Fin-De-Siècle Vienna and Its Chroniclers He American Historian Carl E

VOLUME 16 NO.3 MARCH 2016 journal The Association of Jewish Refugees Fin-de-siècle Vienna and its chroniclers he American historian Carl E. particular to the weaknesses and deficiencies of Georg von Schönerer, both avowed anti- Schorske, who died in September Austrian liberalism. The liberals had suffered Semites. In Vienna, the stronghold of Austrian 2015 aged 100, was one of the greatest a stunning defeat through the failure of the liberalism, the election of Lueger as mayor Tand most innovative of the intellectual revolution of 1848, which, they had hoped, in 1895 marked the seismic shift that had historians working in the second half of the would establish a democratic, constitutional taken place in politics, the eclipse of classic twentieth century. It was Schorske who, form of government in the Habsburg Empire liberalism by the populist mass movements with his seminal study Fin-de-siècle Vienna: but was instead brutally suppressed by the of a new era. With characteristic acuteness, Politics and Culture (New York, 1980), Schorske focused on ‘the phenomenon of the took the concept of Vienna at the turn of disintegration of Austrian liberal society under the twentieth century and gave it the full the impact of anti-Semitism’, in his analysis of substance and significance with which we Arthur Schnitzler’s novel Der Weg ins Freie (The now associate it. Few historians have possessed Road into the Open) (1908); the title ‘refers to his wide range of cultural reference and his the desperate attempt of the cultivated younger ability to relate developments in literature, generation of Viennese to find their way into art, music, architecture or psychoanalysis the clear, their road out of the morass of a sick to their historical, political and intellectual society to a satisfactory personal existence’. background. One historian who did was Peter The crisis facing the new generation of Gay, born Peter Fröhlich in 1923, who fled Viennese writers, which had originated in Germany with his family, arrived in America the political threat to liberalism and its values, in 1941 and went on to write political history also made itself felt in the authors’ dawning (The Dilemma of Democratic Socialism: Eduard awareness of the inadequacy of existing Bernstein's Challenge to Marx), cultural history literary and aesthetic models, principally (Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider), and the realist novel that was the dominant an acclaimed study of Freud. Gay died in May form in the nineteenth century. Schorske 2015, aged 91. devotes the opening chapter of his book I first encountered Carl Schorske through to two writers, Schnitzler and Hugo von German Social Democracy 1905-1917: The Hofmannsthal, whom he saw as pioneers of Development of the Great Schism (1955), his Karl Kraus, 1874-1936 literary modernism, as they confronted the meticulously scholarly but eminently readable dilemmas posed by ‘the disintegrating moral- study of split in the socialist movement in resurgent forces of reaction united behind the aesthetic culture of fin-de-siècle Vienna’. Germany that led to the emergence of two monarchy. That the liberals came to power Unlike their counterparts in London or warring parties, the Social Democrats and in the 1860s was due almost entirely to the Paris, the liberal, progressive intelligentsia the Communists. In Fin-de-siècle Vienna, incompetence of the Habsburg autocracy, in Vienna had been too weak to emancipate he established Vienna as the ‘laboratory which achieved the feat of losing the war of themselves from the dominant aristocracy. of modernism’, the cradle of such crucial 1859 in northern Italy to the French under In consequence, according to Schorske, they pioneering influences on the modern world Emperor Napoleon III (otherwise notorious had felt constrained to adopt elements of the as Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis, Ludwig for his military failures in Mexico and in the traditional, dominant Baroque culture of Wittgenstein’s philosophy, or the music of Franco-Prussian war). When Austria was Vienna, which, with its amoral sensuousness Gustav Mahler and, more radically, Arnold defeated by Prussia in the war of 1866, losing and its emphasis on the ephemeral nature of Schoenberg. These great innovators had, its traditional position as the leading power human existence, had little in common with according to Schorske, all broken with the among the German states, it became even the liberal ethic of industry, self-discipline historical outlook characteristic of the liberal, more obvious that fundamental reform was and service to the community. The weakness rational thinking that had dominated the necessary and that Austria must embark on a of liberalism in politics appeared to leave nineteenth century: ‘Vienna in the fin de new, progressive path. writers like Schnitzler and Hofmannsthal siècle, with its acutely felt tremors of social and But the new dawn proved illusory. The with no road forward in literature, other than political disintegration, proved one of the most liberals failed to reform the institutionalised pessimism, resignation or a flight from the fertile breeding grounds of our [the twentieth] bureaucracy of the Habsburg Empire and modern world into a realm of pure art. century’s a-historical culture.’ Across a broad to create a democratic Austria on the model With great brilliance and erudition, range of intellectual and artistic activity, the of the parliamentary systems of government Schorske demonstrates how a similar Viennese creators of a new culture represented of Western Europe. Instead, they were dilemma affected artists and intellectuals a revolt against the value system of liberalism rapidly overtaken by new mass movements across a wide range of activities. In the field that had previously been in the ascendancy. both on the left, with the creation of the of architecture, he describes the building of Schorske set these developments within the Social Democratic Party, and on the right, Vienna’s Ringstraße and the reactions to it framework of the politics of imperial Austria in with the rise of the Christian Social Party of two great modernist architects, Camillo the half-century before 1914, relating them in of Karl Lueger and the Pan-Germans of continued on page 2 journal MARCH 2016 Fin-de-siècle Vienna and its REVISED ITINERARY chroniclers continued Sitte, author of Der Städtebau (City Building) (1889), and Otto Wagner, creator of the Österreichische Postsparkasse (Postal Savings Bank) building. Schorske also covers the artists Gustav Klimt and Oskar Kokoschka, the Kindertransport Commemorative European Train Trip composer Arnold Schoenberg, the politicians Sunday 26 June to Friday 1 July 2016 Lueger and Schönerer, Theodor Herzl, the A journey following in the footsteps of Kinder from 77 years ago, taking in the opportunity to view founder of Zionism, and Sigmund Freud’s Kindertransport statues and places of cultural interest, together with a full schedule of events including: Interpretation of Dreams. His approach has Flight to Vienna • Two nights in Vienna with sightseeing and visit to Kinder statue come under fire, notably from Steven Beller, in Vienna and the Jews, 1867-1938 (1989), Train to Berlin for two nights with sightseeing and a reception with Petra Pau, Vice-President of the Bundestag but Fin-de-siècle Vienna remains a memorable Train to Hook of Holland via Rotterdam • Visit to statue at Hook of Holland monument to a remarkable era. Ferry from Hook of Holland to Harwich • Overnight stay in Harwich One of the most striking literary figures Train from Harwich to Liverpool Street to emerge from Vienna at the turn of the A fully accompanied trip including all travel, accommodation and meals twentieth century was Karl Kraus (1874- We particularly encourage Kinder to come along with their children and grandchildren on this historic trip to 1936), the writer, journalist and satirist who see your place of birth and share your history and heritage edited and wrote the celebrated journal Die To register your interest, please speak to Susan Harrod on 020 8385 3070 Fackel (The Torch) from 1899 until the year of or email [email protected] his death. The labels ‘journalist’ and ‘satirist’ convey only inadequately the range and quality of Kraus’s writings, which also included depicting the end of the world as mankind ADVANCE NOTICE • ADVANCE NOTICE aphorisms and plays, as well as a large number destroys itself in ever-intensifying conflict, of substantial and thought-provoking essays. strains the resources of the theatre to its limits. Day Trip Kraus’s writings were unique in their highly Its last words are spoken by the voice of God, by Special Train: original and polemically pointed style and who declares, in utter impotence in face of London to Harwich in their inimitable humour, which mainly the destructive madness of his creatures: ‘Ich used language to pillory and deconstruct the habe es nicht gewollt’ (‘That was not what I 1 July 2016 objects of his criticism. He targeted those who intended’), words attributed to the Emperor On Friday 1 July 2016 a number of held power and influence in Austria, the press Francis Joseph when contemplating the ‘Kindertransport 77’ special trains will run (especially Moriz Benedikt and the Neue Freie disaster of the Great War that his underlings from London and elsewhere in the UK to had so frivolously helped to provoke. Harwich to mark the first anniversary of Presse), manifestations of hypocrisy in such Sir Nicholas Winton’s passing and the 77th spheres as sexual morality and, above all, the A full English version of The Last Days anniversary of the arrival in Harwich of his corruption of language. of Mankind has now appeared, translated largest single transport of 241 children. These all feature prominently in Kraus’s by Fred Bridgham and Edward Timms and It will also coincide with the arrival in extraordinary masterpiece, the anti-war published by Yale University Press (January Harwich of the group above from Vienna, drama Die letzten Tage der Menschheit (The 2016, price £25).

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