ABSTRACT
Marienthal is a small industrial community on the Fischa-Dagnitz river in the Steinfeld district of Austria. A thirty-five minute train ride brings one from Vienna to Grammat-Neusiede], the nearest railway station; from there it is about a half-hour walk through the very flat countryside. A stranger to the district would scarcely notice the border between Grammat-Neusiedel and Marienthal; the houses disappear and for about three-hundred meters the road is lined on either side with huts. Then we are in Marienthal. The village is as monotonous as the surrounding district. The one-storied houses are long and low, ail built on the same pattern. Off the road there are a number of prefabricated huts showing obvious signs of having been erected in a hurry to accommodate the sudden inrush of workers. Only the former manor house, the factory hospital, and the office block have two floors and overlook the other buildings. Behind the houses, along the banks of the Fischa, two big chimneys stand surrounded by long walls, crumbling away in places—the factory.
