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Sources for the video

Vienna’s old tenement houses, around 1900

Four people, 28 square metres, four toilets for seven flats: that is how almost one in three people in Vienna lived around 1900. The Short raises the real floor plan of a tenement house from a 1929 promotional booklet of the City of Vienna into 3D and ends by asking what your family used to tell about how people lived. The long video “So lebte eine normale Wiener Familie um 1900” (how an ordinary Viennese family lived around 1900) walks through the same floor in 20 minutes, room by room, and asks who worked, what came to the table and how a labourer’s family got through the war. These are the sources of both films, for the Short statement by statement.

Also onInstagramTikTokYouTubeYouTube, long video

Video · 1:10 · with sound, in German

What the video shows

The video opens with the real floor plan of a Viennese tenement house from before the First World War; the walls are raised into 3D from the plan itself. A flat of room and kitchen in it measures 28 square metres, almost four people lived in such flats on average, and four toilets were shared by seven flats. In 1900 almost one in three people in Vienna lived in flats of two rooms, counting the kitchen, and in one in five of these flats six or more. Then furniture sinks into the flat as surveys from 1894 to 1918 describe it: three beds, a cot, a wardrobe and an iron stove in the room, a stove and a dresser in the kitchen.

In almost three in four Viennese flats the toilet was outside, mostly in the corridor, as the census of 31 December 1900 counted. So was the water: one tap for several flats, the Bassena. The video shows a photo from the house at Schimmelgasse 17 in the 3rd district, built 1859, and a cast-iron basin by the Viennese firm Wallner & Neubert.

To pay the rent, many also sublet a place to sleep, to bed lodgers: in 1900, one in twenty-five people in Vienna was one. Two painted pictures show how the room and the kitchen might have looked; they are labelled as AI images. During the First World War hardly anything was built: in 1913 Vienna gained 13,128 flats, in 1918 only 36. A real film from March 1920 shows women queuing in front of the stalls of a market hall; housing and food remained scarce after the war too.

Today one person in Vienna has 35.5 square metres on average, more than a whole family had back then in room and kitchen. Still, it is cramped for many: 8.8 percent of Viennese households count as overcrowded, almost one in eleven. At the end the video asks what your family used to tell about how people lived, whether in Vienna or somewhere else entirely.

The long video “So lebte eine normale Wiener Familie um 1900” (how an ordinary Viennese family lived around 1900) walks through the same floor in 20 minutes, chapter by chapter: room and kitchen, water, toilet and light, a bed to let, who works, the city of tailors, what comes to the table, Sunday, mothers in service and children in foster care, the war and what remains. It tells of Adelheid Popp, who sewed on buttons as a child, of the milliner Helene Kastner and her work book, of maidservants who had to give their child to the foundling hospital, and of a labourer’s family that kept accounts from 1913 to 1920: in 1917/18, with all its money together, it could buy only 59 percent of what it could buy before the war. At the end comes the tenant protection of 1917. Here, too, the pictures are real: photos, drawings and documents from the Wien Museum, the Vienna City Library and old books and newspapers, the City of Vienna’s general map of 1904 and films by Lucien Le Saint from the spring of 1920; two painted interior views are labelled as AI images.

Real in the Short are the floor plan and the photo from the booklet “Die Wohnungspolitik der Gemeinde Wien” of 1929 (Vienna City Library, public domain), the photo of the Bassena (SchiDD, CC BY 4.0) and the film by Lucien Le Saint from the Archives de la Planète of the Musée départemental Albert-Kahn (CC0). Two pictures are painted with AI and labelled “KI-Bild, kein Foto” (AI image, not a photo) in the film: the room and the kitchen, painted after views into the 3D floor. The booklet promoted the city’s housing programme; its plans and photos show the houses that came before, and the video does not adopt its judgements. The 3D floor is built from the walls of the plan; fields, labels, furniture, counter and square are drawn from the figures and descriptions. The voice, the music and the sound effects are AI-generated as well.

Sources and image credits

Data

For the film we cropped, converted and redrew the data.

Pictures

  1. unknown (draughtsperson; published by the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum (Social and Economic Museum)), Die Wohnungspolitik der Gemeinde Wien (the “Grundriß eines Wohnhauses der Vorkriegszeit mit indirekt belichteten und belüfteten Gangküchen und aneinandergereihten gemeinsamen Aborten” (floor plan of a pre-war apartment house with indirectly lit and ventilated corridor kitchens and shared toilets in a row), p. 4), 1929 (2nd edition). Wienbibliothek im Rathaus (Vienna City Library), digital.wienbibliothek.at. Licence: gemeinfrei (Public Domain). Change: in the Short a crop of the plan without the caption, halftone screen lightly removed, the pink of the paper half desaturated. At the beginning and in the middle as a 3D floor: the plan as the ground, the walls raised from its wall lines (a floor plan does not show their height, it is assumed), with camera moves; the picture says “Echter Grundriss vor 1914, in 3D aufgezogen” (real floor plan from before 1914, raised in 3D). Added: the four toilets in gold, one flat of room and kitchen divided into four fields; with “six people or more” furniture sinks into the flat (in the room three beds, a cot, a wardrobe, an iron stove, a table, two chairs and a chest of drawers, in the kitchen a stove, a dresser, a washtub and a sleeping place against the left wall; where they stand is an illustration); the labels “28 m²” and “Klos” (toilets); at the end seen from above, with a golden square of 35.5 m² next to the flat. Two eye-level views into this floor with its furniture are the templates of the two AI-painted pictures. In the long video the same 3D floor runs through the whole film, with the picture saying “Wien, 1900 · echter Grundriss vor 1914, in 3D aufgezogen” (Vienna, 1900 · real floor plan from before 1914, raised in 3D): the walls grow out of the plan, the furniture sinks in, and every chapter leaves a golden trace that afterwards stays in a light tone (the beds; the four toilets, labelled “Klos am Gang”, toilets in the corridor; the sleeping place in the kitchen, labelled “Schlafplatz · in der Küche, vermietet”, sleeping place · in the kitchen, let; a sewing place at the window); at the end, seen from above, the flat of back then in a light tone and the golden square of today, with the labels “damals, Zimmer und Küche · fast 4 Menschen, 28 m²” (then, room and kitchen · almost 4 people, 28 m²) and “heute, Schnitt aller Wiener · 1 Mensch, 35,5 m²” (today, average of all Viennese · 1 person, 35.5 m²). In addition a crop of the flat plan as a sheet on the right, the pink half desaturated, and the whole plan heavily darkened as a slowly drifting background beneath the sheets, quotations and data graphics. Again two views into the floor are the templates of the two AI-painted pictures (both videos).
  2. unknown (photographer; published by the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum (Social and Economic Museum)), Die Wohnungspolitik der Gemeinde Wien (the photo “Der Gang in dem Hause III, Schimmelgasse 17 (erbaut 1859). Das sind die Wohnungstüren, die in diesen Gang münden.” (the corridor in the house at Schimmelgasse 17, 3rd district, built 1859; these are the doors of the flats that open onto this corridor), p. 19), 1929 (2nd edition). Wienbibliothek im Rathaus (Vienna City Library), digital.wienbibliothek.at. Licence: gemeinfrei (Public Domain). Change: in the Short without the caption, halftone screen removed, tonal range stretched, warm tint; in the middle a slow move into the corridor, at the end closer and darkened behind the question; in the long video a crop of the photo, full-frame, 40 % desaturated, slow zoom, twice (with the figures for 2001 and today, slightly darkened the first time) (both videos).
  3. SchiDD (photographer), Calbe-Becken (a cast-iron basin by the Viennese firm Wallner & Neubert, today in a front garden in Calbe (Saale); in the film as an example of a Bassena, not of the place), 21 September 2024. Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY 4.0. Change: in the Short a portrait crop, slow move closer; the picture says “Bassena der Wiener Firma Wallner & Neubert · Foto: SchiDD, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons” (Bassena by the Viennese firm Wallner & Neubert); in the long video a landscape crop, full-frame, slow zoom; the picture says “Bassena der Wiener Firma Wallner & Neubert, heute erhalten in Calbe (Saale), Foto 2024 · SchiDD, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons” (preserved today in Calbe on the Saale, photo 2024) (both videos).
  4. Lucien Le Saint (cameraman, Archives de la Planète), Marché couvert et scènes rurales (in the Short women queuing in front of the stalls of a Viennese market hall, reel AI140423 from 2:01.5; in the long video the queue in front of the stall “Marie Ruzycki · Viktualienhändlerin” (grocer; from 2:12) and men and boys carrying bundles of wood on their backs (from 5:20)), March 1920. Musée départemental Albert-Kahn (Hauts-de-Seine département), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC0 1.0. Change: in the Short ten seconds, the black edges of the scan cropped, shown at 18 instead of 30 frames per second (the museum has not adjusted the frame rate), full width on a blurred, darkened background from the same image; in the long video the first two shots, likewise at 18 instead of 30 frames per second, 4:3 at full height, black at the sides; the picture says “Wien, März 1920” (Vienna, March 1920) and, with the wood carriers, “Wien und Umgebung, März 1920” (Vienna and surroundings), because no source confirms the place there (both videos).
  5. Lucien Le Saint (cameraman, Archives de la Planète), Scènes de rue, marché, forêt dévastée (a clear-felled slope full of tree stumps, a woman with a bundle of brushwood on her back walks through the picture, reel AI140403 from 0:42), March 1920. Musée départemental Albert-Kahn (Hauts-de-Seine département), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC0 1.0. Change: at 18 instead of 30 frames per second, 4:3 at full height, black at the sides, twice: at the beginning, darkened towards the end of the shot, and before the ending; the picture says “Wien und Umgebung, März 1920” (Vienna and surroundings, March 1920) (long video).
  6. Lucien Le Saint (cameraman, Archives de la Planète), Vienne (Praterstern with the Tegetthoff column, a man in a cap smiles into the camera, reel AI45323 from 11:20 (positive print with intertitles)), March or April 1920 (title card “Avril 1920”, cameraman’s log “Mars 1920”). Musée départemental Albert-Kahn (Hauts-de-Seine département), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC0 1.0. Change: at 18 instead of 30 frames per second, 4:3 at full height, black at the sides; the last picture after the final sentence about 1900, before the closing question; the picture says “Wien, Frühjahr 1920” (Vienna, spring 1920) (long video).
  7. unknown (photographer; published by the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum (Social and Economic Museum)), Die Wohnungspolitik der Gemeinde Wien (the photo “‘Der Waschtag von einst.’ Aus einem alten Wiener Hause in ‘Liechtental’.” (washing day of old, from an old Viennese house in Liechtental), p. 47: a courtyard with an open gallery, washtubs and a wall basin with a spout), 1929 (2nd edition). Wienbibliothek im Rathaus (Vienna City Library), digital.wienbibliothek.at. Licence: gemeinfrei (Public Domain). Change: crop of the photo, full-frame, 40 % desaturated, slow zoom; on screen with “Hof in Lichtental, Foto vor 1929” (courtyard in Lichtental, photo before 1929) (long video).
  8. Martin Löfgren (photographer), "WIEN, MEIN KABINETT IN No 81 SCHÜTTELSTR., 25/9 1904." (a subtenant’s furnished small room with bed, table and paraffin lamp), 1904. Wien Museum, inv. no. 166702/25. Licence: CC0 1.0. Change: whole, as a sheet on the right over the heavily darkened floor plan, slight zoom; the picture says “Untermieter, kein Arbeiterhaushalt” (subtenant, not a working-class household) (long video).
  9. Hermine Heller-Ostersetzer (artist; publisher: Österreichische Staatsdruckerei (Austrian State Printing Office)), "Familienleben" aus der Serie "Das Leben der Armen ist bittrer als der Reichen Tod" (a lithograph: washing day in a kitchen full of steam, a woman at the washtub, a boy, a girl at the door), 1900. Wien Museum, inv. no. 94151/4. Licence: CC0 1.0. Change: cropped without paper margin and colour chart, as a sheet on the right over the heavily darkened floor plan, slight zoom (long video).
  10. unknown (published by the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum (Social and Economic Museum)), Die Wohnungspolitik der Gemeinde Wien (p. 9: the photo “Ein Straßenbild aus dem auf Seite 6 dargestellten Stadtviertel. (II, Stuwerstraße.)” (a street scene from the district shown on page 6, Stuwerstraße, 2nd district) and the text saying that a flat of room and kitchen cost “rund 30 Kronen monatlich” (about 30 crowns a month) and that the rent forced the “Aufnahme von Untermietern und Bettgehern” (taking in subtenants and bed lodgers)), 1929 (2nd edition). Wienbibliothek im Rathaus (Vienna City Library), digital.wienbibliothek.at. Licence: gemeinfrei (Public Domain). Change: the whole page as a sheet on the right over the heavily darkened floor plan, slight zoom, the colour of the paper half desaturated (long video).
  11. Emil Kläger (author; photos: Hermann Drawe), Durch die Wiener Quartiere des Elends und Verbrechens (the title page), 1908. Internet Archive (scanned by Google), durchdiewienerq00klgoog. Licence: gemeinfrei (Public Domain). Change: whole, as a sheet on the right over the heavily darkened floor plan, slight zoom (long video).
  12. Hermann Drawe (photographer; in Emil Kläger’s book), Durch die Wiener Quartiere des Elends und Verbrechens (the plate “Außenansicht eines Massenquartiers in der Floßgasse.” (exterior of a mass lodging house in Floßgasse; leaf 327 of the scan)), printed 1908. Internet Archive (scanned by Google), durchdiewienerq00klgoog. Licence: gemeinfrei (Public Domain). Change: printed sideways in the book, here turned upright, without the page margin, as a sheet on the right over the heavily darkened floor plan, slight zoom (long video).
  13. unknown (photographer; printed in Adelheid Popp’s book), Der Weg zur Höhe (p. 18, the photo “Adelheid Dworschak”: Adelheid Popp under her maiden name), taken before 1894 (inferred), printed 1929. Wienbibliothek im Rathaus (Vienna City Library), digital.wienbibliothek.at. Licence: gemeinfrei (Public Domain). Change: only the photo, without the text page, as a sheet on the right over the heavily darkened floor plan, slight zoom, four times; the picture says “Adelheid Popp (geb. Dworschak), vor 1894” (née Dworschak, before 1894) (long video).
  14. Emil Mayer (photographer), Zwei strickende Frauen, 1905–1911. Wien Museum, inv. no. 111448/101. Licence: CC0 1.0. Change: cropped without the slide border, as a sheet on the right over the heavily darkened floor plan, slight zoom, twice; the first time the picture says “teils gestellt” (partly posed) (long video).
  15. unknown (picture postcard, collotype), "Národni Hostinec" [tschechisches nationales Gasthaus/Volkswirtshaus], Inhaber: Jan Krof, 16., Ottakringer Straße 67 (the Czech inn, with about 60 guests, waiters and children lined up in front of it for the photo), around 1910. Wien Museum, inv. no. 310454. Licence: CC0 1.0. Change: front without margin and colour chart, as a sheet on the right over the heavily darkened floor plan, slight zoom (long video).
  16. unknown; made out by the municipal district office for the 1st district, Arbeitsbuch der Modistin Helene Kastner (später Helene Storch, 1891 - 1989), 1907–1916 (in use). Wien Museum, inv. no. 311725. Licence: CC0 1.0. Change: five images in a row (the cover, the personal details on pp. 2 f. and the posts in Abbazia on pp. 10 f., at Neuer Markt on pp. 12 f. and in Walfischgasse on pp. 24 f.), each without the colour chart as a sheet on the right over the heavily darkened floor plan, slight zoom (long video).
  17. Josef von Kühn (author), Die Wiener Volksküche (p. 134, the “Muster-Speisen-Karte für die Mittags-Kost im Monate Jänner.” (model menu for the midday meal in January)), 1890. Wienbibliothek im Rathaus (Vienna City Library), digital.wienbibliothek.at. Licence: gemeinfrei (Public Domain). Change: the whole page as a sheet on the right over the heavily darkened floor plan, slight zoom, the colour of the paper half desaturated, twice (long video).
  18. Theodor Breidwiser (Breitwieser, Breidwieser) (illustrator), "Eine Volksküche in Wien. Originalzeichnung von Th. Breidwiser. (S. 854.)" (a wood engraving from the magazine “Über Land und Meer”: the serving counter of a soup kitchen, guests at long tables in front of it), 1874. Wien Museum, inv. no. 209511. Licence: CC0 1.0. Change: without paper margin and colour chart, as a sheet on the right over the heavily darkened floor plan, slight zoom (long video).
  19. Emil Mayer (photographer), "Wiener Typen und Straßenbilder": Marktszene, around 1908. Wien Museum, inv. no. 78458/3. Licence: CC0 1.0. Change: without mount and colour chart, as a sheet on the right over the heavily darkened floor plan, slight zoom; the picture says “teils gestellt” (partly posed) (long video).
  20. unknown, The giant price demonstration in front of Vienna (Das interessante Blatt, 1911) (a photomontage from “Das interessante Blatt”: the demonstration against rising prices, a huge crowd in front of the City Hall), 21 September 1911. Wikimedia Commons. Licence: gemeinfrei (Public Domain). Change: whole, as a sheet on the right over the heavily darkened floor plan, slight zoom; labelled a photomontage on screen (long video).
  21. unknown, Price revolt in Vienna - Bloody clashes in Ottakring (Das interessante Blatt, 1911) (a drawing from “Das interessante Blatt”: mounted police strike into a crowd in Ottakring, September 1911), 21 September 1911. Wikimedia Commons. Licence: gemeinfrei (Public Domain). Change: whole, as a sheet on the right over the heavily darkened floor plan, slight zoom; labelled a drawing on screen (long video).
  22. unknown (draughtsperson, “Das interessante Blatt”; printed in Adelheid Popp’s book), Der Weg zur Höhe (p. 30, the drawing “Die Versammlung in den ‘Drei-Engel-Sälen’” (the meeting in the Drei-Engel-Säle) captioned “Ein Bild aus dem ‘Interessanten Blatt’” (a picture from Das interessante Blatt): a young woman speaks at the lectern before a hall full of women), printed 1929. Wienbibliothek im Rathaus (Vienna City Library), digital.wienbibliothek.at. Licence: gemeinfrei (Public Domain). Change: only the drawing, without the text, as a sheet on the right over the heavily darkened floor plan, slight zoom (long video).
  23. unknown (published by the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum (Social and Economic Museum)), Die Wohnungspolitik der Gemeinde Wien (p. 5: the “Grundriß eines Wohnhauses der Vorkriegszeit mit Ausschrotung des Baugrundes, kleinem Haupthof und Lichthof, in die Wohnräume, Küchen und Aborte münden.” (floor plan of a pre-war apartment house exploiting the plot, with a small main courtyard and a light well onto which living rooms, kitchens and toilets open) and the sentence “Der Spielplatz für die Kinder, die in diesen Häusern aufwuchsen, mußte die Straße sein.” (the playground for the children who grew up in these houses had to be the street)), 1929 (2nd edition). Wienbibliothek im Rathaus (Vienna City Library), digital.wienbibliothek.at. Licence: gemeinfrei (Public Domain). Change: the whole page as a sheet on the right over the heavily darkened floor plan, slight zoom, the colour of the paper half desaturated; the sentence as a quotation to its left (long video).
  24. unknown, Klappbett für Dienstbotinnen aus dem Haus 3., Gerlgasse 16 - Bettgestell, around 1900. Photo: TimTom, Wien Museum. Wien Museum, inv. no. 238043/1. Licence: CC BY 4.0. Change: whole, as a sheet on the right over the heavily darkened floor plan, slight zoom (long video).
  25. unknown, Dienstmädchenkleid, around 1890. Photo: Christin Losta. Wien Museum, inv. no. M 2282. Licence: CC BY 4.0. Change: the front view, whole, as a sheet on the right over the heavily darkened floor plan, slight zoom (long video).
  26. August Stauda (photographer), 8., Alserstraße 23 - Findelhaus, 1885–1915. Wien Museum, inv. no. 28872. Licence: CC0 1.0. Change: without mount and colour chart, as a sheet on the right over the heavily darkened floor plan, slight zoom (long video).
  27. August Stauda (photographer), 8., Alser Straße 23 - Findelhaus - Hofansicht, around 1908. Wien Museum, inv. no. 34101/2. Licence: CC0 1.0. Change: without mount and colour chart, as a sheet on the right over the heavily darkened floor plan, slight zoom (long video).
  28. Polizeifotografie (1914 - 1918), police photography (photographer), Warteschlange vor Anker-Brot-Verkaufsstelle (Ottakringer Straße) (according to the back “Brotverkauf im XVI., Ottakringerstraße. 11. u. 12. April 1915.” (bread sale in the 16th district, 11 and 12 April 1915)), 1915. Wien Museum, inv. no. 41233/4. Licence: CC0 1.0. Change: without mount and colour chart, full-frame, slow zoom, slightly desaturated; the picture says “Brotverkauf, Ottakringer Straße, 11. und 12. April 1915 · Polizeifoto” (bread sale, Ottakringer Straße, 11 and 12 April 1915 · police photo) (long video).
  29. Moritz Ledeli (watercolourist), "Zentralküche und Speisestelle X. / städt. Straßenbahnremise Favoriten", 1914–1918. Photo: Birgit und Peter Kainz, Wien Museum. Wien Museum, inv. no. 42296. Licence: CC BY 4.0. Change: without mount edge and colour chart, as a sheet on the right over the heavily darkened floor plan, slight zoom (long video).
  30. unknown, Lebensmittelkarte aus dem Ersten Weltkrieg: "Wiener Brotbezugskarte", 1918. Wien Museum, inv. no. 303427/7. Licence: CC0 1.0. Change: the front without the colour chart, as a sheet on the right over the heavily darkened floor plan, slight zoom, the colour of the paper half desaturated (long video).
  31. City of Vienna, housing office, Amtsblatt der Stadt Wien (no. 93, p. 2234: the “Monatsbericht des Wohnungsamtes der Stadt Wien für Oktober 1918” (monthly report of the City of Vienna’s housing office for October 1918) with 266 vacant flats), 19 November 1918. Wienbibliothek im Rathaus (Vienna City Library), digital.wienbibliothek.at. Licence: gemeinfrei (Public Domain). Change: a crop of the page as a sheet on the right over the heavily darkened floor plan, slight zoom, the colour of the paper half desaturated (long video).
  32. Austrian Council of Ministers (ordinance), reprinted by Fritz Winter, Der Mieterschutz (p. 35: § 2 of the ordinance of 26 January 1917, Imperial Law Gazette no. 34, “Verbot einer nicht gerechtfertigten Erhöhung des Mietzinses” (ban on an unjustified rent increase)), ordinance 1917, printed 1918 (2nd edition). Wienbibliothek im Rathaus (Vienna City Library), digital.wienbibliothek.at. Licence: gemeinfrei (Public Domain). Change: a crop with the subheading and the first sentence of § 2, as a sheet on the right over the heavily darkened floor plan, slight zoom, the colour of the paper half desaturated (long video).

AI, voice and music

In each of the two films two pictures are painted with AI and labelled “KI-Bild, kein Foto” (AI image, not a photo): the room of the flat shown and its kitchen. In the Short the kitchen is the view through the door; in the long video both are newly painted in landscape format, the room from the window towards the kitchen door, the kitchen with the sublet sleeping place, slightly desaturated and labelled in large letters “KI-Bild, kein Foto · gemalt nach dem echten Grundriss” (AI image, not a photo · painted after the real floor plan). Each template was an eye-level view into the 3D floor built from the real floor plan, furnished after descriptions of flats from 1894 to 1918; painted with Nano Banana 2.1 (Google, via OpenRouter), without people and without lettering. Which furniture is there is documented in those descriptions; its arrangement, the colours, laundry and clothes are an illustration. Otherwise nothing in either film is painted or animated with AI: the floor plan, the photos, drawings, documents and films are real, the 3D floor is built from the walls of the real plan, and fields, labels, furniture, counter, bars and square are drawn from the figures and descriptions. In both films voice, music and sound effects are AI-generated: the voice with Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS (“Charon”), the music with Lyria 3 Pro (via OpenRouter), in the long video the same music, but only in four places. The sound effects come from ElevenLabs: in the Short the clack of paper, the pencil and the rattle of the projector, in the long video only a clack at every jump between the 1920 film and the time around 1900. Underneath lies computed noise as room tone in both.

Each statement in the Short and its sources

  1. Four people, twenty-eight square metres, four toilets for seven flats. On screen: “Wien, um 1900 · 4 Menschen, 28 m²” (Vienna, around 1900 · 4 people, 28 m²), then “4 Klos · für 7 Wohnungen” (4 toilets · for 7 flats), and in the 3D floor the labels “28 m²” and “Klos” (toilets).

    “Four people” is the rounded average of 3.89, not a particular family. The 28 m² and the four toilets apply to the flat shown and to this one house from the booklet; they are not a statistic. The booklet gives 25 to 28 m² for room and kitchen; the flat shown is at the upper end, its kitchen is deeper than those of the neighbouring flats. The booklet does not name a specific house; it says “Vorkriegszeit” (pre-war period), the picture says “before 1914”.

  2. That is how almost one in three people in Vienna lived around 1900. On screen: “fast jeder dritte · lebte 1900 in Zimmer und Küche” (almost one in three · lived in room and kitchen in 1900).

    “That is how” means: in a flat of two rooms, counting the kitchen. Mostly that was room and kitchen, less often small room (Kabinett) and kitchen; the 1900 count does not separate the two. Not every one of these flats had exactly 28 m². One official source, read twice from the scan. The film says “people in Vienna”, not “Viennese”: the count includes everyone present, also migrants without right of domicile.

  3. The toilet was outside in the corridor, in almost three in four Viennese flats. On screen: “Klo am Gang · fast 3 von 4 Wohnungen, 1900” (toilet in the corridor · almost 3 in 4 flats, 1900).

    “Almost three in four” is 72.7 % of all occupied flats; counting only those for which the yearbook knows the location, it is 80.2 %. What the yearbook counted is a toilet outside the locked flat. That it was mostly in the corridor is how the 1929 booklet and Hardy describe the typical case; nobody counted it.

  4. So was the water: one tap for several flats, the Bassena. On screen: “die Bassena · eine Leitung für mehrere Wohnungen” (the Bassena · one tap for several flats) over the photo of a basin.

    Nobody counted how many flats shared one Bassena: Hardy writes “two or more families”, the Wien Geschichte Wiki names the floor. That is why the film says “for several flats”. The location in the corridor was counted in 1919; for 1900 the yearbook only counts where water was piped into the flat (that page has no usable full text; the figure was read from the page image). The basin in the photo was made by a Viennese firm and stands today in Calbe in Germany; it shows what a Bassena looked like, not where.

  5. In one in five such flats, six people or more lived. On screen: “jede fünfte · Zimmer-Küche-Wohnung: 6 Menschen und mehr” (one in five · room-and-kitchen flat: 6 people or more).

    “Such” flats are those of two rooms, counting the kitchen. We have not found a second count for 1900; the figure was read twice from the scan. The panel says “room-and-kitchen flat”; what was counted are flats of two rooms including the kitchen, so also small room (Kabinett) and kitchen.

  6. On screen, with “six people or more”: furniture sinks into the flat, in the room three beds (the parents in two beds side by side), a cot, a wardrobe, an iron stove, a table, two chairs and a chest of drawers, in the kitchen a stove, a dresser, a washtub and a sleeping place.

    Documented are three beds in large families and fewer sleeping places than people, as well as wardrobe, cot, iron stove and the stove in the kitchen; table, chest of drawers and dresser have one source each. Whether the marriage bed was one wide bed or two bedsteads side by side we have not found; where the furniture stands is an illustration. In 1894 Philippovich mainly visited poor flats, so his lists show the lower end rather than the average; Frei counted 70 small flats in two districts in 1918, during the war.

  7. To pay the rent, many also sublet a place to sleep. On screen: a painted room, with “KI-Bild, kein Foto · so könnte es ausgesehen haben” (AI image, not a photo · this is how it might have looked) in large letters above it.

    “Many”, not “most”: in 1900, 11 % of all households had bed lodgers. The 1929 booklet says “most” and calls the rent “enormously high”; that is its own judgement. Walter Schiff, who worked on the official survey of 1912 to 1914, gives the reason without judgement.

  8. To bed lodgers: one in twenty-five people in Vienna was one. On screen: the view through the door into the painted kitchen, with the label “Schlafplatz” (sleeping place) at the bed and “KI-Bild, kein Foto” (AI image, not a photo), and “Bettgeher · 1900: 1 von 25 Menschen in Wien” (bed lodgers · 1900: 1 in 25 people in Vienna).

    Hardy counts 1910, not 1900: a different year, the same order of magnitude. Bed lodgers were men and women who rented only a place to sleep in someone else’s flat. Bed lodgers slept in the kitchen, in the small room or with the family in the main room, often two to a bed. The sleeping place in the painted kitchen of the flat shown is an illustration; this particular place is not documented. The kitchen is painted dark because it only got light via the corridor (1929 booklet, p. 4).

  9. On screen, with both painted pictures: “KI-Bild, kein Foto: gemalt nach dem echten Grundriss · Einrichtung nach Erhebungen 1894 bis 1918” (AI image, not a photo: painted after the real floor plan · furnishing after surveys from 1894 to 1918).

    We found no free photos from inside a Viennese working-class flat before 1914, hence two painted views. Each template was an eye-level view into the 3D floor built from the real floor plan, with the furniture described above; the image model painted after it, without people and without lettering. Documented are the paraffin light, the brick floor in the kitchen and the dark corridor kitchen; laundry, clothes, stains and colours are an illustration.

  10. During the war hardly anything was built any more. On screen a counter “neue Wohnungen in Wien” (new flats in Vienna), year by year: 1913: 13,128, 1914: 8,666, 1915: 4,726, 1916: 835, 1917: 314, 1918: 36.

    We found the figures only in Hardy, who takes them from the statistical yearbook of the City of Vienna; the picture says so too. What is counted is the net increase, i.e. the growth after subtracting flats that were lost; the picture says “new flats” for short. The counter shows only these real annual figures, no values in between.

  11. This is Vienna in March 1920: women are queuing at the greengrocer’s. Housing and food remained scarce. On screen: “Wien, März 1920 · echter Film” (Vienna, March 1920 · real film).

    The film shows ten seconds from reel AI140423: women queuing in front of the stalls of a market hall, with the signs “Marie Zoder”, “Klara Glaser” and “Ruzycki”. For this reel the museum only says “scenes at the covered market”; “at the greengrocer’s” is in its description of a second reel from the same month. The museum does not say which market hall it is. For prices and the children’s meals we have one source each; the price index is the Austrian series, printed in Hamburg.

  12. Today one person in Vienna has more space on average than a whole family had back then. On screen: “heute · 35,5 m² für einen Menschen” (today · 35.5 m² for one person), on the floor plan “damals: 4 Menschen, 28 m²” (then: 4 people, 28 m²) and “heute: 1 Mensch, 35,5 m²” (today: 1 person, 35.5 m²).

    There are two official figures: the register counts 35.5 m², the microcensus survey 37.1 m². The film takes the smaller one; the picture says “Wohnfläche 2024, Überbelag 2025: Statistik Austria” (floor area 2024, overcrowding 2025). Wien in Zahlen gives a rounded 35 m² from the same register data. As at the beginning, “4 people” is the rounded average of 3.89.

  13. Still, it is cramped for many: almost one household in eleven counts as overcrowded. On screen: “überbelegt heute · 8,8 % der Wiener Haushalte” (overcrowded today · 8.8 % of Viennese households).

    One official source, one survey (microcensus 2025, a sample). 8.8 % is slightly fewer than one household in eleven (9.1 %). By this threshold, a flat of room and kitchen from back then would already be overcrowded with two people.

  14. On screen, in the middle and at the end: “Foto: Gang im Haus Schimmelgasse 17, Wien 3 (erbaut 1859)” (photo: corridor in the house at Schimmelgasse 17, Vienna 3, built 1859).

    The year of construction is in the booklet’s caption. It does not say when the photo was taken; it was published in 1929. According to the caption, the doors along the corridor are the doors of flats.

Literature and sources

How wohnwahn measures