Ottakring#

Ottakring, 16th district of Vienna, area 8.64 km2, pop. 88,931; settlements probably since the 9th century, first documented mention in 1147/67, formerly very industrialised, with garden areas in the western part leading up to the Vienna Woods (Liebhartstal valley, Starchant, Spiegelgrund, Gallitzinberg hill, Wilhelminenberg hill). In the course of its incorporation into Vienna in 1890/92, the Viennese district of Ottakring was created from the villages of Alt-Ottakring, Neu-Ottakring and Neulerchenfeld, all of which expanded enormously to the south and west in the second half of the 19th century, when workers´ tenement houses mushroomed. The straight Thaliastrasse street above the completely vaulted Ottakringerbach stream, the main watercourse of this district, stems from that era of construction.

Located in the southern part of this area are an adult education centre and the Radetzky barracks, a former tobacco factory and numerous other industrial enterprises; in Alt-Ottakring, where numerous new buildings (multi-storey houses, terminal of the U 3 underground line, "Kunstmeile" cultural area, HTL secondary school, residential buildings) were erected in the course of an urban renewal programme, there are the Ottakringer Brauerei AG brewery, in the north the Kongressbad (public baths) next to a park and the council houses in Sandleiten (from 1924); on the hills in the west next to what has remained of the formerly wide-spread vineyards (formerly a popular location for wine taverns): Wilhelminenspital hospital, formerly a lupus sanatorium, Ottakringer Friedhof (cemetery), Ottakringer swimming pool, the Kuffner observatory, Wilhelminenberg Palace (1927-1977 almost continuously used as a children´s home, converted into hotel between 1986-1988), biological station, research facility for wildlife studies of the Veterinary School of the University of Vienna, forest education trail and incinerating plant. Former Czech Volksschule primary school and Hauptschule secondary school, which recall the time when Ottakring was home to a large Czech minority (together with the 10th district the largest minority in Vienna) during the decades of industrial construction.

Ottakring had many traditional and new industries and enterprises; the Ottakringer Brauerei, the Fuernkranz clothing factory and the foodstuffs group (J. Meinl still have their original sites in Ottakring. A number of international groups, such as the pharmaceutical companies Gerot and Kwizda have also located to this district.

Literature#