A History of the Environment

Before you is a portrait of Marie Toth. On the back is another photograph and a moveable text panel. Like many children and youth of her time, Marie Toth had to do extremely hard work in a brick factory.

The south of Vienna was rich in clay, and numerous brick factories were established there in the 19th century. Toward the end of the 19th century, a single large company alone produced up to 225 million bricks per year. Clay mining and non-stop burning of the factory furnaces drastically changed the nature and landscape around Wienerberg.

Bricks were in high demand: construction boomed in Vienna, as more and more people moved to the capital city of the Habsburg Monarchy. Construction on the building you are standing in now began during this time.

In her autobiography, Marie Toth describes the working conditions in the brickyards, which were extremely gruelling. The working conditions in other factories were often just as dreadful.

On one side of the room, you can see large steps with many campaign posters at the top. They are from the 1919 elections. Many address Labour issues, but there is not one mention of environmental protection. Despite that, the first nature conservation movements appeared in the late 19th and early 20th century.

From the 18th century onwards, with industrialization starting in Europe, nature and human society fundamentally changed. With the invention of the steam engine and other technologies, production rapidly increased. Across the entire continent, factories were established and train tracks were laid. More and more people moved to the city, and the population grew.

And with industrialization, energy consumption also increased. Enormous quantities of fossil fuel were needed for the production of iron and steel and for building machines. The smoke from coal-burning stoves polluted the air. The soil and water were also contaminated.

After 1945, the pace of these processes increased anew. Only in the 1970s did large-scale public awareness emerge for the drastic effects of these developments on nature.