In Favoriten, Vienna's 10th district
The listed building was erected in 1931 according to plans by Josef Hofbauer and Wilhelm Baumgarten as a school for children of Slovaks and Czechs in Vienna. It is one of the oldest reinforced concrete buildings in Vienna.
In 1945 the building became the property of the Austrian Communist Party. In 1990, the house, which was already largely empty at the time, was occupied by activists of the autonomous scene. It was renamed Ernst-Kirchweger-Haus after the communist and anti-fascist resistance fighter Ernst Kirchweger, who had been killed by a right-wing extremist counter-demonstrator during an anti-fascist demonstration in 1965.
In 1991, the squatters managed to obtain a lease from the Communist Party. At the end of October 2004, the KPÖ sold the Ernst Kirchweger House to a real estate company whose managing director was accused of contacts with the far-right scene and former membership in the neo-Nazi Aktion Neue Rechte (ANR). This action triggered massive protests and was justified primarily by the financial plight of the KPÖ, which, following a court ruling, had to repay GDR funds that had flowed to it illegally to the Federal Republic of Germany. After numerous initiatives and individuals, such as the Nobel Prize winner for literature Elfriede Jelinek, spoke out in favor of a continued autonomous Ernst Kirchweger House, the City of Vienna acquired the property in 2007; in 2008, the occupation officially ended and the City of Vienna concluded usage agreements with the residents.*
"2020 disturbances
In June 2020, a feminist demonstration protesting the treatment of women [and especially femicides] in Austria and Turkey, organised by a Kurdish women’s organisation based at EKH, was attacked by the Turkish far-right group the Grey Wolves. In response, anti-fascists organised a counter-demonstration the next day and this resulted in 200-300 neo-fascists attacking the EKH building, throwing stones, bottles and firebombs. The situation then created [days of turmoil in this part of the district and ]a diplomatic war of words between Austria and Turkey, with the Turkish ambassador being invited to the Foreign Ministry [of Austria and the Austrian ambassador being invited to the Turkish Foreign Ministry]." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst-Kirchweger-Haus www.derstandard.at/story/2000118375943/demos-in-favoriten...
* de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst-Kirchweger-Haus
www.geschichtewiki.wien.gv.at/Ernst-Kirchweger-Haus
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der_denkmalgesch%C3%BCtzten_O...
