Main building (University of Vienna)

Founded in 1365, the University of Vienna was originally housed in various buildings in the Stubenviertel of the historic old town. After 1623, the site was rebuilt as the Jesuit College, which, together with the University Church (Universitätskirche), has been preserved as the Old University.^[1]

Between 1753 and 1755, a new main building, the Neue Aula, was constructed nearby. After the suppression of the Revolution of 1848, the building was occupied by the military and university operations were curtailed, and students were driven out of the city. In 1857, the Neue Aula was transferred to the Academy of Sciences. Teaching was thereafter dispersed across several provisional locations throughout Vienna, underscoring the need for a new central main building.^[2]

In 1854, Minister of Education Leopold, Count von Thun und Hohenstein, proposed the construction of a new university building at the Rossauer Glacis in today’s 9th district. Initial plans near the Währinger Straße were abandoned after construction of the Votivkirche began in 1856. Political and military events, including the Italian war of 1859 and Thun’s departure from government in 1860, delayed the project. The plans were widely debated and repeatedly revised, ranging from a single monumental building to a campus model. Only one building from this phase was realised: the Chemical Institute on Währinger Straße, built by Heinrich von Ferstel between 1869 and 1872.

A change occurred in 1868, when Emperor Franz Joseph I approved the redevelopment of the former parade ground near the old town as part of the Ringstraße project. It was decided that the Parliament, Rathaus, and the University would be built there, with Ferstel appointed architect for the university. Despite resistance from some faculties, the Ringstraße site was ultimately confirmed.

Ferstel’s plans were approved in 1872, and construction began in 1873 after imperial funding was granted. Ferstel died in 1883 and was succeeded by his son Max von Ferstel and Karl Köchlin. The building was largely completed in 1884 and ceremonially opened on 10 October 1884 in the presence of the Emperor; decorative work continued for several years thereafter.^[2]

The building has repeatedly been a focal point of political and ideological conflict throughout the 20th century. During the interwar period, rising nationalist and Nazi student groups were increasingly active on campus, contributing to a tense climate and occasional clashes with other student factions and faculty as Austria grappled with broader political polarization in the First Republic.^[3]

On 22 June 1936, the philosopher Moritz Schlick, founder of the Vienna Circle and a prominent professor at the university, was murdered on a staircase inside the building by a former student, Johann Nelböck. Nelböck shot Schlick multiple times; the killing was widely interpreted in its historical context as reflecting the era’s turbulent intellectual and political climate, including rising intolerance and nationalism. A memorial inscription now marks the site of the killing.^[4]

Another controversial element of the university’s political history was the Siegfriedskopf, a war memorial installed in the foyer in 1923 by the then-dominant Deutsche Studentenschaft (German Student Body). Critics argued that the monument drew on nationalist and antidemocratic symbolism and excluded Jewish, socialist, and liberal members of the academic community. Amid decades of debate over its place at the university, the Siegfriedskopf was eventually moved to a less prominent location in the Arkadenhof during renovations between 2003 and 2006.^[5]