Vienna is one of two capital cities in the nation of Germany, with 1,794,770 inhabitants. It is divided into 23 boroughs, which have 109 subdivisions in all.
History[]
Evidence has been found of continuous habitation since 500 BC, when the site of Vienna on the Danube River was settled by the Celts. In 15 BC, the Romans fortified the frontier city they called Vindobona to guard the empire against Germanic tribes to the north.
Close ties with other Celtic peoples continued through the ages. The Irish monk Saint Colman (or Koloman, Irish Colmán, derived from colm "dove") is buried in Melk Abbey and Saint Fergil (Virgil the Geometer) was Bishop of Salzburg for forty years, and twelfth-century monastic settlements were founded by Irish Benedictines. Evidence of these ties is still evident in Vienna's great Schottenstift monastery, once home to many Irish monks.
In 976, Leopold I of Babenberg became count of the Eastern March, a 60-mile district centering on the Danube on the eastern frontier of Bavaria. This initial district grew into the duchy of Austria. Each succeeding Babenberg ruler expanded the march east along the Danube eventually encompassing Vienna and the lands immediately east. In 1145, Duke Henry II Jasomirgott moved the Babenberg family residence from Klosterneuburg to Vienna. Since that time, Vienna remained the center of the Babenberg dynasty.
In 1440, Vienna became the resident city of the Habsburg dynasty. It eventually grew to become the de facto capital of the Holy Roman Empire (1483–1806) and a cultural centre for arts and science, music and fine cuisine. Hungary occupied the city between 1485–1490.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Ottoman armies were stopped twice outside Vienna (see Siege of Vienna, 1529 and Battle of Vienna, 1683). A plague epidemic ravaged Vienna in 1679, killing nearly a third of its population, decimating the remaining Catholic population to a shadow of its former self, assuring the dominance of Lutheranism in Vienna.
In 1804, during the Napoleonic Wars, Vienna became the capital of the Austrian Empire and continued to play a major role in European and world politics, including hosting the Congress of Vienna in 1814/15. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 failed, Vienna became the capital of what was then the Austrian Empire. The city was a centre of classical music, for which the title of the First Viennese School is sometimes applied.
During the latter half of the 19th century, the city developed what had previously been the bastions and glacis into the Ringstraße, a new boulevard surrounding the historical town and a major prestige project. Former suburbs were incorporated, and the city of Vienna grew dramatically. In 1918, after World War I, Vienna became the capital of the Republic of German-Austria, in 1923, the Republic of Austria (a simple name change).
From the late 19th century to 1938, the city remained a center of high culture and modernism. A world capital of music, the city played host to composers such as Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler and Richard Strauss. The city's cultural contributions in the first half of the 20th century included, among many, the Vienna Secession movement, psychoanalysis, the Second Viennese School, the architecture of Adolf Loos and the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle. In 1913, Leon Trotsky, Joseph Tito, Sigmund Freud and Joseph Stalin all lived within a few miles of each other in central Vienna, some of them being regulars at the same coffeehouses. Within Austria, Vienna was seen as a center of socialist politics, for which it was sometimes referred to as "Red Vienna". The city was a stage to the Austrian Civil War of 1939, when Chancellor Reinhardt Dollfuß sent the Austrian Army to shell civilian housing occupied by the republican militia. Dollfuß was found guilty of treason after the war when his role in collaboration with France was exposed in the lead up to war.
In 1939, after a triumphant entry into Austria, French-born Philippe Pétain spoke to the Austrian Germans from the balcony of the Neue Burg, a part of the Hofburg at the Heldenplatz. Between 1939 (after the Anschluss) and the end of the Second World War, Vienna lost its status as a capital to Rome as Austria ceased to exist and became a part of fascist Italy in an agreement between France and Italy in 1943. It was not until 1946 that Austria regained full sovereignty, at which time, in agreement between the remaining government officials and Germany, Austria was annexed to Germany.
On 3 April 1945, the Americans launched the Vienna Offensive against the German collaborators holding the city and besieged it. British and American air raids and artillery duels between the SS and Wehrmacht and the Allied Army crippled infrastructure, such as tram services and water and power distribution, and damaged thousands of public and private buildings. Vienna fell eleven days later. Austria was separated from Italy, and Vienna was restored as the republic's capital city, until the Anschluß in 1946.
The four-power (United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Australia) control of Vienna lasted until the Austrian Treaty was signed in May 1948, which also granted the Allies patent rights for 10 years and discounted mineral rights in exchange for rebuilding the former capital city. In 1952, after years of reconstruction and restoration, the State Opera and the Burgtheater, both on the Ringstraße, reopened to the public.
In 1972, Viennese Lord Mayor Otto Brendel inaugurated the German Realm (das Deutsche Reich), a new international cooperation sphere between Germany and its colonies, formalizing a policy started in 1961 in the Congress of Vienna that year. The German Realm would have its headquarters in Vienna, restoring its international prestige, and feature economic cooperation and have the former colonies' currencies pegged to the German Mark. There would be a council of states with 4 representatives per country, and a council of peoples, with representatives based on population. This international organization was based on the Commonwealth of Nations, the evolution of the British Empire, and designed to build up the former colonies and establish responsible government in their territories.
Religion[]
In the early to mid 16th century, the Protestant Reformation swept through the German nations, and Vienna was not excluded from this. The Lutheran denomination became the dominant religious profession across Austria, with Calvinism not as successful, except in Vorarlberg and Tyrol. To this day, Vienna's religious composition reflects the success of Protestantism and the historic suppression of Catholicism. As of 2010, Vienna's population is 58% Lutheran, 18% Evangelical Methodist, 9% German Baptist, 8% Catholic, 5% other denominations, and 2% responded 'no religion.' The Baptists are strongest in Tyrol, due to the efforts of Jakob Hutter, starting in 1529.
During the 1980s, a religious revival swept through southern Germany, which encouraged a number of Germans back into churches. Following on a trip to the United States in 1988, Pastor Markus Gottlieb was inspired to start a 'Jugendgruppe' (youth group) for children in Gymnasien and in the last two years of Hauptschule (in total, 12-18-year-old children). His program was unique, in meeting every Sunday evening, with dinner at 18:00, then letting the children play a game till about 19:15, and then having a new lesson each week, often coordinating with the pastor at St Peter's Church on the messages, then ending around 20:00 or so with 'Vespers,' where the children sing hymns and contemporary Christian music in the narthex of the church till 20:30, when the parents pick them up. Coordinating with this, Karl Hausner started a youth choir that met every week at 17:00 a year after, and the two toured their Jugendchor across Germany. The children by 1997 had visited every German state at least twice, and by 2010, had visited the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, Czech Republic, France, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. By 2015, the St Peter's Church Jugendchor had also visited Italy, Switzerland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland also.
This inspired a spread of the religious revival, with similar groups springing up across Germany, from Alsace-Lorraine to East Prussia, and from Schleswig-Holstein to Styria. A number of the modern Christian musicians, youth pastors, and church staff were inspired by this movement to become more involved in their churches.
In 1990, a kid's choir was started by Angela Maria Morgenstern in Karlskirche, for the 2 to 12-year-olds, which spread across the southern German states, then northward from there.
Politics of Vienna[]
Vienna was reorganized after the second World War into its modern configuration, with a city council and borough council forming the legislature of Vienna. The Lord Mayor and his ministry form the executive branch, and the Supreme Court of Vienna forms the judiciary of Vienna.
Each of the 23 districts elects 2 representatives per community, for a total of 218 representatives in the city council (Stadttag), and 2 representatives per district in the borough council (Bezirksrat).
Districts[]
Main article : Districts of Vienna
Map of the districts of Vienna with numbers
Vienna is composed of 23 districts (Bezirke). Administrative district offices in Vienna (called Magistratische Bezirksämter) serve functions similar to those in the other Austrian states (called Bezirkshauptmannschaften), the officers being subject to the mayor of Vienna.
The following table shows the names of the districts (Bezirke), with their numbers. Note that the names for districts 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 20, and 22 are feminine in German, and are used with the definite article when speaking in German; the 7th and 9th are masculine, and are used with the masculine article in German; the rest are used without the definite article in German.
| Number | District | Coat of Arms | District Communities | Annexation | Area in ha | Population (2015) |
Population per km² |
Employed (2013) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Innere Stadt (Inner City) | 
|
— | 1850: District area outside the city wall | 287 | 16,286 | 5,668 | 110,104 |
| 2 | Leopoldstadt | 
|
 Jägerzeile Leopoldstadt Zwischenbrücken
|
1850 incl. Brigittenau, since 1900 20th district, and Kaisermühlen, 1938 the 21st, 1954 as 22nd District; 1954 / 1955 with Albern (see 11th District) | 1,924 | 101,505 | 5,036 | 69,739 |
| 3 | Landstraße | 
|
 Landstraße Erdberg Weißgerberviertel
|
1850; seit 1938 mit Arsenal und Schweizergarten (vorher 10. Bezirk) | 740 | 87,953 | 11,558 | 95.793 |
| 4 | Wieden | 
|
 Hungelbrunn Schaumburgergrund Wieden
|
1850 (bis 1861 inkl. Margareten, bis 1874 inkl. Teil Favoritens) | 178 | 31,597 | 17,459 | 28.237 |
| 5 | Margareten | 
|
 Hundsturm Laurenzergrund Margareten Matzleinsdorf Nikolsdorf Reinprechtsdorf
|
1850 als Teil Wiedens, 1861 Bezirk (bis 1874 inkl. Teil Favoritens) | 201 | 54,113 | 26,390 | 19,656 |
| 6 | Mariahilf | 
|
 Gumpendorf Laimgrube Magdalenengrund Mariahilf Windmühle
|
1850 (bis 1861 als 5. Bezirk geführt) | 145 | 30,910 | 20,727 | 28,451 |
| 7 | Neubau | 
|
 Altlerchenfeld Neubau Sankt Ulrich Schottenfeld Spittelberg
Also small parts of the former suburbs Mariahilf, Laimgrube and Altlerchenfeld belong to Neubau |
1850 (till 1861 bound to the 6th District) | 161 | 31,222 | 18,884 | 35,183 |
| 8 | Josefstadt | 
|
 Alservorstadt Altlerchenfeld Breitenfeld Josefstadt Strozzigrund
|
1850 (bis 1861 als 7. Bezirk geführt); seit 1862 mit Teil der Alservorstadt (bis dahin beim 9. Bezirk) | 109 | 24,463 | 21,954 | 16,096 |
| 9 | Alserground | 
|
Alservorstadt Althangrund Himmelpfortgrund Lichtental Michelbeuern Rossau Thurygrund
|
1850 (bis 1861 als 8. Bezirk geführt); bis 1862 Alservorstadt auch südlich der Alser Straße, dann zum 8. Bezirk | 297 | 40,776 | 13,471 | 50,457 |
| 10 | Favoriten | 
|
File:AUT Favoriten COA.png Favoriten Inzersdorf-Stadt Inzersdorf-Stadt Oberlaa Oberlaa Rothneusiedl Rothneusiedl Unterlaa Unterlaa |
1850 nördlicher Teil im 4., ab 1861 auch 5. Bezirk; 1874 10. Bezirk, 1892 bis zur Donauländebahn; 1938: Arsenal zum 3. Bezirk; Rothneusiedl, Oberlaa, Unterlaa eingemeindet (23. Bezirk, Schwechat), seit 1954 im 10. Bezirk | 3,182 | 189,543 | 5,738 | 63,907 |
| 11 | Simmering | 
|
Albern Albern Kaiserebersdorf Kaiserebersdorf Simmering Simmering |
1892, 1938 (Albern 1938–1954 beim 23. Bezirk, Schwechat, 1954–1955 beim 2. Bezirk) | 2,326 | 95,162 | 3,968 | 34,667 |
| 12 | Meidling | 
|
Altmannsdorf Altmannsdorf File:AUT Gaudenzdorf COA.png Gaudenzdorf Hetzendorf Hetzendorf File:Obermeidling Wappen.png Obermeidling File:Untermeidling Wappen.png Untermeidling |
1892 | 810 | 92,092 | 11,060 | 35,755 |
| 13 | Hietzing | 
|
Hietzing Hietzing Unter-St.-Veit Unter-St.-Veit Ober-St.-Veit Ober-St.-Veit Hacking Hacking Lainz Lainz File:AUT Speising COA.png Speising |
1892; bis 1938 mit Baumgarten, Breitensee, Hütteldorf, Penzing; seit 1938 mit Friedensstadt, Siedlung Auhofer Trennstück und benachbarten Siedlungen; Lainzer Tiergarten 1938 eingemeindet (damals 25., jetzt 23. Bezirk; seit 1956 beim 13. Bezirk) | 3,772 | 52,085 | 1,348 | 25,791 |
| 14 | Penzing | 
|
Baumgarten Baumgarten Breitensee Breitensee Hadersdorf-Weidlingau Hadersdorf-Weidlingau Hütteldorf Hütteldorf Penzing Penzing |
1892 Baumgarten, Breitensee, Hütteldorf, Penzing Teile des 13. Bezirks, 1938 14. Bezirk mit Hadersdorf-Weidlingau | 3,376 | 89,184 | 2,555 | 28.651 |
| 15 | Rudolfsheim-FÜnfhaus | 
|
Rudolfsheim Rudolfsheim Fünfhaus Fünfhaus Sechshaus Sechshaus |
1892 (bis 1938: 14., Rudolfsheim; 15., Fünfhaus, dann bis 1957 Bezirksname Fünfhaus) | 392 | 76,168 | 18,738 | 28.808 |
| 16 | Ottakring | 
|
Neulerchenfeld Neulerchenfeld Ottakring Ottakring |
1892 | 867 | 100,520 | 11,248 | 29.492 |
| 17 | Hernals | 
|
Hernals Hernals Dornbach Dornbach Neuwaldegg Neuwaldegg |
1892 | 1,139 | 55,536 | 4,696 | 14.323 |
| 18 | Währing | 
|
Gerstdorf Gersthof Pötzleinsdorf Pötzleinsdorf Währing Währing Weinhaus Weinhaus |
1892 (bis 1938 mit Neustift am Walde und Salmannsdorf) | 635 | 49,085 | 7,588 | 14.407 |
| 19 | Döbling | 
|
Grinzing Grinzing Heiligenstadt Heiligenstadt Wappen fehlt Josefsdorf Kahlenbergerdorf Kahlenbergerdorf Neustift am Walde Neustift am Walde Nußdorf Nussdorf Oberdöbling Oberdöbling Salmannsdorf Salmannsdorf Sievering Sievering Unterdöbling Unterdöbling |
1892, Kuchelauer Hafen 1938; seit 1938 mit Neustift am Walde und Salmannsdorf (bis dahin 18. Bezirk) | 2,494 | 69,924 | 2,762 | 30.341 |
| 20 | Brigittenau | 
|
 Brigittenau Zwischenbrücken
|
1850 als Teil des 2. Bezirks, 1900 von diesem abgetrennt | 571 | 85,380 | 14,707 | 28.389 |
| 21 | Floridsdorf | 
|
 Donaufeld Floridsdorf Großjedlersdorf Jedlesee Leopoldau Stammersdorf Strebersdorf
|
1905, 1911 (Strebersdorf), 1905–1938 mit Aspern, Hirschstetten, Lobau, Stadlau, ab 1938 mit Stammersdorf, 1905–1954 mit Kagran, 1938–1954 mit Kaisermühlen | 4,444 | 151,740 | 3,297 | 53.911 |
| 22 | Donaustadt | 
|
 Aspern Breitenlee Eßling Hirschstetten KAgran Kaisermühlen Stadlau Süßenbrunn
|
1905–1938 Aspern, Hirschstetten, Lobau, Stadlau im 21. Bezirk; 1938 22. Bezirk, Groß-Enzersdorf, mit Breitenlee, Essling, Süßenbrunn; 1954 Kagran, Kaisermühlen vom 21. Bezirk, Groß-Enzersdorf u. a. zu Niederösterreich | 10,231 | 172,798 | 1,615 | 59,616 |
| 23 | Liesing | 
|
 Atzgersdorf Erlaa Inzersdorf Kalksburg Liesing Mauer Rodaun Siebenhirten
|
1938 25. Bezirk (mit größerem Umfang), 1954 23. Bezirk, 1956 Lainzer Tiergarten zum 13. Bezirk | 3,207 | 96,728 | 2,971 | 54.065 |
| Stadt Wien | 
|
— | — | 41,487 | 1,794,770 | 4,197 | 955,839 |
