Struggle for the city – exhibition at Wien Museum

Since 19 November Wien Museum has been showing what is one of the largest exhibitions in its recent history: “Struggle for the city: politics, art and urban life around the 1930s”. It features 1,800 objects in an area of 2,000 square metres and will run until 28 March 2010. Visitors are given an introduction to Austrian history in the 1930s with some contrasting comparisons: “asphalt and earth”, “bob versus plaits”, “city and country”.

Speaking at a press conference last week, museum director Wolfgang Kos surmised that the list of conflicting ideas and symbols in the 1920s and 1930s could be continued indefinitely. He spoke amongst other things of the dichotomy between “municipal authorities and national government” and the conflict between “emancipatory self-determination and reactionary Catholic conservatism”. The sinfulness of the city was opposed by the fear that Vienna was becoming a “provincial village” after the loss of its crown lands. As Kos put it, at the conclusion of the First World War Austria had suddenly become “an Alpine republic”. With time, the fronts hardened, with the confrontation between Vienna as a “red enclave” and a coalition of Catholics and German nationalists.

“Era of latent violence”

Following the crisis in 1929, none of the parties was able to deal successfully with the anxiety and consequences of the rising unemployment, which by 1933 had reached a level of 26 per cent. This drove many into the arms of the National Socialists. “It was an era of latent violence,” said Kos. The vehemence and intensity of the conflicts are also reflected in the posters by Viktor Slama, one of the most well known graphic artists in Vienna in the 1920s and 1930s. He designed “Der rote Mann spricht” (The red man speaks), for example, a Social Democratic poster for the local elections in 1927 that highlighted the achievements by the Social Democratic party in terms of public housing.




While in office, the Social Democrats had indeed managed to complete 400 public housing projects in Vienna, and in 1933 the city was responsible for some 60,000 apartments. Alongside its reforms of the education and health systems, dealing with the housing shortage was one of the mainstays of the party platform. In spite of this, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) still managed to harvest 17.4 per cent of the vote in the 1932 local elections. The conflicts between the two irreconcilable convictions became more and more acute and ended in the Austro-Fascist dictatorship and Hitler’s annexation of Austria.

Bright lights and public morals

The conflicts and contradictions were not confined to the world of politics, however. The schisms in society were also evident in everyday culture. While some called for stricter morality, others sought their pleasures in establishments featuring mass culture imported from America. Cinemas and revues provided an explosive source of discussion and controversy. The urban landscape had also changed radically with the introduction of electric lighting in Vienna to replace the old gas lamps. There were illuminated advertisements for the first time and a marked increase in the number of motorised vehicles on the streets.

The bustle of the city was contrasted with the idyllic peace of the countryside.
With this in mind, a large number of nature clubs were formed at this time by representatives of all political hues, from the German Nationalist and Catholics to the Socialists and young Zionists, training for possible emigration to Palestine.

Presentation of different mentalities

‘Heurige’ (wine taverns) remained highly popular as they enabled visitors to enjoy themselves without spending a lot of money. The wine was cheap and guests could bring their own food with them. For a long time they were a “truce area in a fragmented world”, as the text accompanying the exhibition puts it: alcohol as a common element and the subject matter of many a traditional song (‘Wienerlied’). “We wanted to show not only facts but also the different mentalities,” says Kos. “The 1930s are very remote and people know little about them. There are plenty of art exhibitions but there has never been an all-embracing overview of this type.” Our aim is to provide a “viewing tower”.