Palais Epstein

Gustav Ritter von Epstein commissioned Palais Epstein as a Ringstraßenpalais, and the building’s history mirrors the late-Habsburg surge—and shock—of Vienna’s financial power. Built between 1868 and 1871 in a neo-Renaissance style, it is up to five storeys high and was designed by Theophil Freiherr von Hansen, who also created the adjacent Austrian Parliament Building. When the Gründerkrach hit—on 9 May 1873 the Vienna Stock Exchange crashed—Epstein sold the palais to the Imperial Continental Gas Association, an English gas company, to avert bankruptcy. In 1902 the State acquired it, using it as the domicile of the Administrative Court. After the Anschluss, it housed offices tied to the Reichsstatthalter’s building authorities; from 1945 to 1955, during the Allied occupation of Austria, it became the Soviet headquarters. …

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