Vienna Allotments after almost 100 years.

Kleingartens (Small gardens).

Zukunft auf der Schmeltz

(The Future on the Schmeltz)

There are 659 allotment plots on the old parade ground.

  

During WW1 food was short in Vienna and 'Kriegsgemüsefelden' (War vegetable fields and 'Kleingarten' (small gardens) were encouraged. After the WW1 in 1918, food remained  in Vienna was in short supply and there were many unemployed soldiers and many underused military facilities. 

Radezky Infantry Barracks from the Kleingartens.

Fieldmarshall Radetzky Commemorated.

Der Schmultz, had been a military parade ground, where the famous Field Marshall Josef Graf Radetsky, viewed his trooped as they marched to the waltz written for him by Strauss the Elder (supposedly written to prevent Strauss the younger being enlisted in the army). 

A pleasant small house on an allotment in front of the Radetzky barracks.

Gardeners associations were formed and when Austria became a republic Der Schmeltz became property of the Republic, which rented out the land to the associations.

Mouths were fed, and military hardware was made way for the ploughshare. The hundreds of families who were able to feed themselves on the Schmeltz started to enjoy the summers on their allotments. 

 

There was fresh air and plants and trees and many families decided to build little huts for shelter on those warm summer nights. A holiday in the city. 


Some of the the huts became more substantial and, 15 years ago, it became legal to build on 30m2 of the plots. It is interesting how often the law follows the practice of what people were already doing!

 

So where are the vegetables?

Perfect for summer! Note flats in the background.

                       All sorts of modern wooden, brick, glass and concrete tiny house gems!

A row of tiny houses.

At the weekends people come to visit and ogle the tidy little gardens, (no longer vegetables, but flowers) and the beautiful tiny houses, which perhaps are lived in for more than the summer months.It is very pleasant to stroll alongside the tiny houses and gardens on a sunny winter's day.

Tiny houses at the edge of der Schmeltz.

A modest wooden house.

Now, all over Vienna, there are thousands of tiny holiday houses, built on tiny plots, next to one another. They encourage a return to nature, in the city, neighbourliness and civic pride.