Right next door, with a plainer facade, stands the block where it all began.
Sources. Story: Wien Geschichte Wiki, Stadt Wien; Das Rote Wien, Weblexikon der Wiener Sozialdemokratie Photos: Reumannhof Wien, Buchhaendler, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
