MAMA VIENNA – Municipal Housing Services and Institutions in the City of Vienna

Building superintendents are a dying breed in Vienna. In the first half of 2000, the governing coalition between the conservative ÖVP (Austrian People’s Party) and the far-right FPÖ (Freedom Party of Austria) abolished the Building Superintendent Act from 1922 in a clearly ideological move. In doing so, the management of municipal apartment buildings was transferred to the private-law Wiener Wohnen Hausbetreuung GmbH, a subsidiary of Wiener Wohnen. Whether and how much money was saved as a result is a matter of interpretation. What is undisputed is the increased anonymization that comes with the use of private service providers such as housekeeping companies.