Meidling

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12th District of Vienna
Coat of Arms	Map

Name:	Meidling
Area:	8.21 km²
Population:	83,050 (as of 2006)
Density:	9,533 people per km²
Postal code:	A-1120
Address of District Office:	Schönbrunner Straße 259 A-1120 Wien
Official Website:	www.wien.gv.at/meidling/ (German)
E-Mail:	post@b12.magwien.gv.at
Politics
District Director	Gabriele Votava (SPÖ)
First Deputy	Robert Baumgartner (SPÖ)
Second Deputy	Ingrid Madejski (FPÖ)
Representation (54 Members)	SPÖ 29, FPÖ 9, ÖVP 8, Greens 7, Pro Hetzendorf 1

Meidling is the 12th district of Vienna. It is located in the southwestern part of the city, south of the Wienfluss, west of the Gürtel and east and southeast of Schönbrunn palace. Traditionally, Meidling has been a working-class neighborhood. In sports is represented the FC Dynamo Meidling.

[edit] History

Meidling, as a district of Vienna, was founded in the 1892. It consists of five former villages: Obermeidling, Untermeidling, Gaudenzdorf, Hetzendorf and Altmannsdorf. Obermeidling and Untermeidling were one village called Meidling until 1806, when they were divided. Altmannsdorf has still its rural character.

[edit] Educational institutions and infrastructure

There are two gymnasiums in Meidling, both of them in Untermeidling: GRG 12 Rosasgasse, where Ignaz Seipel, a former Chancellor of Austria, took his Matura exams. The second school is GRG 12 Erlgasse.

The Social Democratic Party of Austria runs a post-degree college for their politicians in Altmannsdorf, the Dr.-Karl-Renner-Institut.

Wien Meidling Station, located on the Austrian Southern Railway, is one of the largest railway stations in Vienna. It is located in Untermeidling. All trains from Vienna to Wiener Neustadt, Graz and Klagenfurt stop there.

[edit] Dialect

The "Meidlinger L" is a specialty of the German working-class dialect spoken in Vienna (see Viennese language). It refers to the letter "l" spoken as "dl" (as in Meidling, hence the name) in some variants of the Viennese dialect. Some believe that this feature of the dialect has its origin in the Czech language, where the 'l' sometimes sounds similar, e.g. in the past tense.