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Red Vienna (German: Rotes Wien) was the colloquial name for the capital of Austria between 1918 and 1934, during which the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (SDAP) maintained near-total political control over Vienna (and for a short time, over Austria as a whole). During this time, the SDAP pursued a rigorous program of construction projects across the city in response to severe housing shortages.[1] This involved implementing policies to improve public education, healthcare, and sanitation, while attempting to create the architectural foundation for a new socialist lifestyle.[1]
The collapse of the First Austrian Republic in 1934 after the suspension of the Nationalrat by Bundeskanzler Engelbert Dollfuß a year earlier, and the subsequent banning of the SDAP in Austria, brought an end to the period of the first socialist project in Vienna.[2] Many of the housing complexes built during this period, (known in German as Gemeindebauten) survive today.