Wildganshof

The Wildganshof is a municipal housing complex in Vienna’s third district. Built between 1931 and 1933, it was one of the last major projects of Red Vienna before the corporate state was established. The complex was named after Anton Wildgans, a local poet and director of the Burgtheater who died in 1932. Designed by architects Viktor Mittag and Karl Hauschka, it originally contained 829 flats. Its long, closed façades give the building a fortified appearance, broken only where a planned rapid railway line would have cut through the site. The inner courtyards are spacious and green, typical of large municipal housing schemes from the interwar years. The façades are deliberately plain, except for a terracotta relief called ‘Ploughing Farmer’ by Alfons Riedel on the western side. During the Nazi period an inscription quoting Adolf Hitler was added but later removed. A bust of Anton Wildgans, also by Riedel, stands in one of the courtyards. In February 1934 the complex became a battleground during the Austrian civil war and held out against federal troops until 14 February. Visitors walk through the wide, tree-lined courtyards and see the plain façades and modest decorations. The relief and bust remain as historical markers. The scale of the complex and its austere style show how Red Vienna provided homes for thousands of working families. The two main courtyards offer quiet places to pause amid the city’s busy streets.