Vienna juxtaposed an absurd ancient régime with a great industrial working class

Evidence

Far from being exceptional, Vienna at the turn of the century highlighted in intensified form the constellation of elements which contributed to the emergence of Modernism. It was the capital of Musil’s Kakania - of the baroquely constructed kaiserlich und könglich Dual Monarchy of Franz Joseph, the most absurd of all the anciens régimes; but it was also - unlike London and Paris, but like Berlin and St Petersburg - a great manufacturing centre, among whose population of 2,000,000 there were 375,000 industrial workers. — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 204