Penzing

Penzing, 14^th district of Vienna, area 33.31 km², pop. 80,822 (1991) ancient village, first documented mention around 1120, situated on the left bank of the River Wien, along the road to Linz. During the 18^th century it was a summer resort and the first location of the Vienna silk industry. Between 1890 and 1892 Penzing was integrated into Vienna as part of the 13^th district; Penzing and all other parts situated north of the River Wien (Breitensee, Baumgarten including Steinhof, Hütteldorf) were separated from the 13^th district and united with the villages Mariabrunn, Weidlingau, Hadersdorf and Hainbach (all situated in the northern part of Vienna Woods) to form the district of Penzing, the 14^th district of Vienna in 1938.

The Western Railway line (Hütteldorf railway station) cuts across this district; its eastern part, with suburban character is mainly residential, with houses in Biedermeier style. Penzing also includes the industrial area of Auhof, some factories (electrical appliances, furniture, playing cards etc., laundry and dye works), Hanappi-Stadion stadium, freight station, allotment gardens, forestry technology enterprise of the Österreichische Bundesforste AG (Austrian Federal Forests); Vienna Museum of Technology, Cumberland Palace (including the Reinhardt Seminar), federal advanced-level school of printing and graphic arts (Höhere Graphische Bundes-Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt), Breitensee barracks, Hanusch Hospital, "Am Steinhof" psychiatric hospital (with a domed church by O. Wagner, one of the most significant Jugendstil buildings), Baumgartner Höhe pulmonological sanatorium, two villas by Otto Wagner (one houses the Ernst Fuchs museum), council housing estates (Hugo-Breitner-Hof). Penzing stretches in the north-west far into the Vienna Woods along the Halterbach and Mauerbach streams; in this part of Penzing are the Schottenhof restaurant and Knödlhütte lodge, the University of Agricultural Sciences' experimental gardens, Laudon Palace (now Federal Academy of Public Administration) and Field Marshal Laudon's grave, Mariabrunn parish church with former monastery (today Federal Forest Research Centre), Sofienalpe hill, open-air swimming pools and camping site. Hills: Wolfersberg (alt. 322 m), Satzberg (alt. 435 m), Franz Karl Fernsicht (alt. 486 m, panoramic view), Schutzengelberg (alt. 508 m).

Literature: H. Watzinger, Die sozialen, wirtschaftlichen und besitzgeschichtlichen Wandlungen des Dorfes Penzing bis zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts, doctoral thesis, Vienna 1949; F. Czeike, Penzing, Wiener Bezirkskulturführer, 1974; H. Wohlrab, Penzing, 1985; F. Czeike, Historisches Lexikon Wien, 5 vols., 1992-1997.