Women’s hospice of the cooperative health insurance

A special history is associated with the former women’s hospice of the cooperative health insurance funds in the 19th district. Opened in 1909, it was the first hospital built by a health insurance company in Vienna and functioned as a maternity clinic for more than 65 years until it was taken over by the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences as an administrative building in the 1980s.

Originally built for workers‘ wives who had to give birth at home under often poor hygienic conditions with a high complication rate, the facility developed into a renowned maternity clinic with an outpatient clinic and later also a training center for doctors.

With a total of more than 100,000 births, this building was not only responsible for up to 25% of all babies born in Vienna at times, but also made a significant contribution to the further development of birth techniques and thus to the reduction of maternal and infant mortality.

PS: the building also the last stop of my guided tours (D/E) through the Cottage Quarter – for details and dates see my Cottage-Tour.