No, these things have not been around in Vienna for a long time. Wouldn't this answer be the most likely one in a street survey asking where the nearest scale is located? But what a misconception! Because there are still more than 100 scales (the first of which was installed in 1887) at tram stops, traffic hubs, and in numerous parks throughout the city of Vienna. Robert Musil's statement that nothing is "more invisible than monuments" certainly applies to these mysterious scales as well, "these strange columns that stand around like totems that have lost their purpose" - as Fritz Ostermayer puts it in the foreword to an online project realized by the School for Poetics, led by Rosa Pock: Based on a comprehensive photo series by Andreas Urban, students were invited to uncover the stories contained in these photographs.