Abe Streep

The Social Geography of Vienna: The development of the moderately liberal Ringstrasse

Page 1: Thesis/ Conclusion

Until the mid-nineteenth century, the Austrian capital of Vienna stood as an omniscient, fortified, beautiful monument to conservatism and authoritarianism: the home of the mighty Hapsburg dynasty, which dominated the Austro-Hungarian empire for centuries, allowed for no social mobility or liberalism whatsoever. Class conflict did not exist; in fact, the lower classes were physically kept out of the beautiful, wealthy, wall-enclosed city of Vienna. The physical, fortified structure of the city separated the nobility and the Hofburg (the home to the Hapsburg emperors) from the artisans, the manufacturers, and the bourgeoisie, who resided strictly in the outer suburbs, with the poorer, less "important" peoples living furthest from the "city of dreams." The dominance of the Linienwall, a wall built between 1704 and 1706 around Old Vienna in order to add structure to the city and to protect the inner, older suburbs, allowed for no interchange between social groups unless it was initiated by the prosperous, landed, free-wheeling nobility. The Hapsburgs erected the Linienwall, or "straight rampart," soon after the Austrian defeat of the second great Turkish siege at the end of the seventeenth century, and its original purpose was to protect the city from future invasions. Yet, as time wore on, the physical separation of the Hofburg from the outer city served to create the ultimate absolutist environment: the rich were enclosed in an inner paradise of culture and refinery, and the poor were left out, scattered and vulnerable to attack. The outer suburbs produced manufactured goods for use by the monarchy and high aristocracy, and they had no say in the matter: the suburbs had no self rule, being ruled "directly" by the monarchy, and indirectly by the feudal political system that existed before 1848. Thus, Vienna never had to follow the natural rules of urban evolution: as the other "modern" European cities, Paris and London, grew more socially liberal following the Enlightenment, Vienna remained fixed in an ultra-conservative mold.

All of this began to change, however, with the construction and development of the Ringstrasse, the circular courtyard-like area, the "broad glacis" that separated the inner and outer cities. Joseph II, the "people’s ruler," who reigned towards the end of the eighteenth century, right before the rise of Prince Metternich, was the first to attempt to bridge the physical gap that separated the city and the suburbs. Though he did not succeed in promoting any sort of liberalism (Metternich’s rabid conservatism plowed through all of his achievements soon after his departure from the throne), Joseph did pave the way for the profoundly influential events that were to take place during the mid-nineteenth century. First there was an attempted revolution in 1848, in which students and liberals took to the streets demanding a liberal constitution. Though the revolution was crushed, the progressives did manage to get a number of liberals appointed to the city council. Soon afterward Vienna was de-fortified, and the inner city was stripped of its protection from the outer, lesser peoples. Then the emperor Franz Joseph began to develop the Ringstrasse in order to create a place of culture, entertainment, and leisure for the upper classes. Yet, as the Viennese liberals became more and more empowered, the development of the Ringstrasse began to take on a different, far more socially significant form. For a half-century, the development of the glacis signified the growth of a new, powerful liberalism. The Ringstrasse became home to a class of liberal bourgeoisie who were placed in a position to challenge the power of the traditional aristocracy and the Hofburg. The Ringstrasse was modern, and relatively secular: buildings were constructed for efficiency and with purpose, and not for aesthetic value. In addition, the outer suburbs were now physically connected to the inner city by avenues that cut through the Ringstrasse. It seemed as if social mobility had arrived with the Ringstrasse: the lower classes were no longer isolated, and the upper classes were no longer insulated. A new culture of modern bourgeois art, music and architecture sprung up, and Vienna seemed to be following the course of urban evolution. Yet in the end, the hope for liberalism that the development of the Ringstrasse provided proved be insufficient and short lived. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Vienna was placed back in the hands of the strict conservatism that had dominated it for so long. The growth of the Ringstrasse was progressive, for it physically connected the different classes. Yet the bourgeois Ringstrasse was simply not liberal enough to provide for any permanent changes within the Viennese social infrastructure.

A plan for the development of the Ringstrasse

See a better map of Vienna at www.arch.kth.se/hemsidor/otherhome/octavianhome/Austria/vienna81.GIF

Links to:

A) A Social Pre-history of Old Vienna (my pre-history paper)

B) The development of the Ringstrasse, and its immediate effects

C) The modern culture of the Ringstrasse: art and architecture as evidence of new, modern thought.

D) The limits of Ringstrasse liberalism: where and how it failed.

E) Bibliography