The Vienna Woods | Habsburg's green sin # 2022

Concrete desert instead of climate protection? About the rescue of the Vienna Woods in the 19th century. 

About 150 years ago, the Vienna Woods were on the verge of being cut down. The entire area could be completely urbanized and concreted today.

The imperial family under Franz Joseph I. was heavily in debt after losing wars and wanted to replenish the coffers by selling state property. The Ministry of Finance was entrusted with the implementation. These did not stop at clearing the green lungs of Vienna and at the same time a scenic jewel of the Lower Austrians for deforestation - the forest belt, which once stretched from the Prater meadows to Lilienfeld.

In order to get cash quickly, a monopoly contract was concluded with a large timber dealer, who was allowed to fell large parts of the Vienna Woods around the Anninger without reforestation for little money. But he hadn't counted on the activist Josef Schöffel from Mödling, who started a persistent media campaign against deforestation, which had never been seen before in the German Empire. The freedom of the press, which was still new at the time, made this possible for the first time.