Places of the Vienna Circle
Scientific Conception of the World in Vienna
From 1924 to 1936, a discussion circle centred around the physicist and philosopher Moritz Schlick met regularly in a small room at the Mathematical Seminar of the University of Vienna. Despite differing philosophical positions, the Vienna Circle shared a common commitment to a clear and exact scientific
anguage, as well as a critical attitude towards language using symbolic logic. Experience and formal logic were to overcome the prevailing metaphysical philosophy (e.g., of Martin Heidegger, Othmar Spann, Oswald Spengler).
With the manifesto Wissenschaftliche Weltauffassung. Der Wiener Kreis (The Scientific Conception of the World. The Vienna Circle), the Schlick Circle made its first public appearance in 1929. The publisher of this manifesto was the Ernst Mach Society, through which the ideas of logical empiricism were made accessible to a wider public.
The Vienna Circle could only develop in this form in the Vienna of the First Republic, in a productive relationship of tension between the university and the city, with educational work characterised by Austro-Marxism and liberalism. Austro-Fascism marked a major initial break, and with the ‘Anschluss’, the Vienna Circle was almost completely expelled from Vienna, with no possibility of return.
Places
Reactionary and anti-Semitic tendencies made the university a precarious place for the Vienna Circle from the very beginning, until Moritz Schlick was murdered there in 1936. Clubs, coffee houses, and flats became important meeting places, turning the sites of Red Vienna into centres of activity.
9., Boltzmanngasse 5
9., Boltzmanngasse 5
Departments of Mathematics and Philosophy of the University of Vienna
Teaching
Schlick Circle
1., Universitätsring 1
1., Universitätsring 1
Main building of the University of Vienna
Dean’s Office for Philosophy
Philosophers’ steps
Lectures
Murder of Moritz Schlick
1., Rathausplatz 1
1., Rathausplatz 1
Town hall – Volkshalle
Permanent exhibition
of the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum
1., Wipplingerstraße 8
1., Wipplingerstraße 8
Old Town Hall
Office of the Ernst Mach Society
1., Reichsratstraße 17/ Ecke Universitätsstraße
1., Reichsratstraße 17/ Ecke Universitätsstraße
Café Arkaden
1., Rathausplatz 4
1., Rathausplatz 4
Café Colonnaden
8., Florianigasse 55
8., Florianigasse 55
Café Hamerling
9., Währinger Straße 33-35
9., Währinger Straße 33-35
Café Josephinum
16., Ludo-Hartmann-Platz
16., Ludo-Hartmann-Platz
Volksheim Ottakring
Lectures and courses
1., Rathausplatz 7-9
1., Rathausplatz 7-9
Café Reichsrat
1., Herrengasse 14
1., Herrengasse 14
Café Central
1., Herrengasse 10
1., Herrengasse 10
Café Herrenhof
1., Schreyvogelgasse 5 / Ecke Ring
1., Schreyvogelgasse 5 /
Ecke Ring
Künstler Café
1., Ebendorferstraße 7
1., Ebendorferstraße 7
Chamber of Labour, Vienna
Lectures of the Ernst Mach Society
8., Buchfeldgasse 6
8., Buchfeldgasse 6
Meeting place for art and science
1., Tuchlauben 2
1., Tuchlauben 2
Gebäude der Wiener
Städtischen Versicherung
Zeitschau des Gesellschafts- und
Wirtschaftsmuseums
1., Ring-des-12.-November 10 (Universitätsring)
1., Ring-des-12.-November 10
(Universitätsring)
Café Schottentor
1., Renngasse 4
1., Renngasse 4
Palais Batthány-Schönborn
Schlick‘s first meeting with Wittgenstein
1., Grünangergasse 10
1., Grünangergasse 10
Zum grünen Anker
Meeting place of Mises’s Seminar,
Hayek’s Geistkreis
1., Uraniasstraße 1
1., Uraniasstraße 1
Urania
Lectures and courses
1., Schottengasse 4
1., Schottengasse 4
Verlag Julius Springer
Publisher of the Vienna Circle
1., Seilerstätte 1
1., Seilerstätte 1
Artur Wolf Verlag
Publisher of the
Ernst Mach Society
1., Parkring 12
1., Parkring 12
Building of the Austrian
Horticultural Society
Permanent exhibition of the Gesellschafts-
und Wirtschaftsmuseum
1., Operngasse 7
1., Operngasse 7
Café Museum
3., Kundmanngasse 22
3., Kundmanngasse 22
Volkshochschule Landstraße
Lectures and courses
4., Prinz-Eugen-Straße 68/Mezz./4
4., Prinz-Eugen-Straße
68/Mezz./4
Flat of Moritz
and Blanche Schlick
Liberal, international salon
11., Gottschalkgasse 21
11., Gottschalkgasse 21
Volkshochschule Simmering
Lectures and courses
5., Schloßgasse 1
5., Schloßgasse 1
Flat of Otto Neurath
and Olga Hahn-Neurath
Frequent meetings
5., Stöbergasse 11-15
5., Stöbergasse 11-15
Volksbildungsverein
Margareten
Lectures and courses
12., Gaudenzdorfer Gürtel 15/17/3/11
12., Gaudenzdorfer Gürtel 15/17/3/11
Flat of Otto Neurath
and Olga Hahn-Neurath
Frequent meetings
15., Ullmannstraße 44
15., Ullmannstraße 44
Zentralsparkasse building
Offices of the Gesellschafts- und
Wirtschaftsmuseum
12., Grünbergstraße 25/2/8
12., Grünbergstraße 25/2/8
Flat of Heinrich Gomperz
Gomperz Circle
7., Burggasse 14-16
7., Burggasse 14-16
City of Vienna’s Pedagogical Institute (from 1925)
Teaching and lectures
1., Rathauspark
1., Rathauspark
Monuments to Ernst Mach
and Josef Popper-Lynkeus
1., Karl-Renner-Ring 11
1., Karl-Renner-Ring 11
Palais Epstein
Vienna School Board
City of Vienna’s Pedagogical Institute
Department of Psychology of the University of Vienna (until 1934)
Teaching and lectures
9., Thurngasse 2
9., Thurngasse 2
Café Akazienhof
1., Liebiggassse 5
1., Liebiggassse 5
Departments of Philosophy and Psychology (from 1934) of the University of Vienna
9., Alserbachstraße 11
9., Alserbachstraße 11
Café Thurn
18., Währinger Straße 71
18., Währinger Straße 71
Flat of Edgar Zilsel
Gomperz Circle, Zilsel Circle
2., Zirkusgasse 48
2., Zirkusgasse 48
Volkshochschule Leopoldstadt
Lectures and courses
20., Stromstraße 78
20., Stromstraße 78
Volkshochschule
Brigittenau
Lectures and courses
19., Döblinger Hauptstraße 90
19., Döblinger Hauptstraße 90
Flat of Felix Kaufmann
Vienna Circle and liberal circles
19., Grinzinger Straße 70
19., Grinzinger Straße 70
House of Felix Ehrenhaft
Salon with guests from science and art
19., Weimarerstraße 100
19., Weimarerstraße 100
Flat of Karl and Charlotte Bühler
Salon with close ties to the Vienna Circle
18., Eckpergasse 39
18., Eckpergasse 39
Flat of Olga Taußky (Taussky-Todd)
Private meetings with Kurt Gödel and others
Source: G. Freytag & Berndt‘s Verkehrsplan von Wien, Wien, G. Freytag & Berndt [1928] WBR, k-185508
People
From 1924 onwards, the Vienna Circle, led by philosopher Moritz Schlick, brought together a diverse group of scientists: mathematicians such as Hans Hahn and Karl Menger, physicists such as Philipp Frank, social scientist Otto Neurath, and philosophers such as Rudolf Carnap and Friedrich Waismann. Kurt Gödel and Karl Popper were among the associate members. Many came from Jewish families and were politically left-wing. Discussions took place in university rooms, Viennese coffee houses and private apartments – places that shaped the lively intellectual exchange of this community of thinkers.
The expulsion
Exile and diaspora
As early as the beginning of the 1930s, the first members of the Vienna Circle left Austria due to anti-Semitism and the rejection of scientific philosophy at the university. Under Austrofascism, the situation became untenable. With Schlick’s assassination in 1936, the circle came to an end after twelve years. The Anschluss in 1938 forced the Jewish members to flee. Despite international networks and contacts in the USA and England, the Vienna Circle did not continue in exile. Vienna, with its coffee house culture, salons and Red Vienna with its educational movement, was sorely missed. After 1945, only a tentative new beginning was possible – without the return of those who had been expelled.
Rudolf Carnap on a ship
Photo: unknown
Rudolf Carnap Papers, 1905-1970, ASP.1974.01, Archives of Scientific Philosophy, Archives & Special Collections,
University of Pittsburgh Library System
Postscript - Renaissance of the Vienna Circle
In 1991, Friedrich Stadler, with the help of numerous colleagues, founded the Vienna Circle Institute as an ‘Association for the Promotion of Scientific Worldview’. The takeover by the University of Vienna in 2011 marked a highly symbolic return. At the same time, the Wiener Kreis Gesellschaft continues to operate as an association in good co-operation with the university institute.
To mark the 650th anniversary of the University of Vienna in 2015, the exhibition ‘Der Wiener Keis. Exaktes Denken am Rand des Untergangs’ was shown in the main building on the Ring. The exhibition subsequently toured Europe to great acclaim. The original plates from this exhibition were given to the Wienbibliothek im Rathaus (Vienna City Library) as a permanent loan.
With three ongoing book series, further edition projects, a research library with archive and annual lectures and conferences, the Vienna Circle Society is recognised internationally as the first address for the history and theory of the Vienna Circle. Thus, after a long delay, a Viennese institution is continuing a success story that was forcibly interrupted in a global context.