A historical perspective on the Institute for Hygiene and its building
The Year 1908 marked an important point in Viennese Medical Architecture. The new clinics at the AKH, located at Spitalgasse 23, took up their work as the Institute for Hygiene at Kinderspitalgasse 15 celebrated its opening.
The history of hygiene in Austria
At the beginning of the 18070s the time for the creation of a chair for hygiene had finally come to at least one Austrian university. More so, the neighboring kingdom Bavaria had already established such a position at the University of Munich, Würzburg and Erlangen. The medical college agreed on the establishment of a chair for hygiene and its occupation by “private lecturers for forensic and hygienic chemistry at the university in Vienna, K. k. regimental doctor Dr. Josef Nowak” on December 19th in 1874.
It is to note that although this chair position was only an extraordinary one at the Viennese Medical Faculty, even for the Austrian part of the monarchy, stuck in the age of the medical police, a new age of scientifically solid preventive medicine was dawning. The Institute itself had only a few labs and office rooms at Schwarzspanierstraße 17. For this reason, and because of the ever-increasing inadequacy of the working conditions, Nowak’s successor, Max Gruber, tried to find a better suited workplace.
The new institute building
For the new institute building, a 4-story-high building was raised on an area of 3000m² at Kinderspitalgasse 15. It was intended to house four institutions: the K.k. Institute for Hygiene as well as the adjacent K.k. General Research Facility for Food, the K.k. Institute for General and Experimental Pathology and the K.k. Serotherapeutic Institute.
The functional concept as a whole and for the first two institutes especially was started by Max Gruber and after Gruber’s leave to Munich in October 1902, von Schattenfroh completed it, aided by his colleagues Roland Graßberger, Heinrich Reichel, Ernst von Krombholz and Max Eugling.
The creative planning was entrusted to the hands of Viennese architect Ludwig Tremmel (1875-1946). The 4-story-high, block-like building that stood freely to three sides was something to be seen in Vienna for the first time in this age.
The Building was solemnly opened on October 23rd 1908.
The End of the Monarchy and up until today
During the 1930s, the Research Facility for Food was organizationally separated from the Institute for Hygiene but stayed within the building. In 1942, a “race-biological” institute was founded. Due to indirect damage from aerial bombs and direct hits on September 19, 1944, and January 11, 1945, the middle section of the building was totally destroyed.
After the arrival of the Russian troups around April 9th 1945, the building was used a headquarters by them. The first post-war ordinarius for hygiene, Marius Kaiser, began the reconstruction and further expansion of the institute, which was then finished by his successors Richard Bieling (1952-1959), Hans Moritsch (1959–1965), Heinz Flamm (1965–1991) und Manfred Rotter (1991–2008).
In the years 1970 to 1983, the Institute for Environmental Hygiene (Manfred Haider), for Virology (Christian Kunz), for Specific Prophylaxis and Tropical Medicine (Gerhard Wiedermann) and for Social Medicine (Michael Kunze) were founded and established in the same building.
In 1991, a fire caused heavy damage to two floors including laboratories and lecture halls. Not only was the damage repaired, but the institute expanded even more.
In 2009, Hannes Stockinger assumed the chair of the now so-called Clinical Institute of Hygiene and Medical Microbiology. This was accompanied by a merge of the Institute with the Department of Molecular Immunology to establish the Institute for Hygiene and Applied Immunology, which Hannes Stockinger led until the end of 2021. Subsequently, in 2010, this Institute became a pivotal component of the Center for Pathophysiology, Infectiology, and Immunology (CePII), alongside the Institute of Immunology, the Institute of Specific Prophylaxis and Tropical Medicine, and the Institute of Pathophysiology and Allergy Research.
Hannes Stockinger served as the inaugural director of CePII from early 2010 until late 2019, overseeing its evolution into one of the largest and most successful translational research units at the Medical University of Vienna. Under his leadership, the University acquired sole occupancy of the building, prompting extensive renovations. These renovations encompassed various enhancements, including painting of the facade, installation of new windows, laboratory and office space reorganization, and the conversion of the former animal house into a seminar room facility.
Today, the building not only accommodates CePII, but also the Center for Public Health and the Center for Virology. All these entities are organizational units of the Medical University of Vienna..
Further reading: Flamm H., 1908 – 2008 - Hundert Jahre neues Hygiene-Institut der Universität Wien. Wien. Klin. Wochenschr., 120 (2008), 571–580.