Leopoldstadt: Make women visible - streets for Hilli and Trude!

Leopoldstadt: Make women visible - streets for Hilli and Trude!

Leopoldstadt, Österreich - On June 20, 2025, the district council of Leopoldstadt held its first regular meeting after the constitution. There were two central themes on the agenda: strengthening female visibility in public space and planning the "Grätzlmistplatz". It is noteworthy that in Vienna of around 6,500 traffic areas only about 10% are named after women. This is a fact that the district council wants to take on. [Meinverzirk] reports that a cross -party working group was founded to reduce the imbalance, initiated under the former district manager Uschi Lichtenegger.

In a unanimous decision, the municipal building in Vorgartenstrasse 158–170 was named after the well -known actress Hilli Reschl. Hilli Reschl has lived in Leopoldstadt for over 50 years and was a well-known face at the ORF senior club. Another unanimous decision led to the name of a nameless place at the intersection Taborstraße/Nordbahnstraße/Allitenstraße after the Jewish photographer Trude Fleischmann. This impressive personality was born in Vienna on December 22, 1895 and can look back on a remarkable career, during which she worked with greats like Stefan Zweig and Hedy Lamarr [Wikipedia].

The controversy around the "Grätzlmistplatz"

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

The Neos club vice Elisabeth Petracs emphasized the need to think of the manureplace as a modern place in the circular economy and to promote citizen participation. Markus Rathmayr from the Greens commented on the choice of location and called for a more responsible solution at the state level. The application for the convening of a citizens' meeting was finally accepted 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 named after women in Vienna, addresses the presence of women in urban areas. The short film, which was awarded at the Film Festival This Human World 2020, illustrates the discrepancy between male and female namesake in Vienna. It begins in the 23rd district and ends in the 1st district and shows about 400 different traffic areas in six minutes. Despite the slight increase in the 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 proves the need for further efforts to increase the visibility of women in public space. Suggestions to promote naming according to women include the division of longer roads, creating new places and renaming existing traffic areas. The gender atlas served as the basis for many of the research that is supposed to stimulate the discussion about this topic.

Today's meeting of the district council is another step on the way to more equality and visibility for women in Leopoldstadt and Vienna. The naming of places according to personalities such as Hilli Reschl and Trude Fleischmann shows that the history of these women is now also made visible in the cityscape.