GoodnightVienna? A


The heart of theAustrian capital is famously rich in architectural and cultural treasures – butwhat’s been happening to its heritage outside the centre suggests that the soul of beloved oldWien, familiar to generations, is gradually being torn apart by bulldozers. Robin Stummermet upwith campaignerswho are determined to ensure that their city holds on to its traditional character


h Vienna, home of Strauss, waltzes and exquisite cakes, Hapsburg baroque and sensuous art nouveau. And Harry Lime.


GrantedWorld Heritage status by UNESCOin 2001, the Austrian capital’s city centre is a showcase for some of Europe’smost impressive architectural and cultural treasures. Though heavily bombed in the later


stages of the SecondWorldWar, and in spring 1945 a bitterly contested, rubble-strewn battlefield, Vienna managed to regenerate itself into something close to its former self, at least in appearance. Indeed, the repair and conservation ofmuch of the grandeur of the city centre and the outlying palaces was one of the high-points of post-war reconstruction in Europe. Faced with the choice of starting


afresh by embracing the new architecture of themid-20th century, or repairing and refurbishing what buildings still stood, city planners opted for the latter. By themid 1960s,much of the


familiar appearance of the heart of old Vienna had returned, with dozens of old buildings repaired, rebuilt or meticulously re-created.Whatever the philosophical qualms about some of this work, it was arguably the right thing to do in terms of national prestige, continuity with Austria’s pre-1914 past, and helping tourist revenue: a gempulled fromthe ashes.


Vienna in the mid 19th century, the ancient heart and St Stephen’s Cathedral intact. Image courtesyWien Museum Collection


So why, against this background of


such civic conservation triumph, was a group of Viennese architectural campaigners keen to rendezvous with “Cornerstone” recently, on their home soil? And what – as they arrived for themeeting at themajestic Café Sperl – was in those large, bulging files they were carrying? It didn’t take long to find out.


“Buildings around the centre of Vienna, just outside the inner ring road and into the suburbs, are in great danger,” saidMarkus Landerer, one of the co-founders of the architectural heritage campaign group Verein Initiative Denkmalschutz (“Heritage Protection Action Group”), or ID. Set up in 2008 after a series of


historic building demolitions and “improvements” across Austria, ID now hasmore than 300members, including architects, conservators, academics and enthusiastic non-heritage professionals. The group already has dozens of


cases on its files, fromall parts of the country. But Vienna is itsmain focus. “In general,” says Landerer, a teacher, “legal protection for old buildings is not as strong in Vienna as it is compared with other cities around the world…We had one building here that was 360 years old. Last year it was pulled down with the excuse that there were some structural problems with it. Officials keep theirmouths closed about this, and I amfurious.” Listed historic buildings and


conservation areas in Vienna come under the protection of the city government, which imposes and in theory enforces its own conservation


regulations. Taking precedence over the city heritage laws is national heritage legislation. The two protection regimes operate side by side, not always happily. Since the late 1990s, speculative


development has taken a firmhold – most often in the formof bland, angular apartment blocks that would not look out of place on the Spanish costas. Internationally, ID points out, an average of 4 per cent of a nation’s entire building stock now enjoys some formof listed protection. Austria, however, has listed only 1.4 per cent of its buildings. As in Britain, central and local government heritage budgets have been cut, and there are no longer enough specialist staff to safeguard heritage assests effectively. At one point, the city government


briefly combined the post of chief conservation officer with that of new buildings officer. Get the picture.


IRONICALLY, the tough laws which protect the historic heart of Vienna – that is, within the city’s Gürtel inner ring road – have contributed, some campaigners believe, to a loosening of heritage protection enforcement for the remainder of the city. “Outside the Gürtel there is almost


no protection at all,” says architect and IDmember StefanMastal. So what’s at stake outside Vienna’s


compact, historic centre? As in other old cities, verymuch indeed. The vast majority of the historic conurbation that evolved between the 17th and early 20th centuries lies outside that Gürtel inner ring road.Mansions, town houses, cottages, apartment blocks,


old farmhouses, workshops, inns, theatres, shops. In fact, everything that most Viennese, as distinct from tourists, would regard as part of their authentic old city lies outside the UNESCOWorld Heritage enclave. ID says that in the past year alone,


six historic houses and blocks, some dating fromthe 17th and 18th centuries, have been demolished in just one of Vienna’s districts,Mariahilf. The further fromthe centre, the worse the losses become. Even the grand villas of the Viennese bourgeoisie that arose in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the outlying suburbs – many of themhighly stylised, with Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau flourishes – are not spared the bulldozer. Recent losses include the imposing villa at Buchbergstrasse in Penzing suburb, and the Hämmerle-Villa in Grinzing.


PERHAPSmost surprising, some buildings with links to Austria’s impressive cultural pantheon do not necessarily fare any better. In the Landstrasse district, a house occupied in the early 19th century by Franz Schubert, and where in 1816 he composed his famous “Prometheus” cantata (his first commission), is being “aggressively compressed” into the shadows and re-fronted by a new block of flats abutting the old building – a process that somehow also involved the dislocation and apparent loss ofmuch of the historic fabric of the Schubert house. Controversially, the last of three


studios in Vienna used by artist Gustav Klimt is being “retro-restored” to its early 20th-century appearance, with


Cornerstone, Vol 32, No 2 2011 65


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