Rossauer barracks

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That Rossauer barracks from the other side of the Danube Canal seen from
South view of the Rossau barracks

The Rossauer Kaserne , officially Rossauer Kaserne Bernardis-Schmid , also the official building Rossau Bernardis-Schmid , named after the resistance fighters Robert Bernardis and Anton Schmid since January 2020 , until 1999: Roßauer Kaserne , was named Kronprinz-Rudolf - Kaserne 1865 to 1869 in the 9 . Vienna district, Alsergrund , at the Rossauer border on the Danube canal built as a defensive barracks. Today it is among other things the headquarters of the Austrian Federal Ministry for National Defense . At the initiative of Defense Minister Thomas Starlinger , the name was named after Bernardis and Schmid on January 27, 2020.

history

The Kronprinz-Rudolf-Kaserne (also called Rudolfskaserne) was built in the wake of the revolution of 1848 , in which the authorities temporarily lost control of the subjects. The barracks was part of an overall concept that also included the arsenal and the Franz-Josephs-Kaserne Vienna , which had been built a few years earlier : the barracks were intended to protect the city center from rebellious citizens or the proletariat . Further planned barracks around the old town were no longer realized.

The building with three inner courtyards was built as a "defensive or defense barracks" from 1865 to 1869 according to plans by the colonel in the staff of genius Karl Pilhal and the major Karl Markl . On August 17, 1870, the new barracks was opened for use.

The architecture of the barracks, built in the style of romantic historicism , was geared towards defense. The crenellated corner towers were supposed to protect the defenders in the event of an attack, as did the balconies over the entrance gates on Rossauer Lände and Schlickplatz, which were intended as gun posts. Overall, the barracks offered space for 2,000 to 4,000 men and 390 horses of the army . If necessary, Emperor Franz Joseph I would have had to decide about their use against rebellious residents .

The concept that led to the construction of the Rossauer barracks proved to be outdated in the last decades of the 19th century. The counterpart Franz-Joseph-Kaserne was demolished in 1900/1901. The Rossau barracks, not quite so located on the representative ring road around the old town, has survived all state and social changes to this day.

During the First World War , foreigners from countries hostile to Austria-Hungary were held here until they were deported to internment camps such as the one in Drosendorf or Karlstein an der Thaya . In 1927 a homeless asylum and the Deutschmeister museum were set up here. In 1936 the stables were converted into garages.

During the Second World War , the Rossau barracks were barracks for the Wehrmacht patrol for Greater Vienna , which also carried out interrogations and torture here on the direct orders of the nearby field war court of Division 177 of the replacement army . Towards the end of the Second World War , the former infantry officers' wing (north wing) was badly damaged by bombs. Due to the poor state of construction, demolition was considered in 1977, but the barracks were renovated to protect historical monuments.

In the post-war period, offices of the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Police Directorate in Vienna moved in . In 1946 the motor vehicle department of the Vienna Security Guard , as the uniformed police were called at the time, was relocated to the Rossau barracks and set up various workshops here to repair or assemble their vehicles, as many had to be assembled from existing components. From here the policemen, known as “white mice” because of their striking uniform, drove out on motorcycles to patrol Vienna, later the “radio strips” in dark green VW beetles with blue lights on the roof.

The traffic office of the Vienna Federal Police Directorate with its heavy traffic of parties (vehicle registration, driver's license tests, etc.) was also here for decades until it moved to the federal office building on Josef-Holaubek-Platz . The base of the special unit WEGA , the base in Vienna of the task force Cobra and the standby unit (BE) as well as the regional traffic department (LVA) of the regional police directorate Vienna (LPD) are also located here.

In order to be able to better monitor the ever-increasing road traffic in Vienna and optimize it centrally ( Green Wave ), the traffic control center for monitoring and regulating road traffic was set up in the Rossau barracks in 1962, which is also operated by the police . Initially, ten traffic lights in the area of ​​the Schottentor were centrally controlled from here. In addition, three cameras enabled traffic monitoring. In 2005 there were around 60 traffic lights throughout Vienna.

Around the mid-1980s, there were considerations about alternative uses of the historic building, for example as a shopping center or even as an opera house (according to Vienna's Vice Mayor Hans Mayr ). Since the police departments partially moved out at the end of 1989, departments of the Federal Ministry of Defense have moved in here , whose headquarters are now in the barracks. The inner courtyard used by this ministry was named " Carl-Szokoll-Hof " in honor of the major and resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Toilets

A rumor about the forgotten and retrofitted toilets says that the architect supposedly even shot himself because of this mishap. But this has not been proven. The planning did not do without toilet facilities. " In the officers' wing and in the two front entrance wings there were 20 individual toilets. " The crew toilets were, however, only located in two towers in the corners of the two outer courtyards, so that it was later necessary to distribute lavatories throughout the building erect.

literature

See also

Web links

Commons : Roßauer Kaserne  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Federal Ministry for National Defense. In: bundesheer.at. Accessed January 30, 2020 .
  2. ^ Gerhard Vogl: New names for Viennese barracks. In: The press . December 26, 2019, accessed January 27, 2020 .
  3. ^ New names for Viennese barracks. In: ORF.at . January 27, 2020, accessed January 27, 2020 .
  4. ^ Vienna: Rossauer barracks and collegiate barracks got new names. In: DerStandard.at . January 27, 2020, accessed January 27, 2020 .
  5. Cf. David Forster, Thomas Geldmacher, Thomas Walter: Austrians before the Field War Court of Division 177 . In Walter Manoschek : Victims of Nazi Military Justice , Vienna 2003, pp. 399–418. Here: p. 399
  6. Vice Mayor Mayr specifies: New opera could be in the Rossau barracks . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna December 12, 1984, p. 12 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  7. http://www.bmi.gv.at/cms/BMI_OeffigteSicherheit/2007/05_06/files/Rossauer_Kaserne.pdf

Coordinates: 48 ° 13 '4.6 "  N , 16 ° 22' 1.5"  E