Vienna 

(/viˈɛnə/ ( listen) vee-EN-ə;[7][8] German: Wien [viːn] ( listen); Austro-Bavarian: Wean [veɐ̯n]) is

the capital, largest city, and one of nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's most populous city and
its primate city, with about two million inhabitants[9] (2.9 million within the metropolitan area,[10] nearly
one third of the country's population), and its cultural, economic, and political center. It is the 5th-
largest city proper by population in the European Union and the largest of all cities on the Danube
river.
Until the beginning of the 20th century, Vienna was the largest German-speaking city in the world,
and before the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I, the city had two million
inhabitants.[11] Today, it is the second-largest German-speaking city after Berlin.[12][13] Vienna is host to
many major international organizations, including the United Nations, OPEC and the OSCE. The city
is located in the eastern part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech
Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. These regions work together in a European Centrope border
region. Along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants.
In 2001, the city center was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In July 2017 it was moved
to the list of World Heritage in Danger.[14]
Additionally, Vienna is known[by whom?] as the "City of Music"[15] due to its musical legacy, as many
famous classical musicians such as Beethoven and Mozart called Vienna home. Vienna is also said
to be the "City of Dreams" because it was home to the world's first psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud.
[16]
 Vienna's ancestral roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into
a Medieval and Baroque city. It is well known for having played a pivotal role as a leading European
music center, from the age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The
historic center of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque palaces and gardens,
and the late-19th-century Ringstraße lined with grand buildings, monuments and parks.[17]

Etymology
See also: Names of European cities in different languages: U–Z §  V
The English name Vienna is borrowed from the homonymous Italian name. The etymology of the
city's name is still subject to scholarly dispute. Some claim that the name comes from vedunia,
meaning "forest stream", which subsequently produced the Old High German uuenia (wenia in
modern writing), the New High German wien and its dialectal variant wean.[18][19][20]
Others believe that the name comes from the Roman settlement name of Celtic
extraction Vindobona, probably meaning "fair village, white settlement" from Celtic roots, vindo-,
meaning "bright" or "fair" (as in the Irish fionn and the Welsh gwyn), and -bona "village, settlement".
[21]
 The Celtic word vindos may reflect a widespread prehistorical cult of Vindos, a Celtic deity who
survives in Irish mythology as the warrior and seer Fionn mac Cumhaill.[22][23] A variant of this Celtic
name could be preserved in the Czech, Slovak, Polish and Ukrainian names of the city
(Vídeň, Viedeň, Wiedeń and Відень respectively) and in that of the city's district Wieden.[24]
Another theory suggests the name comes from the Wends (Old English: Winedas; Old
Norse: Vindr; German: Wenden,
Winden; Danish: vendere; Swedish: vender; Polish: Wendowie; Czech: Vendové) which is a
historical name for Slavs living near Germanic settlement areas.
The name of the city in Hungarian (Bécs), Serbo-Croatian (Beč, Беч) and Ottoman
Turkish (Turkish: Beç) has a different, probably Slavonic origin, and originally referred to an Avar fort
in the area.[25] Slovene speakers call the city Dunaj, which in other Central European Slavic
languages means the river Danube, on which the city stands.

History
Main article: History of Vienna
For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Vienna.

Early history

Depiction of Vienna in the Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493

Vienna in 1683

Evidence has been found of continuous habitation in the Vienna area since 500 BC,
when Celts settled the site on the Danube.[26] 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) served as Bishop of Salzburg for forty years. Irish Benedictines founded twelfth-century
monastic settlements; evidence of these ties persists in the form of Vienna's
great Schottenstift monastery (Scots Abbey), once home to many Irish monks.

Vienna from Belvedere by Bernardo Bellotto, 1758

In 976, Leopold I of Babenberg became count of the Eastern March, a district centered 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 in Lower Austria to Vienna. From that time, Vienna remained
the center of the Babenberg dynasty.[27]
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 (800–1806) in 1437 and a cultural center for arts and
science, music and fine cuisine. Hungary occupied the city between 1485 and 1490.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, Christian forces twice stopped Ottoman armies outside Vienna, in the
1529 siege of Vienna and the 1683 Battle of Vienna. The Great Plague of Vienna ravaged the city in
1679, killing nearly a third of its population.[28]
Austrian Empire and the early 20th century

Vienna's Ringstraße and the State Opera in around 1870

In 1804, during the Napoleonic Wars, Vienna became the capital of the newly formed Austrian
Empire. The city continued to play a major role in European and world politics, including hosting
the Congress of Vienna in 1814–15. The city also saw major uprisings against Habsburg rule
in 1848, which were suppressed. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, Vienna remained
the capital of what became the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city functioned as a center of classical
music, for which the title of the First Viennese School (Haydn/Mozart/Beethoven) is sometimes
applied.

Color lithograph of Vienna, 1900

During the latter half of the 19th century, Vienna 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 capital of the Republic of German-Austria, and then in
1919 of the First Republic of Austria.
From the late-19th century to 1938, the city remained a center of high culture and of modernism. A
world capital of music, Vienna 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 in art, psychoanalysis,
the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg, Webern), the architecture of Adolf Loos and the
philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle. In 1913 Adolf Hitler, Leon Trotsky, Josip
Broz Tito, Sigmund Freud and Joseph Stalin all lived within a few kilometers of each other in central
Vienna, some of them becoming regulars at the same coffeehouses.[29] Austrians came to regard
Vienna as a center of socialist politics, sometimes referred to as "Red Vienna" (Das rote Wien). In
the Austrian Civil War of 1934 Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss sent the Austrian Army to shell civilian
housing such as the Karl Marx-Hof occupied by the socialist militia.

Anschluss and World War II

Main article: Anschluss
Crowds greet Adolf Hitler as he rides in an open car through Vienna in March 1938

In 1938, after a triumphant entry into Austria, the Austrian-born German Chancellor Adolf

Hitler spoke to the Austrian Germans from the balcony of the Neue Burg, a part of the Hofburg at
the Heldenplatz. In the ensuing days the new Nazi authorities oversaw the harassment of Viennese
Jews, the looting of their homes, and their on-going deportation and murder.[30][31] Between 1938 (after
the Anschluss) and the end of the Second World War in 1945, Vienna lost its status as a capital
to Berlin, because Austria ceased to exist and became part of Nazi Germany.
During the November pogroms on November 9, 1938, 92 synagogues in Vienna were destroyed.
Only the city temple in the 1st district was spared, as the data of all Jews in Vienna were collected in
the adjacent archives. Adolf Eichmann held office in the expropriated Palais Rothschild and
organized the expropriation and persecution of the Jews. Of the almost 200,000 Jews in Vienna,
around 120,000 were driven to emigrate and around 65,000 were killed. After the end of the war, the
Jewish population of Vienna was only about 5,000.[32][33][34][35]
Vienna was also the center of the important resistance group around Heinrich Maier, which provided
the Allies with plans for V-1, V-2 rockets, Peenemünde, Tiger tanks, Messerschmitt Bf
109, Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet and other aircraft. The information was important to Operation
Crossbow and Operation Hydra, both preliminary missions for Operation Overlord. In addition,
factory locations for war-essential products were communicated as targets for the Allied Air Force.
The group was exposed and most of its members were executed after months of torture by the
Gestapo in Vienna.[36][37][38][39] The group around the later executed Karl Burian even tried to blow up the
Gestapo headquarters in the Hotel Metropole.[40]
On 2 April 1945, the Soviet Red Army launched the Vienna Offensive against the Germans holding
the city and besieged it. British and American air-raids, as well as artillery duels between the Red
Army and the SS and Wehrmacht, crippled infrastructure, such as tram services and water- and
power-distribution, and destroyed or damaged thousands of public and private buildings. The Red
Army was helped by an Austrian resistance group in the German Wehrmacht. The group tried under
the code name Radetzky to prevent the destruction and fighting in the city. Vienna fell eleven days
later.[41] At the end of the war, Austria again became separated from Germany, and Vienna regained
its status as the capital city of the Republic of Austria, but the Soviet hold[citation needed] on the city
remained until 1955, when Austria regained full sovereignty.

Four-power Vienna
Further information: Allied-occupied Austria
Occupation zones in Vienna, 1945–55

After the war, Vienna was part of Soviet-occupied Eastern Austria until September 1945. As in
Berlin, Vienna in September 1945 was divided into sectors by the four powers: the US, the UK,
France, and the Soviet Union and supervised by an Allied Commission. The four-power occupation
of Vienna differed in one key respect from that of Berlin: the central area of the city, known as the
first district, constituted an international zone in which the four powers alternated control on a
monthly basis. The control was policed by the four powers on a de facto day-to-day basis, the
famous "four soldiers in a jeep" method.[42] The Berlin Blockade of 1948 raised Western concerns that
the Soviets might repeat the blockade in Vienna. The matter was raised in the UK House of
Commons by MP Anthony Nutting, who asked: "What plans have the Government for dealing with a
similar situation in Vienna? Vienna is in exactly a similar position to Berlin."[43]
There was a lack of airfields in the Western sectors, and authorities drafted contingency plans to
deal with such a blockade. Plans included the laying down of metal landing mats at Schönbrunn.
The Soviets did not blockade the city. The Potsdam Agreement included written rights of land
access to the western sectors, whereas no such written guarantees had covered the western sectors
of Berlin. Also, there was no precipitating event to cause a blockade in Vienna. (In Berlin, the
Western powers had introduced a new currency in early 1948 to economically freeze out the
Soviets.) During the 10 years of the four-power occupation, Vienna became a hotbed for
international espionage between the Western and Eastern blocs. In the wake of the Berlin Blockade,
the Cold War in Vienna took on a different dynamic. While accepting that Germany and Berlin would
be divided, the Soviets had decided against allowing the same state of affairs to arise in Austria and
Vienna. Here, the Soviet forces controlled districts 2, 4, 10, 20, 21, and 22 and all areas incorporated
into Vienna in 1938.
Barbed wire fences were installed around the perimeter of West Berlin in 1953, but not in Vienna. By
1955, the Soviets, by signing the Austrian State Treaty, agreed to relinquish their occupation zones
in Eastern Austria as well as their sector in Vienna. In exchange they required that Austria declare its
permanent neutrality after the allied powers had left the country. Thus they ensured that Austria
would not be a member of NATO and that NATO forces would therefore not have direct
communications between Italy and West Germany.
The atmosphere of four-power Vienna is the background for Graham Greene's screenplay for the
film The Third Man (1949). Later he adapted the screenplay as a novel and published it. Occupied
Vienna is also depicted in the 1991 Philip Kerr novel, A German Requiem.

Austrian State Treaty and afterwards

Vienna in 1966

The four-power control of Vienna lasted until the Austrian State Treaty was signed in May 1955. That
year, after years of reconstruction and restoration, the State Opera and the Burgtheater, both on the
Ringstraße, reopened to the public. The Soviet Union signed the State Treaty only after having been
provided with a political guarantee by the federal government to declare Austria's neutrality after the
withdrawal of the allied troops. This law of neutrality, passed in late October 1955 (and not the State
Treaty itself), ensured that modern Austria would align with neither NATO nor the Soviet bloc, and is
considered one of the reasons for Austria's delayed entry into the European Union in 1995.
In the 1970s, Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky inaugurated the Vienna International Center, a new
area of the city created to host international institutions. Vienna has regained much of its former
international stature by hosting international organizations, such as the United Nations (United
Nations Industrial Development Organization, United Nations Office at Vienna and United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban
Treaty Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Demographics
Historical population

Year Pop. ±%

1637 60,000 —    

1683 90,000 +50.0%

1710 113,800 +26.4%

1754 175,460 +54.2%

1783 247,753 +41.2%

1793 271,800 +9.7%

1830 401,200 +47.6%

1840 469,400 +17.0%

1850 551,300 +17.4%

1857 683,000 +23.9%

1869 900,998 +31.9%

1880 1,162,591 +29.0%

1890 1,430,213 +23.0%

1900 1,769,137 +23.7%

1910 2,083,630 +17.8%

1916 2,239,000 +7.5%

1923 1,918,720 −14.3%

1934 1,935,881 +0.9%

1939 1,770,938 −8.5%

1951 1,616,125 −8.7%

1961 1,627,566 +0.7%

1971 1,619,885 −0.5%

1981 1,535,145 −5.2%

1990 1,492,636 −2.8%

2000 1,548,537 +3.7%

2005 1,632,569 +5.4%

2010 1,689,995 +3.5%

 2015 1,797,337 +6.4%

2020 1,911,728 +6.4%

2020 data[44]</ref>

Vienna population pyramid in 2022

Significant foreign resident groups[45]

Population as of
Nationality
1 January 2021

 Serbia 77,691

 Germany 51,900

 Turkey 45,708

 Poland 44,173

 Bosnia and Herzegovina 40,409

 Romania 38,373

 Syria 26,540

 Hungary 25,966

 Croatia 24,453

 Bulgaria 20,507

Because of the industrialization and migration from other parts of the Empire, the population of
Vienna increased sharply during its time as the capital of Austria-Hungary (1867–1918). In 1910,
Vienna had more than two million inhabitants, and was the third largest city in Europe after London
and Paris.[46] Around the start of the 20th century, Vienna was the city with the second-
largest Czech population in the world (after Prague).[47] After World War I,
many Czechs and Hungarians returned to their ancestral countries, resulting in a decline in the
Viennese population. After World War II, the Soviets used force to repatriate key workers of Czech,
Slovak and Hungarian origins to return to their ethnic homelands to further the Soviet bloc economy.
[citation needed]
 The population of Vienna generally stagnated or declined through the remainder of the 20th
century, not demonstrating significant growth again until the census of 2000. In 2020, Vienna's
population remained significantly below its reported peak in 1916.
Under the Nazi regime, 65,000 Jews were deported and murdered in concentration camps by Nazi
forces; approximately 130,000 fled.[48]
By 2001, 16% of people living in Austria had nationalities other than Austrian, nearly half of whom
were from former Yugoslavia;[49][50] the next most numerous nationalities in Vienna
were Turks (39,000; 2.5%), Poles (13,600; 0.9%) and Germans (12,700; 0.8%).[51]
As of 2012, an official report from Statistics Austria showed that more than 660,000 (38.8%) of the
Viennese population have full or partial migrant background, mostly from Ex-Yugoslavia, Turkey,
Germany, Poland, Romania and Hungary.[9][52]
From 2005 to 2015 the city's population grew by 10.1%.[53] According to UN-Habitat, Vienna could be
the fastest growing city out of 17 European metropolitan areas until 2025 with an increase of 4.65%
of its population, compared to 2010.[54]

Population by migration background[55]

Population 2021

Native born 966,500

Population with 1st gen migration background 663,800

Population with 2nd gen migration

255,100
background

Total 1,885,400

Religion
Religion in Vienna (2021)[56]

  Unaffiliated (34%)
  Catholic Church (32%)
  Eastern Orthodoxy (11%)
  Islam (15%)
  Other (8%)

According to the 2001 census, 49.2% of Viennese were Catholic, while 25.7% were of no religion,
7.8% were Muslim, 6.0% were members of an Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, 4.7% were
Protestant (mostly Lutheran), 0.5% were Jewish and 6.3% were either of other religions or did not
reply.[51] A 2011 report by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis showed the
proportions had changed, with 41.3% Catholic, 31.6% no affiliation, 11.6% Muslim, 8.4% Eastern
Orthodox, 4.2% Protestant, and 2.9% other.[57]
Based on information provided to city officials by various religious organizations about their
membership, Vienna's Statistical Yearbook 2019 reports in 2018 an estimated 610,269 Roman
Catholics, or 32.3% of the population, and 195,000 (10.3%) Muslims, 70,298 (3.7%) Orthodox,
57,502 (3.0%) other Christians, and 9,504 (0.5%) other religions.[58] A study conducted by the Vienna
Institute of Demography estimated the 2018 proportions to be 34% Catholic, 30% unaffiliated, 15%
Muslim, 10% Orthodox, 4% Protestant, and 6% other religions.[59][60]
As of the spring of 2014, Muslims made up 30% of the total proportion of schoolchildren in Vienna.[61]
[62]

Vienna is the seat of the Metropolitan Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna, in which is also
vested the exempt Ordinariate for Byzantine-Rite Catholics in Austria;
its Archbishop is Cardinal Christoph Schönborn. Many Catholic churches in central Vienna feature
performances of religious or other music, including masses sung to classical music and organ. Some
of Vienna's most significant historical buildings are Catholic churches, including the St. Stephen's
Cathedral (Stephansdom), Karlskirche, Peterskirche and the Votivkirche. On the banks of the
Danube, there is a Buddhist Peace Pagoda, built in 1983 by the monks and nuns of Nipponzan
Myohoji.

Geography

Satellite image of Vienna (2018)

Vienna is located in northeastern Austria, at the easternmost extension of the Alps in the Vienna

Basin. The earliest settlement, at the location of today's inner city, was south of the meandering
Danube while the city now spans both sides of the river. Elevation ranges from 151 to 542 m (495 to
1,778 ft). The city has a total area of 414.65 square kilometers (160.1 sq mi), making it the largest
city in Austria by area.

Climate
Vienna has an oceanic climate (Köppen classification Cfb), transitioning to a humid
subtropical climate Cfa, in the urban core in recent decades, with summer average temperatures
pushing over 22C/72F in July and August in the Innere Stadt. The city has warm summers, with
periodical precipitations that can reach its yearly peak in July and August (66.6 and 66.5 mm
respectively) and average high temperatures from June to September of approximately 21 to 27 °C
(70 to 81 °F), with a record maximum exceeding 38 °C (100 °F) and a record low in September of
5.6 °C (42 °F). Winters are relatively dry and cold with average temperatures at about freezing point.
Spring is variable and autumn cool, with possible snowfalls already in November. Precipitation is
generally moderate throughout the year, averaging around 550 mm (21.7 in) annually, with
considerable local variations, the Vienna Woods region in the west being the wettest part (700 to
800 mm (28 to 31 in) annually) and the flat plains in the east being the driest part (500 to 550 mm
(20 to 22 in) annually). Snow in winter is common, even if not so frequent compared to the Western
and Southern regions of Austria.

hideClimate data for Vienna (Hohe Warte) 1991–2020, extremes 1775–present

Ma Ap Ma No Yea
Month Jan Feb Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Dec
r r y v r

25. 29. 34. 36. 34. 27. 21. 16.

18.7 20.6 39.5 38.4 39.5
Record high °C 5 5 0 5 0 8 7 1
(65. (69. (103 (101 (103.
(°F) (77. (85. (93. (97. (93. (82. (71. (61.
7) 1) .1) .1) 1)
9) 1) 2) 7) 2) 0) 1) 0)

10. 17. 20. 25. 21. 14.

3.5 6.5 26.4 26.1 8.8 4.0 15.4
Average high °C 7 2 7 1 1 3
(38. (43. (79. (79. (47. (39. (59.7
(°F) (51. (63. (69. (77. (70. (57.
3) 7) 5) 0) 8) 2) )
3) 0) 3) 2) 0) 7)

11. 16. 20. 16. 11.

1.1 2.8 6.9 21.9 21.6 6.2 1.8 11.5
Daily mean °C 9 3 0 6 2
(34. (37. (44. (71. (70. (43. (35. (52.7
(°F) (53. (61. (68. (61. (52.
0) 0) 4) 4) 9) 2) 2) )
4) 3) 0) 9) 2)

10. 14. 12. −0.

−1.3 −0.5 2.6 6.7 15.9 15.6 7.3 3.7 7.2
Average low °C 7 7 0 4
(29. (31. (36. (44. (60. (60. (45. (38. (45.0
(°F) (51. (58. (53. (31.
7) 1) 7) 1) 6) 1) 1) 7) )
3) 5) 6) 3)

−23. −26. −16 −8. −1. −0. −9. −14 −20 −26.
3.2 6.9 6.5
Record low °C 8 0 .3 1 8 6 1 .3 .7 0
(37. (44. (43.
(°F) (−10 (−14 (2.7 (17. (28. (30. (15. (6.3 (−5. (−14
8) 4) 7)
.8) .8) ) 4) 8) 9) 6) ) 3) .8)
 51. 41. 78. 70. 64. 46. 46. 46. 673.
42.1 38.1 77.7 69.1
Average precipita 6 8 9 0 1 9 0 8 1
(1.6 (1.5 (3.0 (2.7
tion mm (inches) (2.0 (1.6 (3.1 (2.7 (2.5 (1.8 (1.8 (1.8 (26.5
6) 0) 6) 2)
3) 5) 1) 6) 2) 5) 1) 4) 0)

10.
5.2 1.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.4 3.2 50.2
Average snowfall 15.9 13.6 0.0 0.0 8
(2.0 (0.4 (0.0 (0.0 (0.0 (0.2 (1.3 (19.9
cm (inches) (6.3) (5.4) (0.0) (0.0) (4.3
) ) ) ) ) ) ) )
)

Average
precipitation 8.7 7.1 8.7 6.5 9.4 8.4 8.9 7.9 7.4 7.2 7.6 8.6 96.4
days (≥ 1.0 mm)

Average snowy
11.4 8.8 3.4 0.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 1.6 6.2 31.8
days (≥ 1.0 cm)

Average relative
57. 51. 54. 54. 58. 66. 74. 76.
humidity (%) (at 73.4 64.9 53.3 52.8 61.5
7 6 6 4 4 2 3 6
14:00)

Mean
104. 155 216 248 260 273. 266. 191 129 67. 57. 2,04
monthly sunshine 70.2
9 .1 .5 .3 .5 6 3 .7 .9 7 1 1.8
hours

Percent possible 43. 54. 54. 56. 52. 40. 25. 22.

26.4 37.5 58.6 62.1 44.4
sunshine 0 1 4 3 2 0 1 6

Source 1: Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics[63]

Source 2: Meteo Climat (record highs and lows),[64] wien.orf.at[65]

showClimate data for Vienna (Innere Stadt) 1991–2020, extremes 1961–

 2020

World heritage in danger

Vienna was moved to the UNESCO world heritage in endangered list in 2017. The main reason was
a planned high-rise development.[68] The city's social democratic party planned construction of a
6,500 m2 (70,000 sq ft) complex in 2019.[68] The plan includes a 66.3 m (218 ft)-high tower, which was
reduced from 75 m (246 ft) due to opposition.[68] UNESCO believed that the project "fails to comply
fully with previous committee decisions, notably concerning the height of new constructions, which
will impact adversely the outstanding universal value of the site."[68] UNESCO set the restriction for
the height of the construction in the city center to 43 m (141 ft).[68]
The citizens of Vienna also opposed the construction of the complex because they are afraid of
losing UNESCO status and also of encouraging future high-rise development.[68] The city officials
replied that they will convince the WHC to maintain UNESCO world heritage status and said that no
further high-rise developments are being planned.[68]
UNESCO is concerned about the height of high-rise development in Vienna as it can dramatically
influence the visual integrity of the city,[69] specifically the baroque palaces.[69] Visual impact studies
are being done in the Vienna city center to assess the level of visual disturbance to visitors and how
the changes influenced the city's visual integrity.[69]

Districts and enlargement

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; with the notable
exception of the police, which is under federal supervision.
District residents in Vienna (Austrians as well as EU citizens with permanent residence here) elect a
District Assembly (Bezirksvertretung). City hall has delegated maintenance budgets, e.g., for schools
and parks, so that the districts are able to set priorities autonomously. Any decision of a district can
be overridden by the city assembly (Gemeinderat) or the responsible city councilor (amtsführender
Stadtrat).
Albertina Terrace in the Innere Stadt

The heart and historical city of Vienna, a large part of today's Innere Stadt, was a fortress
surrounded by fields in order to defend itself from potential attackers. In 1850, Vienna with the
consent of the emperor annexed 34 surrounding villages,[70] called Vorstädte, into the city limits
(districts no. 2 to 8, after 1861 with the separation of Margareten from Wieden no. 2 to 9).
Consequently, the walls were razed after 1857,[71] making it possible for the city center to expand.
In their place, a broad boulevard called the Ringstraße was built, along which imposing public and
private buildings, monuments, and parks were created by the start of the 20th century. These
buildings include the Rathaus (town hall), the Burgtheater, the University, the Parliament, the twin
museums of natural history and fine art, and the Staatsoper. It is also the location of New Wing of
the Hofburg, the former imperial palace, and the Imperial and Royal War Ministry finished in 1913.
The mainly Gothic Stephansdom is located at the center of the city, on Stephansplatz. The Imperial-
Royal Government set up the Vienna City Renovation Fund (Wiener Stadterneuerungsfonds) and
sold many building lots to private investors, thereby partly financing public construction works.

The Ring Road (Ringstraße) with a historical tram

From 1850 to 1890, city limits in the West and the South mainly followed another wall
called Linienwall at which a road toll called the Liniengeld was charged. Outside this wall from 1873
onwards a ring road called Gürtel was built. In 1890 it was decided to integrate 33 suburbs (called
Vororte) beyond that wall into Vienna by 1 January 1892[72] and transform them into districts no. 11 to
19 (district no. 10 had been constituted in 1874); hence the Linienwall was torn down beginning in
1894.[73] In 1900, district no. 20, Brigittenau, was created by separating the area from the 2nd district.
From 1850 to 1904, Vienna had expanded only on the right bank of the Danube, following the main
branch before the regulation of 1868–1875, i.e., the Old Danube of today. In 1904, the 21st district
was created by integrating Floridsdorf, Kagran, Stadlau, Hirschstetten, Aspern and other villages on
the left bank of the Danube into Vienna, in 1910 Strebersdorf followed. On 15 October 1938 the
Nazis created Great Vienna with 26 districts by merging 97 towns and villages into Vienna, 80 of
which were returned to surrounding Lower Austria in 1954.[72] Since then Vienna has had 23 districts.
Industries are located mostly in the southern and eastern districts. The Innere Stadt is situated away
from the main flow of the Danube, but is bounded by the Donaukanal ("Danube canal"). Vienna's
second and twentieth districts are located between the Donaukanal and the Danube. Across the
Danube, where the Vienna International Center is located (districts 21–22), and in the southern
areas (district 23) are the newest parts of the city.

Politics
Political history

The Debating Chamber of the former House of Deputies of Austria in the parliament

In the twenty years before the First World War and until 1918, Viennese politics were shaped by
the Christian Social Party. In particular, long-term mayor Karl Lueger was able to not apply the
general voting rights for men introduced by and for the parliament of imperial Austria, the Reichsrat,
in 1907, thereby excluding most of the working class from taking part in decisions. For Adolf Hitler,
who spent some years in Vienna, Lueger was a teacher of how to use antisemitism in politics.
Vienna is today considered the center of the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ). During the period of
the First Republic (1918–1934), the Vienna Social Democrats undertook many social reforms. At
that time, Vienna's municipal policy was admired by Socialists throughout Europe, who therefore
referred to the city as "Red Vienna" (Rotes Wien). In February 1934 troops of the Austrian federal
government under Engelbert Dollfuss, who had closed down the first chamber of the federal
parliament, the Nationalrat, in 1933, and paramilitary socialist organizations were engaged in the
Austrian Civil War, which led to the ban of the Social Democratic party.
The SPÖ has held the mayor's office and control of the city council/parliament at every free election
since 1919. The only break in this SPÖ dominance came between 1934 and 1945, when the Social
Democratic Party was illegal, mayors were appointed by the austro-fascist and later by
the Nazi authorities. The mayor of Vienna is Michael Ludwig of the SPÖ.
The city has enacted many social democratic policies. The Gemeindebauten are social housing
assets that are well integrated into the city architecture outside the first or "inner" district. The low
rents enable comfortable accommodation and good access to the city amenities. Many of the
projects were built after the Second World War on vacant lots that were destroyed by bombing
during the war. The city took particular pride in building them to a high standard.