The period of Viennese Modernism is widely regarded as Europe’s cultural heyday. This was when Vienna, with a population of two million, was the capital of the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy and a melting pot of European cultures. Around 1850, a fundamental push for urban renewal was initiated with the re-planning of the city’s Ringstrasse. As a result, new palaces and novel building types emerged throughout Vienna, reflecting both social change and technological progress. 306 contemporary texts construct a picture of Vienna in the period between 1850 and 1945. The authors’ polemics, critiques, and descriptions provide vivid testimony to this urban transformation whose impact is felt to