Karl Marx-Hof

Karl-Marx-Hof (English: ''

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

Court'') is a ''

Gemeindebau ''Gemeindebau'' (; plural: ''Gemeindebauten'') is an Austrian German word for "municipality building".''Gemeinde''

'' (English: ''municipal housing complex'') in
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
, situated in Heiligenstadt, a neighbourhood of the 19th district of Vienna,
Döbling Döbling () is the 19th Districts of Vienna, district in the city of Vienna, Austria (). It is located in the north of Vienna, north of the districts Alsergrund and Währing. Döbling has some heavily populated urban areas with many residential bui ...
. At in length and spanning four
tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...
stops, Karl-Marx-Hof is one of the longest single residential buildings in the world.

Development
Karl-Marx-Hof was built on land that, until the 12th century, had been under the waters of the
Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...
, deep enough for ships to travel over the area. By 1750, all that remained was a pool of water, which was drained on the order of
Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans (disambiguation), Emperor of the Romans (; ) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period (; ), was the ruler and h ...

Joseph II Joseph II (13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from 18 August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 29 November 1780 until his death. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor F ...
. Gardens were then built in the area, but these were removed by the Vienna city council, then under the "
Red Vienna Red Vienna (German language, German: ''Rotes Wien'') was the colloquial name for the Vienna, capital of Austria between 1918 and 1934, during which the Social Democratic Party of Austria, Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (SDAP) mainta ...
" period of control by the
Social Democratic Party of Austria The Social Democratic Party of Austria ( , SPÖ) is a social democratic political party in Austria. Founded in 1889 as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (, SDAPÖ) and later known as the Socialist Party of Austria () from 1945 unt ...
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, a follower of
Otto Wagner Otto Koloman Wagner (; 13 July 1841 – 11 April 1918) was an Austrian architect, furniture designer and urban planner. He was a leading member of the Vienna Secession movement of architecture, founded in 1897, and the broader Art Nouveau mo ...
. It held 1,382 apartments (with a size of 30–60 m² each). Only 18.5% of the 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 is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...
s, a library, doctor's offices, and business offices.

Austrian Civil War, Ständestaat, and the ''Anschluss''
During the February Uprising of the 1934
Austrian Civil War The Austrian Civil War () of 12–15 February 1934, also known as the February Uprising () or the February Fights (), was a series of clashes in the First Austrian Republic between the forces of the authoritarian Fatherland Front (Austria), rig ...
, insurgents engaged in the revolt barricaded themselves inside the building and were forced to surrender after the Austrian army, the police, and the right-wing paramilitary
Heimwehr The Heimwehr (, ) or Heimatschutz (, ) was a nationalist, initially paramilitary group that operated in the First Austrian Republic from 1920 to 1936. It was similar in methods, organization, and ideology to the Freikorps in Germany. The Heimwe ...
bombarded the site regardless of the unarmed dwellers, mainly worker families, with light artillery. During the ''
Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...
'', Karl-Marx-Hof was renamed '' Heiligenstädter 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, including for the 1974 film ''
The Night Porter ''The Night Porter'' () is a 1974 Italian erotic psychological war drama film co-written and directed by Liliana Cavani. It stars Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling, with Philippe Leroy, Gabriele Ferzetti and Isa Miranda in supporting roles. ...
''. The building was refurbished between 1989 and 1992.

See also
Other very long housing blocks: * Byker Wall, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK *
Park Hill, Sheffield Park Hill is a housing estate in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It was built between 1957 and 1961, and in 1998 was given Grade II* listed building status. Following a period of decline, the estate is being renovated by developers Urban S ...
, UK * Falowiec, Gdansk, Poland * Le Lignon, Switzerland *
Fermont Fermont (; ) is a mining city in Côte-Nord region, Quebec, Canada, near the Quebec-Labrador border about from Labrador City on Route 389, which connects to the Trans-Labrador Highway (Newfoundland and Labrador Route 500). It is the seat o ...
, Quebec

References

External links

Video on the Karl-Marx-Hof and Red ViennaThe Tim Traveller YouTube Video on The Karl-Marx-Hof
{{Coord, 48, 15, 10, N, 16, 21, 54, E, region:AT-9_type:landmark, display=title Residential buildings in Vienna Public housing in Austria Residential buildings completed in 1930 Buildings and structures in Döbling Austrian Civil War 1930 establishments in Austria 20th-century architecture in Austria