LETTER FROM VIENNA: Red Vienna, the “Versailles of the Working Classes”

Close your eyes and think of Vienna. What do you see? Is it the Empress Sisi, the Schönbrunn Palace, people elegantly dancing a waltz? Or is it the world-famous Opera House, the music of Mozart and Strauss — and that cosy Kaffeehaus on a wintry day, where they serve Apfelstrudel and strong coffee? Open your eyes and follow me into another Vienna. This is Red Vienna: a unique social-political experiment, a Vienna where, for a decade and a half, a Socialist Utopia came true.

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With the greatest of delights I just realised something: all my life, I have been living in Red Cities — cities with a Socialist history. All the cities I loved and lived in — Ghent in Belgium, Jerusalem in Israel, Firenze in Italy, and now Vienna — were, and sometimes still are, fiery red, and proud of it.

I have been in Vienna for nearly fifteen years now, and I have gradually discovered a place and a history that traditional travel guides won’t tell you much about. Yet this Rotes Wien is visible everywhere, in every district you visit and on nearly every street you walk through.