Aspern () is part of

Donaustadt Donaustadt (; literally, Danube City; Central Bavarian: ''Donaustod'') is the 22nd district of Vienna, Austria (german: 22. Bezirk, Donaustadt). Donaustadt is the eastern district of Vienna.Statistik Austria, 2007, webpage statistik.at-23450. ...

, the 22nd district of

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Austria.

History

The area is known because of the

Battle of Aspern-Essling In the Battle of Aspern-Essling (21–22 May 1809), Napoleon crossed the Danube near Vienna, but the French and their allies were attacked and forced back across the river by the Austrians under Archduke Charles. It was the first time Napoleon ...

, which was fought in the nearby

Lobau The Lobau () is a Vienna floodplain on the northern side of the Danube in Donaustadt and partly in Großenzersdorf, Lower Austria. It has been part of the Danube-Auen National Park since 1996 and has been a protected area since 1978. It is used ...

on 21 and 22 May 1809. In that battle, the

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

army, led by

Archduke Charles Archduke Charles Louis John Joseph Laurentius of Austria, Duke of Teschen (german: link=no, Erzherzog Karl Ludwig Johann Josef Lorenz von Österreich, Herzog von Teschen; 5 September 177130 April 1847) was an Austrian field-marshal, the third s ...

, repelled an advance by

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

; it was the closest the French emperor had come to being defeated since his rise to power. In 1858, a large stone lion sculpture was installed in front of St. Martin's Church to commemorate the battle and the Austrian soldiers who died to repel Napoleon. In 1904, the formerly independent village was incorporated into Vienna as part of the 21st district,

Floridsdorf Floridsdorf (; Central Bavarian: ''Fluridsduaf'') is the 21st district of Vienna (german: 21. Bezirk, Floridsdorf), located in the northern part of the city and comprising seven formerly independent communities: Floridsdorf, Donaufeld, Greater Je ...

. Only in 1946 did it become part of the newly created 22nd district,

. In 1912, the Aspern Airfield was inaugurated. It remained the center of Austrian civil and military

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot a ...

until

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. After the war, it was used by

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

occupation forces. Replaced by

Vienna International Airport Vienna International Airport (german: Flughafen Wien-Schwechat; ) is the international airport of Vienna, the capital of Austria, located in Schwechat, southeast of central Vienna and west of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. It is the ...

near

Schwechat Schwechat () is a town southeast of Vienna known for the Vienna International Airport and Schwechater beer. The city is home to the refineries of the Austrian national oil company OMV. Geography Schwechat is named after the river Schwechat, wh ...

in 1954, it was closed in 1977. In 1982 an engine and transmissions plant for

Opel Wien Opel Wien GmbH (formerly GM Powertrain Austria GmbH) is an Austrian manufacturing company based in Vienna / Aspern, Austria and was a subsidiary of General Motors. Currently a subsidiary of the Dutch-based multinational automotive manufacturer Ste ...

was constructed on part of the former airfield. In 2004 Opel donated part of its property as a base for the Christophorus Emergency Helicopter Service which is since 5 April 2017 in

Landstraße Landstraße (; Central Bavarian: ''Laundstrossn'') is the 3rd municipal district of Vienna, Austria (german: 3. Bezirk). It is near the center of Vienna and was established in the 19th century. Landstraße is a heavily populated urban area with m ...

the 3rd municipal District of Vienna. Another part of the former airfield now serves as a training facility for ARBOE, the other major Austrian automobile club. An extension of the

U-Bahn Rapid transit in Germany consists of four U-Bahn systems and fourteen S-Bahn systems. The U-Bahn commonly understood to stand for Untergrundbahn (''underground railway'') are conventional rapid transit systems that run mostly underground, while ...

to Aspern opened in October 2010.

Seestadt Aspern

There is a new city project, the Seestadt Aspern,Seestadt government website (German)
/ref> on an artificial lake to be built with community houses, cooperative houses, shops and offices around it. The City of Vienna is trying to develop the former airfield. A move of the

Vienna University of Technology TU Wien (TUW; german: Technische Universität Wien; still known in English as the Vienna University of Technology from 1975–2014) is one of the major universities in Vienna, Austria. The university finds high international and domestic recogn ...

to Aspern was considered, but the idea was discarded after university staff and students expressed their disapproval. Aspern and Essling

References

External links

Donaustadt Geography of Vienna {{Vienna-geo-stub