Margareten, Vienna, Austria

🇦🇹 Margareten (Magredn) is the fifth district of Vienna (5. Bezirk, Margareten). It is near the old town of Vienna and was established as a district in 1850, but borders changed later. Margareten is a residential urban area, with over 25,000 inhabitants per km², one of the most densely populated districts in Vienna. The district is named after Margaret of Antioch.

Description The district of Margareten was formed from six suburbs. The former city of Margareten itself developed from an estate with the same name and was later built into a castle. It was destroyed in both Turkish sieges of Vienna, but rebuilt each time. Nearby lay Nikolsdorf, which was systemically laid out in the period 1555-1568 and named after the convent of St. Nikolai. Matzleinsdorf emerged in 1130 and was property of the Babenberger family. The name Laurenzergrund ("St. Lawrence ground") comes from an area in Matzleindorf with the Laurenzer gully. After the closing of the convent by Emperor Joseph II, it became an independent city.

Reinprechtsdorf was a village in the Middle Ages, abandoned earlier, but the name remained as a path waypoint. In 1730, residential houses were again built in the area. Nearby, a hunting lodge was built, wherefrom the suburb Hundsturm ("Hounds tower") gets its name. The hunting lodge was later replaced with a fort, which was taken down by 1885.

Those six areas, along with a number of others, were incorporated on 5 March 1850 into the fourth district of Wieden. After a long debate over the different social circumstances of the population, in 1861 the fifth district was separated. In 1873 the district lost its southern area to the, much larger, 10th district, Favoriten. Since then, the formerly rural district has become a thickly populated urban area with many workers and eventually large residential homes.

Geography: Location Margareten is in the south-west of Vienna and is bounded to the north by the Vienna River, in the west and south by the Gürtel belt. The Vienna River is also the border to the district Mariahilf, while the belt is the boundary of the districts Favoriten and Meidling. The eastern district boundary with Wieden runs contrary to the other inner districts in the transverse rather than longitudinal. Thus, the district boundary follows the streets: Kettenbrückengasse, Margaretenstraße, Kleine Neugasse, Mittersteig, Ziegelofengasse, Blechturmgasse until the Gürtel belt. Margareten is the only district within the Vienna Belt which is not within the Inner City borders.

The district area is part of the Katastralgemeinde Margareten, which has a hectare of the territory of the neighboring district Mariahilf. The lowest point in Margareten is nearly 174 metres (571 ft) in the Wiental. In the south (at Wienerberg hill), the land rises slightly. Margareten has no sharp altitudes, or mountains: the total height difference is approximately 30 metres (98 ft).

Land Use The developed area of Margareten is 63.8% (Vienna citywide 33.32%), with around 82% accounted for by residential area. With 31.7%, the traffic area takes the second highest percentage of the district area (for Vienna citywide traffic is only 13.75%). The green spaces cover only 4.54% of the district area (for Vienna citywide: 48.26%), while 91.54% will be used for parks. Courtyards, individual trees, groups of trees, and green plants are the largest in percentage share of green areas, in addition to the approximately 80 rooftop gardens to count. Only three other districts (Neubau, Mariahilf and Josefstadt) have even less green space than Margareten, which since 2000, has doubled the proportion of green space. Superficial waters, forests, small gardens or agricultural areas are absent from Margareten.

Rivers and springs In the seven wells area of Oberreinprechtsdorf, arise many springs. In 1562, the Imperial Court finally got its own first water supply by the Siebenbrunner Hofwasserleitung, which was commissioned and built by Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I. The water was collected in seven wells and run through cast-iron pipes to a reservoir under the Augustinian bastion in Vienna, from where it was piped into the Hofburg Palace. By Margareten Fountain at Margareten Square, the Emperor permitted from 1829, the citizens to use the Hofwasserleitung. Today, the seven wells are shown through the Siebenbrunnen at Siebenbrunnenplatz.

Geology Margareten mainly consists of Pleistocene terrace pebbles, from the period between 1.75 million years ago and 11,500 years ago (in the course of the Ice Age). The district lies largely on the Wienerberg terrace, which originated in the Beestonian stage. In the area of the Vienna River, there are also loess, and loess loam soils, particularly in the part of Margareten. Near the river there are extant Vienna deposits (Grobklastika), which have a small size and thickness. Due to origin from the Flyschzone, they are made of clay or sandstone plates and therefore, have little relevance to the groundwater in the city.

History The current District of Margareten included, in the time before 1850, several independent suburbs. The history of the various suburbs by 1850 can be found on the respective entries (below).

For following former suburbs of the district formed Margareten: • Hundsturm • Hungelbrunn (some of it is in District Wieden) • Laurenzergrund • Margareten • Matzleinsdorf • Nikolsdorf • Reinprechtsdorf

Margareten joins the Fifth District All suburbs of the current Margareten District, along with many nearby, were incorporated on 6 March 1850 as the 4th District Wieden. After lengthy debate, the current 5th District was cut from that in 1861, because of the different conditions within the district. The reason was that the then great expansion of the district Wieden had economically disabled the administration. Moreover, the possibility of facilitating the monitoring and awareness of historically evolved social, economic and structural differences, also helped to change the district division from the year 1850, in line with the existing police districts of Wieden and Margareten.

Thus, the then 4th District has been separated in the transverse direction. The district boundary was then defined as follows: Kettenbrückengasse, today's Margaret Street, Little Neugasse, Mittersteig, Ziegelofengasse, Blechturmgasse, on the Linienwall (now Vienna Belt) for Matzleinsdorfer Catholic Cemetery (now Waldmüllerpark), along the Laxenburger Street by Wienerberg hill. This boundary line separated the citizens of the 4th district Wieden, with approximately 55,000 residents, from the 5th district (Margareten district) with about 32,000 residents.

In 1874, Margareten lost the entire section at the south part of the Vienna Belt (e.g., Protestant Cemetery Matzleinsdorf) to the 10th District Favoriten. In 1907, Margareten reduced by the cession of the west, outside of the belt part of the former suburban Hundsturm ("Neumargareten" including Hundsturm Cemetery), to the 12th District Meidling, its surface area to the present size.

The time until World War I The 5th District appeared at its inception as still predominantly rural in character, especially against the Liner Wall, where there were numerous parks, gardens, meadows, fields and vegetable fields. The area south-west of the district could not be built until 1870, when the seven sources since 1562 served as the Vienna's water supply Hofwasserleitung. The space was sparsely populated between the current Margaret Street and Siebenbrunnengasse. The Reinprechtsdorferstraße street was then installed only in its lower course. Most existing streets still ended up as deadends.

Margareten was originally an artisan district, which developed in the 19th century, by the growing population, into a working-class district. With increasing industrialization, until the turn of the century in many ways, the shift came from rural or suburban areas to more a densely built-up urban area. In 1869, in 921 houses lived around 54,000 inhabitants. Up to 1900, the number of houses rose to 1579 and the number of dwellings was approximately 25,300. Margareten lived in the century about 107,000 inhabitants. The biggest problem in Margareten presented the unfavorable living conditions. An average apartment, of room and kitchen, was home to more than four people. Between 1860 and 1912, in the district some major institutions were created: an orphanage (1864), an Almshouse and Hartmannspital (1865). The new administration building in the Schönbrunnerstraße 54 was obtained in 1867 and opened in 1872, with the Margaretenbad. In 1877, the oldest Volksbildungsverein of Vienna (today: VHS polycollege) was founded, and in 1909 to 1911 the house in the Stöbergasse 11-15 was included. The gaslight came relatively late, installed in 1899, and in 1911, the Vienna River was vaulted (enclosed). In the vicinity of the Naschmarkt in 1902, Rüdigerhof was built by the architect Oskar Marmorek. Between 1907 and 1908, the association Beth Aharon established a synagogue at Siebenbrunnengasse 1a, which was destroyed during the November Pogrom (1938). The Mittersteig Prison (Justizanstalt Mittersteig) was built from 1908 to 1910 next to the synagogue, whose first director was Willibald Sluga. Currently (2008) this institution serves in the heart of Vienna for law enforcement, with over 55 prison officers/officials.

Transportation in the district was opened in 1877 by a horse-tram line (Pferdetramwaylinie). In the following years, further tram lines were added and subsequently changed in 1902 to electric operation. Following the establishment of the Vienna tram, at the end of the 19th century, the line was canceled and the Wall Gürtel belt created. This connection was given to Margareten Wientallinie of the Vienna tram (now Subway Line 4 (Vienna) U4). In the 19th century, Vienna General Omnibus AG began, a bus line operated with horses after Matzleinsdorf. For over 100 years, the Vienna belt-Baden ran through Margareten and built to operate the station Wolfganggasse Vienna to the then district area (now Meidling).

Interwar period until 1945 Although the population declined in Margaret, the pent-up demand for housing was relatively large. The number of houses rose during 1910–1923, from 1563 to 1626 houses, and remained with 1618 houses in 1934 almost the same count, despite strong local construction activity. This had two reasons: first, major developments have been built, and secondly, the houses were built higher and the number of four-and five-storey homes increased. To alleviate the large housing shortage after the First World War, communal housing was created in Vienna. The free area in Margareten - along the "belt Drasche" - offered the ability to reach large communal dwellings. The result was in 1919–1920, as the Metzleinstaler Court, the first residential building of the municipality of Vienna, with 244 apartments. By 1930, five other large residential buildings were erected, so that the belt had the colloquial name "Ring of the proletariat". During the Austrian Civil War in 1934, the workers' district offered resistance against the Austro-fascist corporate state. The Reumannhof, a municipal building dating from 1924, had a central function as a main base of the Republic Protection League, the paramilitary arm of the Social Democratic Party of Austria, and was held by the League for a long time. On 12 February 1934, fighting broke out at the Reumannhof at around 2 p.m. and ended when the general strike collapsed at 8 p.m. The entrenched Protection League members then surrendered.

The Margaret synagogue, located in the Siebenbrunnengasse 1a, was destroyed during the November pogrom (1938), Kristallnacht. During World War II, large parts of Margareten were destroyed by bombing raids since the war effort ran institutions, such as the Austrian Southern Railway and the freight station Matzleinsdorf, at the county line. Also heavily damaged was the area around the Vienna River.

In the liberation of Vienna by the Red Army, troops remained in the area occupied by the Volkssturm and SS Amtshaus from the fighting since the Volkssturm units during an air raid in the flight taken. On 10 April 1945 the Soviet army arrived in Margareten and installed in the Upper Amtshausgasse 3-5 (former employment), the Russian commander. Nevertheless, the majority of the roads after the war were impassable, and there was neither light nor gas. The public transport was decommissioned, and the parks were used as dumping sites for debris and garbage. Homelessness, disease, hunger and chaos dominated the immediate postwar period.

Since World War II In the years of the Austrian Occupation (Besatzung), 1945 to 1955, Margareten was part of the British Sector of Vienna. Using the British-supplied excavators, Schlürf-maschinen and trucks, as well as through the use of more than 37,000 people who contributed over 300,000 hours of work, the clean-up could be taken forward quickly, so that Margareten was the first district of Vienna, on 19 September 1946, to be cleared and could begin to rebuild. The communal housing of the interwar period was continued, and there was the Matzleinsdorfer Tower, which introduced a new style in public housing. Instead of the former common blocks, the inter-individual houses were built in more relaxed design. Nevertheless, the population declined in the following years, until 2001. The number of foreign residents, especially from ex-Yugoslavia and Turkey increased considerably.

The biggest problem is the aging of the Margaretner residential buildings, since approximately 60% of the roughly 2,000 buildings were built before the First World War. About 75% of all dwellings are for rent. The communal housing, with 17% of all houses, is very well represented.

As in other districts of Vienna, the populace cleared space for car traffic and offered valuable buildings. Buses replaced the trams, and the U-tram (Unterpflaster tram) was built along the belt. During the construction of the tram system, the Unterpflaster was put in the middle of the Wiedner Hauptstrasse. The nearby Baroque Matzleinsdorfer church (Florianikirche) in 1965, despite protests from the population was dismantled. The new building of the church was constructed as a church without towers, at the corner of Main street / Laurenzgasse. Added to this was the expansion of Reinprechtsdorfer bridge and the Pilgram bridge. In September 1969, the Vienna S-Bahn rail Matzleinsdorfer Station Square was opened, and thus Margareten was near the Vienna tram, after a second high-level network of the public transport in Vienna. From the year 1976, the tram was finally suspended, rebuilt, and in 1980 replaced by U4.

In 1986, the former Margaretenbad was closed, but in 1989 converted into a leisure pool with water slide. Since 2006, also housed in the Margaretenbad is a fitness center. At Arbeitergasse lane, the city, built in 1990, a senior citizen's home. Almost the entire district area has been restricted traffic except the passage of roads, and the parking problem was defused by the expansion of parking (on 2 June 1997). Increasingly, segregated bicycle paths were built, and some opened streets for cycling against the one-way. In 1999, there was a slight modification of district boundaries, while in the field of Kettenbrückengasse, the boundaries of the 4th District have been extended.

Since 2000, the green space of Margareten has been increased by planting some trees during the reconstruction of roads and parking areas. In this way, several streets have already been redesigned in Margareten, such as the Upper Amtshausgasse lane. In addition, in 2007, a car park was tried in the middle belt of the joint vegetation.

Due to the increased noise (automobile traffic, railway, suburban railway), a barrier was added in 2007. In the area of the Vienna belt, an 18-metre (59 ft) high and 150-metre (490 ft) long noise barrier was erected in the community-development Theodor Körner Hof. The elements are made of glass to get enough light and brightness in the area between the houses. The top row as a solar panel by WienEnergie has been installed: WienStrom the first time in this form is used. By the new arrangement of the visual and shelterbelts to prevent reflection, action for the protection of birds has been taken.

Education Margareten has five elementary schools, three secondary schools, a special school, two grammar schools, a commercial academy, a technical college, an IT school and a vocational school.

The HTL Spengergasse with about 2600 students and 280 teachers is an important educational institution. This school is the oldest HTL in Austria and was founded in 1758 by Empress Maria Theresa.

The disciplines are: art and design, business management and IT & organization. This HTL is housed in the former Landwehr equipment depot.The school for IT is a one-year school with a focus on IT specialist training. Her goal is to integrate graduates directly into occupational life.

The Institute for High Energy Physics of the Austrian Academy of Sciences at Nikolsdorfer Gasse 18 (former district office 1862–1867) is the only university research facility in the district. The Institute for High Energy Physics deals with research into the smallest building blocks of matter and the forces acting between them (interactions). To this end, the institute works together with the European Research Center for Particle Physics CERN in Geneva.

VHS Siebenbrunngengasse 37

The adult education centre (VHS) polycollege in Margareten has existed for 120 years. The polycollege is the largest of Vienna's 18 adult education centres and was founded in 1887 as the "Wiener Volksbildungsverein". On February 16, 2019, the school in Stöbergasse was closed and the courses were divided up at other locations.The building was demolished in favor of a new building for rental apartments. The new main location for the "VHS Polycollege Margareten Wieden" is at Siebenbrunnengasse 37.

Population In 1869, nearly 54,000 people lived in the district area. Over the next 30 to 40 years, the population doubled to almost 108,000 (circa 1900). Although it was only after World War I when the large apartment buildings were built along the Vienna belt, the population declined continuously until the 2001 census, due to the increased housing needs. Since the record-low population of 49,116 in 2001, there has again been a slight increase in the population, of about +1% per year.

Margaret is, with over 25,000 inhabitants per km², one of the most densely populated districts in Vienna.

Population structure The proportion of people who are 60 years, and over, is below average with 19.7%, since for Vienna citywide, this share is 22.2%. The proportion of the population under 15 years was 14.3%. The percentage of female population corresponds to 52.4%, exactly the average of Vienna.

Of the 42,111 residents of Margaret in 2001 who were aged over 15 years, 12.6% have a university degree, University of Applied Sciences in Austria or Academy, as the highest level of education (higher than Vienna's average: 11.8%). Another 16.4% have completed a Matura (Vienna average: 15.7%), 34.2% had an Apprenticeship or Austrian school BMS (below Vienna's average: 39.2%), and 36.9% of the Margaretners have compulsory education (as the highest degree, Vienna average: 33.2%).

The average annual net income of a worker in 2005 was 16,873 euros (Vienna: 18,948 euros), with a retired annual income of 15,558 euros (Vienna: 16,802 euros). The male population earned 18,436 euros (net Pensioner: 17,915 Euros), however, the female population earned only 15,143 euros (net Pensioner: 14,062 euros). Overall, Margareten is about 11% below the average economic level of Vienna.

Origin and language The proportion of Margaretners with foreign citizenship in 2001 was, with 23.2%, around 6% above the average of Vienna. There were 7% of Margaretners with citizenship of Serbia and Montenegro, 4.4% Turkish citizen. Behind, followed Bosnia (at 2.3%) and Croats and Germans, whose share of the population, however, is only 1.5 to 1%. Overall, in 2001 approximately 32% of Margaretners had been born in another country; therefore, only 64.4% indicated the Margaretner German as a common language. Another 10.2% spoke mainly Serbian, 7.6% Turkish, 3.4% Croatian and 1.1% Hungarian (in 2001).

Religious denominations The proportion of people of Roman Catholic faith is 42.2% (in 2001). There are the townships of three Roman Catholic parishes that belong to the City Deanery 4 / 5 (Archdiocese of Vienna). Proportionately, behind the people with a Roman Catholic denomination, 11.9% followed Islamic and 9.6% with Eastern Orthodox religion. The followers of the Evangelical church are, at 4.3%, in the fourth spot. Yet, 24.6% of Margaretners stated no religious persuasion.

Sights The Church of St. Joseph was built in 1765–1769. The church is not only a baroque gem near the office building, Franz Schubert was consecrated here before he was buried in the Währing cemetery. A plaque commemorates this, which was attached to the outer wall of the Wiener Schubertbund 100 years after his death.

The castle-like Margaretenhof, which was built in 1884/85, is located on Margaretenplatz.

The Filmcasino at Margaretenstraße 78 in Vienna's 5th district Margareten was founded in 1911 and was known for a long time as the Margaretner Bürgerkino before it reopened in 1989.The one-room cinema has 254 seats and is characterized by the well-preserved interior in the style of the 1950s

As a program and art house cinema, the Filmcasino mainly shows films from European productions, but also from Asia and Latin America as well as US independent film. There is a close cooperation with the Polyfilm film distribution company. In normal operation, there are two to five performances a day. In addition, the Filmcasino shows premieres of Austrian and European films, often followed by discussion rounds and lectures, thematic programs and special screenings (architecture film series, Cine Morning with free childcare, cinema & cake, Filmwunder children's film series, etc.) and hosts film festivals such as the Latin Film Lounge, Japannual and the Slash Film Festival.

The Austrian Social and Economic Museum, in its own presentation Economic Museum, (Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum) is a museum in the 5th district of Vienna, Margareten. The museum is located together with the coffee museum at Vogelsanggasse 36 and is organized as a non-profit, non-partisan association on whose board of trustees the Republic of Austria and the city of Vienna are also represented.

The original Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum (GeWiMu) existed from January 1925 until it was suppressed by the Austrofascists in February 1934. It was the base for the development of the Vienna Method. It was founded by Otto Neurath and evolved out of the Museum für Siedlung und Städtebau (Museum for Settlement and Town Planning).