National Galleries of Scotland

Throughout the 1920s Vienna was afflicted by high levels of unemployment, a source of social unrest. Some estimates suggest that by 1933 this affected as many as 750,000 people, or forty percent of the urban labour force. The social-democratic administration worked hard to alleviate unemployment’s worst aspects, paying special attention to working-class housing and cultural provision in the city. However, they did little to resolve inequality and the social-democratic leadership was frequently accused of valuing cultural over political and economic struggle. Tudor-Hart photographed both the effects of unemployment and the Social Democrats’ efforts to improve the lives of the city’s working class. Her images reflect the stark contradictions of interwar Vienna.