The working class settled around the industries and factories near the Gürtel, resulting in a dense checkerboard pattern of residential housing.

The original Ottakring was founded about 1,000 years ago by Bavarian settlers who cleared a small patch of forest on the cityward slope of the Gallitzinberg.

It was situated where the Ottakring Cemetery is today, straddling a creek (the Ottakringer Bach) which now has completely disappeared from view, forming part of Vienna's drainage systems.

The Lower Austrian government passed a law, the Eingemeindung der Vororten zu Wien (Incorporation of Villages to Vienna) in 1890.

Despite initial resistance, the independent villages of Ottakring and Neulerchenfeld were merged into the 16th district of Vienna, which had 106,861 residents.

The local insurgency overpowered the army of the original Social Democratic Party, and the residential buildings escaped mostly unharmed.

During World War II, air defence of Vienna and some southeastern parts of the Third Reich territory were coordinated from the Gaugefechtsstand Wien, situated at the Gallitzinberg.

After the war, Ottakring belonged to the French-occupied zone of Vienna (which was divided into quarters and split among the Allies).

The efforts to rebuild the area were slow at first and eventually even the oldest parts of the district were finally renovated.

The empty factories of an old tobacco company and the long-unused stores beneath the arches for the Schnellbahn (fast local trains) were converted into a technical school (HTL, Höhere Technische Lehranstalt).

Vienna's demographic statisticians predict an exacerbation of this division, making ghettoization an increasing concern.

The "Balkan Mile" (Also known as "Balkanstrasse") is a neighborhood sitting on the border of the 17th and 16th districts of Vienna, centered along the major street Ottakringer Straße.

It has a high concentration of Yugoslavian cafes, restaurants and nightclubs, where the Serbian language is mainly spoken, and Turbo Folk music is played.

This stretch of the Ottakringer Straße is commonly referred to as the "Balkan Mile" (Balkanmeile), and represents a Yugoslav/Serbian enclave in Vienna.