Hintergrund 53

Description

The history of small or allotment gardens begins in Germany in 1865. They go back to an idea of the physician Dr. Daniel Gottlieb Moritz Schreber (1808-1861), who, under the impression of industrialization, wanted to promote green spaces where children could experience the joys of gardening. The allotment garden was born with the parcelling out and fencing of the flower beds. In 1903, the movement also spilled over to Austria. In 1914, Vienna owned 150,000 square meters of allotment garden space, but after the beginning of the war the number exploded to 450,000 square meters (1915). However, this rapid breakthrough was not due to health reform intentions, but to the prevailing food shortage. The principle of self-sufficiency was also highly topical during the Great Depression, the Second World War and the first period after. In the 1950s, the idea of recovery gradually gained the upper hand again. In the present, however, year-round living is the order of the day, a drastic mutation in the history of allotment gardens. Today there are over 35,800 allotment garden plots in Vienna.

Texts, interviews and essays deal with questionable political decisions in Viennese urban planning, give insights into the Viennese allotment garden system and the planning and building tasks. The question is explored which time-specific motives and interests lead to the fact that architecture, architectural history and spatial research make the allotment garden the object of research and how this can be exemplified by selected research and publications.