Wohnen in Wien

Vom Leben im Gemeindebau

Abstract

What started around 100 years ago is today a global model. In the years of the so-called “Red Vienna” after the World War One, municipal housing was the courageous political answer to the enormous housing shortage and the catastrophic housing conditions. While other cities and metropolitan areas gave way to neoliberal privatization trends, the City of Vienna stuck to the tried and tested model of municipal housing and is thus able to provide the population with affordable housing on a large scale to this day. The article traces this successful housing policy and illuminates the current social challenges and political solution strategies of the housing crisis using Vienna as an example, but also pointing beyond it.