Leopoldstadt: Making women visible – streets for Hilli and Trude!

Leopoldstadt: Making women visible – streets for Hilli and Trude!

On June 20, 2025, the Leopoldstadt district council held its first regular meeting after its constitution. Two central topics were on the agenda: strengthening female visibility in public spaces and the planning of the “Grätzlmistplatz”. It is noteworthy that of around 6,500 traffic areas in Vienna, only around 10% are named after women. This is a circumstance that the district council would like to address. [my district] reports that a cross-party working group to reduce the imbalance has been founded, initiated under the former district leader Uschi Lichtenegger.

In a unanimous decision, the community building at Vorgartenstrasse 158-170 was named after the well-known actress Hilli Reschl. Hilli Reschl lived in Leopoldstadt for over 50 years and was a well-known face at the ORF seniors' club. Another unanimous decision led to the naming of an unnamed square at the intersection of Taborstrasse/Nordbahnstrasse/Allietenstrasse after the Jewish photographer Trude Fleischmann. This impressive personality was born in Vienna on December 22, 1895 and has had a remarkable career, working with the likes of Stefan Zweig and Hedy Lamarr [Wikipedia].

The controversies surrounding the “Grätzlmistplatz”

The debate about the planned “Grätzlmistplatz” on Innstrasse, which is anchored in the government program, brought with it some controversy. Green Party district leader Bernhard Seitz sharply criticized the information policy of the city of Vienna and called for a citizens' meeting. SPÖ district councilor Miriam Kaiys also spoke out in favor of more transparency and made it clear that citizens should be involved in this important process.

The Neos club vice-president Elisabeth Petracs emphasized the need to think of the manure site as a modern place for the circular economy and to promote citizen participation. Markus Rathmayr from the Greens expressed concern about the choice of location and called for a more responsible solution at the state level. The motion to call a citizens' meeting was ultimately approved unanimously, which shows that there is a strong need for public participation.

Women in the city - a film as a cultural reflection

The film “Presence” by Aleksandra Kołodziejczyk and Karl Wratschko, which documents all traffic areas in Vienna named after women, addresses the presence of women in urban space. The short film, which won an award at the this human world film festival 2020, illustrates the discrepancy between male and female namesakes in Vienna [fernetzt]. It begins in the 23rd district and ends in the 1st district and shows around 400 different traffic areas in six minutes. Despite the slight increase in traffic areas named after women - from 8% in 2015 to around 10% in 2019 - naming after women in inner-city areas remains a rarity.

This demonstrates the need for further efforts to increase the visibility of women in public spaces. Suggestions to encourage naming after women include dividing longer streets, creating new squares and renaming existing traffic areas. The genderATlas served as the basis for much of the research intended to stimulate discussion on this topic.

Today's meeting of the district council is a further step towards greater equality and visibility for women in Leopoldstadt and Vienna. The naming of places after personalities such as Hilli Reschl and Trude Fleischmann shows that the history of these women is now also made visible in the cityscape.