The article presents an analysis of the democratic experiment performed in Vienna between the years 1919-1934. The experiment known as Red Vienna - which was founded with great popular participation (especially of the working masses strongly organized by the Austrian Social Democratic Party) under the leadership of the Austrian Marxist Otto Bauer - held urban transformations through massive housing policy with broad democratic sense. It was followed by pedagogical, sanitarian, organizational innovations, as the formation of councils of citizens who act in public spaces, which was built for public deliberation about issues and for definition of policies to city management. The political and democratic transformation generated in this process was profound, resulting in the metamorphosis of the city of Vienna from an aristocratic city to one with a strong democratic culture. The author attributes this experience, admired and emulated around the world, as the greatest trump of the so called Austro-Marxism.
Red Vienna; Democratic City; Austro-Marxism; Austrian Social Democratic Party; Councils' Democracy