Sandleitenhof

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Matteottiplatz

The Sandleitenhof is a municipal Wohnhausanlage in the 16th Wiener district Ottakring , which historically was considered typical worker district. The building, which was erected in 5 construction phases between 1924 and 1929, is considered to be the largest municipal building in Red Vienna in the interwar period with 1,587 apartments and over 4,000 residents (originally over 5,000) .

The center of the area is Matteottiplatz, surrounded by the following traffic areas: Sandleitengasse, Steinmüllergasse, Rosenackergasse, Karl-Metschl-Gasse, Baumeistergasse, Nietzscheplatz. It is crossed by Rosa-Luxemburg-Gasse, Liebknechtgasse and Gomperzgasse.

History and construction

Explanation of the origin of the name

The former sand pits in Ottakring, on which the buildings were erected, were bought by the municipality of Vienna, at that time still dominated by Christian socialism, during the First World War in 1915 and 1916. Since the area, a former vineyard, rises sharply to the northwest, a suitable development plan was difficult to draw up.

In order to implement the Sandleitenhof, the municipality, which is now under social democratic administration, announced a competition among 7 architectural communities. Due to its location in the periphery, the tender, a brief description of the construction task, was not designed purely for the provision of apartments. It was also about “determining the scale, public spaces and traffic patterns for future expansion”.

The jury selected the proposed project of the community of building councilors Emil Hoppe , Otto Schönthal and Franz Matuschek (all pupils of Otto Wagner ) as the winning project and assigned them the southern part (parts I to IV) to implement their concept. The northern part was assigned to two other communities, namely Siegfried Theis and Hans Jaksch (the architects of the Reichsbrücke opened in 1936 ) and Franz Krauss and Josef Thölk (the architects of the famous Viennese town hall ). The design of the kindergarten and the interior of the library came directly from the municipal department 22. The overall project management was the responsibility of the City of Vienna, namely the senior town planner Josef Bittner.

  • Steinmüllergasse 15A

  • Rosenackerstraße 12

  • Rosenackerstraße 7

Object description

"Your windows greet the sun" can be read in the supplement to the construction of the City of Vienna "The Sandleiten residential complex". This main objective for the construction of the Sandleitenhof, namely the even distribution of light and air, also explains the peculiar external shape that is visible from a bird's eye view. An axial solution should be avoided and a loosely built structure with courtyards and squares should be sought. The axial access would also lead to an institution-like or "closed" character. The front towards Sandleitengasse is even swiveled out of the straight course of the street in order to avoid the monotony of a long line of blocks. This turn “inwards” reveals a 7-story “high-rise”.

Most of the buildings are 2 to 5 storeys high, with a pitched roof of the same depth. If you enter the facility via Liebknechtgasse, you will be held up by a “building section spanning the street, which allows a view through a mighty archway”. If you walk through the Sandleitenhof, you will come across inner courtyards without a regular shape, which mostly have passages to the outside. Gert Kähler writes: “The entire complex has an effect, also in the architecture of the buildings, in the comparatively rich ornamentation and plastic decoration, like the attempt to transfer the lifestyle of the medieval city to the multi-storey community housing via urban planning and formal elements - including of the fountain in the middle of the central square. ”The impression of the medieval city is deepened by the use of chopped stone masonry for the retaining walls. The view of the upper part of Rosenackerstraße is particularly impressive. From there to the north, the municipal housing is more fragmented, as are the buildings in the area towards Alszeile.

Aesthetics and style

In the book “Rotes Wien - Architektur 1919-1934” by architecture theorist Eve Blau one reads that Hoppe and Schönthal did not deal with the actual character of Viennese municipal housing and that they combined “Neobiedermeier details” with metropolitan monumentality . Gert Kähler writes: “What was created was a style ; the buildings are unmistakable in the cityscape despite all the differences between a Sandleitenhof and a Karl-Marx-Hof . And this style was not an inevitable development from the specifications of Wagner, Loos or Sitte, but could only arise in connection with political developments. ”What connects both statements is that here the“ disdain ”of the eclecticism of the 19th century, developments in architecture around the turn of the century (e.g. Lobmeyrhof 1900) or the (wild) settler movement around 1919/20, the experience and role models of the architects and the new task - the creation of large living spaces - merged.

Influence of Camille Sitte's "urban planning according to its artistic principles"

Time and again, Camillo Sitte and his book “Urban development according to his artistic principles” are cited as models for the planning of the Sandleitenhof. The closed Matteotti Square, where the street only passes on one side, the fountain on the edge, irregular access roads that continually provide new insights and the use of the "naturally terraced area" are key points, who speak for custom as inspiration.

Matteottiplatz

The center of the complex is Matteottiplatz, named after the murdered Italian socialist Giacomo Matteotti in 1927 and 1953 , with a terrace and a stone fountain ( Maulbertschplatz from 1934 to 1953 ). As a model for Matteottiplatz, Italian places such as B. the Piazza del Campo in Siena, a city that Camillo Sitte shows as a model in his book "Urban development according to his artistic principles". Even if a contemporary visitor * in both places is far from a feeling of recognition, there are formal features that allow one to guess the origin of the ideas: the ring-shaped system, the gradient, which in the case of Matteotiplatz over a terrace The side streets that lead to the square (Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße), the paved floor with the Vienna coat of arms and the adjacent buildings at different heights are overcome.

Works of art within the facility (examples)

Fountain in front of the municipal library

Fountain figure on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz

On Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, in front of the municipal library, which is integrated into the complex , is a small stone fountain with a round floor plan, surrounded by benches, crowned by a bronze figure of a naked child carrying a pile of books. The artist in charge was Florian Josephu-Drouot . Fountain and statue take up classic elements. The statue of the boy with the briefly curled curls is naturalistic and idealized. The architecture of the fountain in the upper area is reminiscent of that of a column, the upper part of which, decorated with floral reliefs, would form its capital. Inside the library there are also two murals by Arthur Brusenbauch , depicting the symbolized structure .

Pillar of cheerfulness

The so-called “Pillar of Joy” by Wilhelm Frass , created in 1929, which is located in front of the Montessori kindergarten integrated into the facility, also shows several naked boys' figures. They are positioned along the pillar shaft with a triangular plan, moreover

Archway with sculptures on Nietzscheplatz

the sculpture is crowned by a bronze boy who stands on a likewise bronze sphere and raises his hands to the sky.

(For the art within the Montessori kindergarten see also subsection Infrastructure: Montessori Kindergarten)

Archway at Nietzscheplatz

Above the archway of the courtyard entrance on Nietzscheplatz there are five sculptures by Heinrich Scholz , dated 1928, which also depict young boys. They are monochrome white and all naked, with the middle one shown sitting frontally, wearing a hat and playing a flute.

The actuality of the street names at the time of construction

The street names that were assigned at the time of construction show contemporary references to international socialist representatives who were murdered in the previous decade:

  • Matteottiplatz after the Italian Socialist Giacomo Matteotti , whose assassination by fascists in 1924 as the beginning of the dictatorship of Mussolini applies
  • Liebknechtgasse after Karl Liebknecht , Marxist, anti-militarist, part of the Internationale Gruppe, murdered in January 1919
  • Rosa-Luxemburg-Gasse after Rosa Luxemburg , representative of the labor movement , founder of the Internationale Gruppe, murdered in January 1919

Infrastructure

The farm housed "75 shops, 1 inn and coffee house, 3 studios, 58 workshops, 71 magazines, 1 refuse collection point, 3 large-scale bathing and laundry facilities, 1 library, 1 pharmacy, 3 daycare centers, 1 post office and the [...] cinema and theater ”. In addition, in 1927, in the immediate vicinity of the Sandleitenhof, separated from it only by Sandleitengasse, a congress park and a congress pool were built on the former wasteland. The Viennese architect Kurt Smetana therefore describes Sandleiten - and also with regard to the factories on the suburban line , which were often considered an employer for the residents of Sandleiten - as a “city of short distances”.

The infrastructural requirements of the Sandleitenhof have changed significantly since it was built. A large part of the former business premises, especially those whose façades do not face the street, are empty today. There is now a shopping center right next to the facility, which means that local supplies have also been largely outsourced. The municipal library, on the other hand, is still part of the complex today. The cinema and theater hall with a capacity of 600 seats is hardly used.

  • library

  • laundry

  • kindergarten

  • Fountain

Montessori kindergarten

From 1927 to 1929 , the 100th kindergarten in Vienna - a Montessori kindergarten - was built according to plans by Erich Franz Leischner , who later headed the Vienna City Building Office . In addition to the column of joy by Wilhelm Frass , there is also the sculpture Zicklein by Josef Riedl. In the foyer of the building are the words of Julius Tandler , at that time the executive city councilor for welfare institutions, child welfare and health care: Beauty and joy for the child. Childhood experiences are indelible . With this in mind, the kindergarten was artistically decorated with murals by Trude Schiebel ( Children at Play ) and was therefore considered to be a showcase project of the time. The kindergarten got a large outdoor area divided into several parts with an outdoor pool and sandboxes as well as an outdoor terrace. The building was completely renovated in 1995.

Further development of the system after the 1920s until today

February 1934

The web lexicon of the Viennese social democracy, dasrotewien.at , cites the following about the February uprising against the dictatorship , which affects the Sandleitenhof:

Around noon on February 12, 1934, the police tried to break into Sandleiten, but were repulsed with gunfire. The government then mobilized reinforcements in the form of a police alarm company with five machine guns and federal army units with 200 soldiers, four cannons, ten machine guns and two mortars. The attack in the Güpferlingstrasse / Kainzgasse area was prepared from Hernalser Hauptstrasse, and the cannons were fired in the congress park.
Since it had become dark in the meantime, the assault had to be postponed until the morning hours, but the facility was also shot at several times with machine guns during the night. Since the police and the armed forces were far superior in number and armament, it seemed irresponsible to the defenders to risk a house-to-house fight - in a residential complex in which there were around 5,000 women, children and old people. When the state power entered the facility in the morning hours of February 13, the defenders had already withdrawn and there was no further resistance.

Parish Church of St. Joseph

St. Joseph Church

After the establishment of the Austro-Fascist corporate state in 1934, the church tried to gain a foothold among the workers and in 1935/36 had the parish church of St. Josef built on Sandleitengasse by the young Behrens student Josef Vytiska . (Saint Joseph is the patron saint of workers and workers.) The church has a striking bell tower with a modern clock. Workers who were mostly at a distance from the Catholic Church viewed this building as a provocation and gave the church the nickname Our Father's Garage . The parish church Sandleiten is plastered gray and has a canopy on pillars.

Electropathological Museum

Until 2002, the Electropathological Museum, built in 1936 by Stefan Jellinek at a different location, was here for a few years; it has been closed since September 2002. The archive inventory (written material, graphics and images, posters, documents on electrical and lightning accidents as well as press reports) has been in the Vienna Technical Museum since 2005 .

SoHo in Ottakring and the Viennese art school moves in

The “Soho in Ottakring” project, which has existed since 1999 and has played on the Sandleitenhof since 2013, deals with the current problem of vacancy within the facility. The aim is to revitalize the district in cooperation with local institutions. As part of “Soho in Ottakring”, the facility's cinema room is used, among other things. Another initiative carried out bywohnpartner Wien and Soho in Ottakring to stimulate and promote social interaction within the municipal housing are the raised beds, which were set up at various locations within the complex.

The former laundry room of the Sandleitenhof as the venue for SoHo in Ottakring , 2014

In addition, the laundry room was transferred to the Vienna Art School as a space . The study program, which was discontinued in 2014, was resumed in October 2015.

literature

  • Hans and Rudolf Hautmann: The municipal housing of Red Vienna 1919–1934 . Schönbrunn-Verlag, Vienna 1980, ISBN 3-85364-063-10 , p. 398.
  • Eve Blau : Red Vienna. Architecture 1919–1934, Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-99043-561-8
  • Felix Czeike : Historical Lexicon Vienna . Verlag Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-218-00547-7 (Volume 5) p. 43.
  • Helmut Weihsmann: The red Vienna. Social democratic architecture and local politics 1919–1934 . Promedia, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-85371-181-2 , p. 308f.
  • Dehio-Handbuch Wien X. to XIX. and XXI. to XXIII. District . Anton Schroll, Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-7031-0693-X .
  • Josef Bittner: The Sandleiten residential complex. Gardens and baths on Kongreßplatz in the 16th district, Vienna 1928.
  • Georg Emmerling / Hermann Reuther / Karl Groák / Karl Hartl / Karl Honay / Curt Cronfeld: Das Neue Wien, in: Das neue Wien, Vol. 3, 1927, p. 96.
  • Peter Haiko: Wiener Arbeiterwohnhäuser 1848–1934, in: kritsche reports, Volume No. 5 No. 4/5, 1977, pp. 26–50.
  • Gert Kähler: Apartment and City, Hamburg, Frankfurt Vienna. Models of social housing in the twenties, Wiesbaden 1985, ISBN 978-3-322-83616-8
  • Karla Kraus / Joachim Schlandt: The Viennese community housing - a social democratic program, in: Kapitalistischer Städtebau, 1970, p 113.
  • Camillo Sitte , Urban planning according to its artistic principles. Increased by “Großstadtgrün”, Basel 1909.

Web links

Commons : Sandleitenhof  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Eve Blau: Red Vienna: Architecture 1919-1934 . Birkhäuser Verlag.
  2. ↑ Sandleiten residential complex: garden and pool complex on the congress square in the XVI. District. at digital.wienbibliothek.at
  3. ^ Gert Kähler: Apartment and City, Hamburg, Frankfurt Vienna. Models of Social Housing in the Twenties. Wiesbaden 1985.
  4. ^ Gert Kähler: Apartment and City, Hamburg, Frankfurt Vienna. Models of Social Housing in the Twenties . Wiesbaden 1985.
  5. ^ Peter Haiko: Wiener Arbeiterwohnhäuser 1848-1934, in: kritsche reports . tape 5 , no. 4/5 , 1977.
  6. ^ Josef Bittner: The Sandleiten residential complex. Gardens and baths on the Kongressplatz in the 16th district. Vienna 1928, p. 7 .
  7. ^ Josef Bittner: The Sandleiten residential complex. Gardens and baths on the Kongressplatz in the 16th district. Vienna 1928, p. 9 .
  8. ↑ Sandleiten. In: dasrotewien.at - Web dictionary of the Viennese social democracy. SPÖ Vienna (Ed.)
  9. ^ Peter Payer: The synchronized city. Public clocks and time perception, Vienna 1850 to today , Verlag Holzhausen, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-902868-53-4 , p. 116
  10. ↑ About us. In: Soho in Ottakring. Retrieved June 22, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Gardening together in community housing. In: Club Vienna. Retrieved June 22, 2020 .

Coordinates: 48 ° 13 ′ 22 ″  N , 16 ° 18 ′ 18 ″  E