History casts long shadows, and today's civil society in Vienna is composed of sediment layers that originated in historical epochs: the monarchic traditional era before 1848, the bourgeois-liberal period from 1848-1918, the social democratic period from 1918-1934, the totalitarian period from 1934-1945, the social partnership-neocorporatist period from 1945-1980, and finally, the multilateral-neocorporatist period since 1980. In the last two periods, civil society in Vienna is strongly characterized by a unique cooperation with municipal and federal administration, in the spirit of a welfare partnership. The contribution shows how these epochs have left their mark on the landscape of associations.