Vol. XXXIV · 2003

Cathleen M. Giustino

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There was always much that was ordinary about the house numbered 207-V up to the time of its disappearance from Prague's built landscape in 1905. Like many other buildings sheltering some of the city's most underprivileged residents, this place had no artistic worth; no one had contemplated hanging a plaque on its exterior to commemorate a well-known person having slept inside its walls; no published material pointed out any history-altering event that took place behind or in front of its doors. The ordinariness of house 207-V becomes even greater when its final years are situated within the history of a common process taking place, with some exceptions, throughout nineteenth-century Central Europe. Many of the structure's last experiences were part of the growth of what German historians of Germany have called the "Leistungsverwaltung," and what Austrian historians of Austria-Hungary have called "die aktive Stadt." These two different labels are used to describe the fact that during the course of the nineteenth century, a great many Central European cities expanded tremendously, not only in terms of their territories' populations, but also in terms of the number and extent of public projects that their municipal governments managed. The public projects included, among others, gas and electric works, transportation lines, sewers, baths, parks, libraries, museums, market halls, slaughterhouses, and poor-care facilities, including employment agencies, soup kitchens, and boarding houses. This article will use the life of house 207-V during its final years to shed further light on the nature of the forces feeding the growth of municipal activism in Prague and elsewhere in nineteenth-century Central Europe. In the process of doing so, it will also provide glimpses into the everyday living experiences of some of the region's poorest residents during industrialization.