As soon as mobilisation started, there was a shortage of means of transport, most of which was requisitioned by the army. This problem also affected the transport of the sick in the city. Some hospitals had their own railway siding and in other cases trams were increasingly used.
Artists’ associations and artists were also caught up in the war fervour and made themselves available to the fatherland. The Künstlerhaus and Secession were both converted into temporary hospitals, with the equipment and supplies coming to a large extent from private donations.
The University of Vienna, University of Technology and other institutions were converted to become temporary hospitals. Because of the reduction in the number of students, the teaching was not disrupted.
The great demand for beds made it necessary to set up a number of emergency or barrack hospitals. In spite of their name and makeshift character, they were modern and functional and designed to handle the constant flow of soldiers arriving from the front.
Vienna had an impressive peacetime hospital infrastructure. For the countless wounded and sick soldiers, a quarter of a million of them, sent to Vienna, however, the capacities were woefully inadequate. To make matters worse, there was very soon a shortage of skilled doctors, many of whom had been conscripted into the army in spite of their importance as medical practitioners.
The modern weaponry available to the belligerents caused heavy casualties in offensive conducted by the Austro-Hungarian high command on the Russian and Serbian fronts in the first months of the war. There were no preparations at the front or behind the lines for the masses of wounded troops and officers.
