Vienna City Expansion Fund

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Franz von Matzinger, head of the urban expansion fund, bust in the KHM

The Vienna City Expansion Fund , created in 1858 and dissolved in 2017, was created as an instrument for the urban redesign of Vienna's old town on the occasion of the demolition of the bastions of Vienna and the development of the areas that became free as well as the glacis in front of the city fortifications . He only sold his last three properties after the turn of the millennium.

history

The Wiener Zeitung of December 25th, 1857 with the imperial handwriting, the legal basis of the city expansion fund

The fund, conceived by the top official of the Interior Ministry Franz von Matzinger and managed for decades, is part of the Federal Ministry of the Interior ( i.e. the Federal Administration, not the municipality of Vienna). During the early days of the company, the fund organized the sale (sometimes also the exchange) of the parceled land and the financing of the public representative buildings in the ring road zone .

The Glacis grounds were originally owned by the Vienna Army Genius Directorate . On May 14, 1859, ownership of this area was transferred to the City Expansion Fund. The bastions were gradually handed over to the fund in the period 1858–1865. The fund obtained its income from the parcelling and sale of these building sites, granting homeowners mortgage loans on request. In order to stimulate private construction activity in the urban expansion zone, tax exemption was granted for new buildings, conversions and extensions for a period of up to 30 years. In order to benefit from this tax exemption, construction had to start within one year and construction had to be completed within three years. This prevented properties from being left fallow as speculative objects.

The costs of the city expansion fund consisted of the demolition of the city fortifications, the replacement of the destroyed houses on the bastions, the construction of the public buildings on the Ringstrasse, the construction of the Franz-Josefs-Kai and the construction of new bridges over the Danube Canal. The public law fund was not part of the state property and was not subject to the control of the Court of Auditors.

The balance from 1858 to 1914 of the city expansion fund was positive. Income of 112,525,831 guilders (approx. 990 million euros) contrasted with expenditure of only 102,329,696 guilders (approx. 901 million euros); A surplus of 10,196,135 guilders (approx. 90 million euros) was generated.

The economic result was less positive for the municipality of Vienna, which had to contribute the infrastructure (e.g. the canal system) for the newly emerging city district and which went into debt during this period. The community incurred costs of 27,609,619 guilders (approx. 243 million euros) for the expansion of the city from 1858 to 1914. The municipality of Vienna had claimed in vain to receive a share of the proceeds from the property sales. She was also denied a say in the development plan. On April 29, 1860, the community's participation was finally refused. This had in vain pleaded to have provided urban expansion sites in the 16th century for the construction of fortifications. The municipality was only able to reduce the planned temporary exemption of private builders from city taxes in the urban expansion area. The area of ​​responsibility of the municipality was limited to the implementation and financing of the sewer system, the gas supply (for heating and lighting) and the paving work on the ring road.

The conflict-laden constellation between the state and the municipality gave rise to certain problems and friction with the municipality of Vienna, but also unexpected positive effects. The municipal administration, precisely because it was excluded from the sale of real estate in the Ringstrasse zone, was all the more energetic in advocating the preservation of larger green spaces.

From 2005 until the dissolution in 2017

The city expansion fund sold its last plots in 2008. The fund had a volunteer director and no employees. In 2013, the Court of Auditors examined the fund and criticized its conduct, especially because the last three remaining properties were sold very cheaply. An 83 m² apartment in Postgasse was sold in 2005 for a very moderate 225,000 euros. A 1,032 m² green area at the Mölker Bastei was sold for 15,000 euros in 2008; "Consulting fees" of EUR 41,000 were charged for this transaction. A 9,727 m² property on Heumarkt, near the ice skating club, was sold for 4.2 million euros in 2008, although offers of up to 9 million euros have since been made. The proceeds were used to fund charitable, scientific and religious purposes, some of which were contrary to the statutes. One million euros was donated to the Austrian Integration Fund, whose managing director was also the managing director of the city expansion fund.

An amendment to the statutes that was supposed to restore this in 2009 was characterized by the Court of Auditors as contradicting the will of the fund founder. From 1961 the Court of Auditors demanded the dissolution of the city expansion fund.

Criminal charges were filed in May 2013 against the former head of the City Expansion Fund, Alexander Janda. In 2020, all four defendants, including Janda, were finally acquitted. No knowingly abuse of authority could be proven.

The fund was dissolved on March 8, 2017, and the decision became final on April 13, 2017. The fortune of 340,000 euros went equally to Parliament , the Art History Museum and the Vienna Secession .

literature

  • Renate Wagner-Rieger (ed.): The Vienna Ringstrasse. Image of an era. (Volume I - XI) . Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden, 1972–1981. ISBN 978-3-515-02482-2 .
  • Franz Baltzarek, Alfred Hoffmann, Hannes Stekl (eds.): Economy and Society of the Vienna City Expansion , Wiesbaden 1975.
  • Bernd Fahrngruber: Construction-related aspects of the Vienna city expansion under Emperor Franz Joseph I: The razing of the Vienna city wall from 1858 to 1864 . Dissertation, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Vienna 2001 ( online version )
  • Gottfried Pirhofer, Kurt Stimmer: Plans for Vienna. Theory and Practice of Viennese Urban Planning from 1945 to 2005 , Vienna MA 18, 2006, especially p. 13 (also in the WEB)

Web links

Wikisource: The expansion of the city of Vienna  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bernd Fahrngruber: Construction aspects of the Vienna city expansion under Emperor Franz Joseph I .: The razing of the Vienna city wall 1858 to 1864 . Dissertation, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Vienna 2001 ( online version ), p. 174.
  2. ↑ Ulla Kramar-Schmid : Gabriele Moser sees the city expansion fund as a revenant , report on the website of the news magazine profil , Vienna, May 20, 2014.
  3. ^ Criminal charges against Alexander Janda on derstandard.at, accessed on February 26, 2015.
  4. ↑ All defendants in the unfaithfulness trial for the Vienna City Expansion Fund acquitted - derStandard.at. Retrieved July 2, 2020 (Austrian German).
  5. ↑ Vienna City Expansion Fund has been dissolved . Article on derStandard.at from May 26, 2017, accessed May 26, 2017.