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Jewish Vienna – Heritage and Mission Contents Jewish Vienna – Heritage and Mission Contents The History of the Jews in Austria . 4 The Jewish Community . 12 ESRA means “Help” in Hebrew . 15 Jewish Welcome Service Vienna . 16 Commemoration, Remembrance, Information . 19 Jewish Museum Vienna . 19 City Temple . 21 Sigmund Freud Museum Vienna . 22 Arnold Schönberg Center . 22 Palais Epstein . 23 Documentation Center of Austrian Resistance (DÖW) . 23 Contact Addresses for Restitution Matters . 24 Services & Contacts . 25 Media owner and publisher: Vienna City Administration, Municipal Department 53 – Press and Information Services, A-1082 Vienna, City Hall Responsible for the contents: Susanne Kapeller, Susanne Trauneck, Inge Bauer-Manhart Draw up: Camillo Schaefer, English translation: Sigrid Szabó Design: Type&Publish KG, 2345 Brunn am Gebirge Print: AV+Astoria Druckzentrum, 1030 Wien, Faradaygasse 6 XII/10, official publication, printed on ecological printing paper from the sample folder of “ÖkoKauf Wien” All information is non-binding and subject to alteration. The brochure makes no claim to completeness. A co-operation of Municipal Department 53 – Press and Information Services, Vienna Tourist Board and Jewish Welcome Service Vienna. Cover: Kullmann, Centropa, János Kalmár; pg. 3 Kurt Keinrath, pg. 4 Kullmann, pg. 5, 6 top Picture Archive of the Austrian National Library, pg. 6 Archive of the Arbeiter Zeitung newspaper (Adler), pg. 7, 8, 9 Documentation Center of Austrian Resistance (DÖW), pg. 10 Sigmund Freud copyrights, pg. 12 János Kalmár, pg. 13 Jewish Community (Muzi- cant), other photos: Kullmann, pg. 14 János Kalmár, pg. 15 ESRA, pg. 16 Jewish Welcome Service, Ray Krieser, pg. 17 both photos: Jewish Welcome Service, pg. 18 Jewish Wel- come Service, bottom media wien (Anton Weber), pg. 19 Vienna Tourist Board/Reinhard Mandl, pg. 20 Vienna Tourist Board/Jewish Museum of the City of Vienna, pg. 21 Vienna Tourist Board/János Kalmár, pg. 22 Freud Museum, Arnold Schönberg Center, pg. 23: Par- liamentary Administration/Christian Hikade Foreword The history of Vienna’s Jews this direction by establishing is inextricably linked with the Jewish Welcome Service that of the Austrian capital it- Vienna. This institution has self. Countless artists, scien- set itself the task of demon- tists, intellectuals, bankers, strating and documenting the and businessmen have made presence of a vibrant Jewish important contributions to community in 21st century the development of Vienna as Vienna. a major central European city. Several of the leading Social In co-operation with the Jew- Michael Häupl, Democrats behind the “Red ish Welcome Service, the city Mayor of Vienna Vienna” politics of the inter- of Vienna invites former in- war years had Jewish roots. habitants now scattered After March 1938, the Nazi throughout the world to re- regime abruptly severed these turn here to rediscover their bonds between the city and own past or that of their its Jewish inhabitants. friends and relatives. We re- gard this as a small, symbolic Two thirds of Vienna’s Jews gesture which demonstrates were expelled and more than that Vienna is dedicated to 65,000 murdered in concen- promoting understanding and tration camps. All of these cross-cultural awareness. people deserve our respect, and the city of Vienna is well In this spirit I would like to aware of its historic responsi- welcome you to Vienna. I hope bility to ensure that events that this brochure will make like this are never repeated. a significant contribution to- Commemoration and commu- wards enhancing mutual un- nication are key instruments derstanding, and also provide for confronting and explain- you with a guide to the diver- ing the past, and also send a sity of Jewish life and Jewish clear signal that forgetting history in Vienna. and looking the other way are not an option. The city has Michael Häupl taken an important step in 3 The History of the Jews in Austria Jews in medieval Vienna Yet Jews were not allowed to “Without The first Jew mentioned in Vi- own real estate or farm the remembrance, ennese documents was called land. Likewise, they were there is no Shlom; he was installed as barred from most trades and mint master by Duke Leopold crafts. This left commerce – in future.” V in 1194. Shlom, his family particular money-lending and other Jews – a total of 16 against the payment of inter- Primo Levi persons – were murdered by est – the only option, which marauding crusaders. often entailed hostility on the part of Christian debtors. However, the Jewish commu- nity persisted, and the first This was exacerbated by ac- Viennese ghetto developed cusations of host desecration around today’s Judenplatz and allegations of ritual mur- square. Centuries later, in der frequently raised against 1995, a synagogue was exca- Jews in the Middle Ages. This vated here – in the late 13th anti-Semitic climate reached century, it had been one of the its apex in one of the most biggest of its kind and at- terrible pogroms ever: in tracted the most illustrious 1420/21, Vienna’s Jews were rabbis of the era as teachers. expelled and murdered. Many committed collective suicide, 4 immolating themselves to- pire in 1718, a Turkish mis- gether with their synagogue. sion was established in Vien- Their death, like that of the na, which also comprised Jews in Poland centuries lat- dozens of Sephardic Jews, the er, was a consequence of an descendants of Spanish Jews. insane racist doctrine: mem- Already in 1736, this group bers of the SS and the Ger- was allowed to form their many army (the “Wehr - own community, which re- macht”), too, drove Jews into mained prohibited to the Vi- synagogues and prayer hous- ennese Jews for more than es, where they were burnt another century. alive. In 1782, Emperor Joseph II The long road towards equal promulgated the Edict of Tol- rights eration, which liberated the Until 1624, Jews were not al- Jews from many restrictions lowed to settle in Vienna; and allowed them to settle in however, numerous exemp- Vienna. In 1812, Emperor tions from this prohibition Francis I issued a permit for were granted over time. Still, the inauguration of a school the situation of Jews in Vien- and prayer house in Seiten- na was characterised by mas- stettengasse. In these years, sive insecurity, slander and some Jewish citizens were smear campaigns. In 1670, raised to nobility; the tradi- the Jews were again expelled tion of literary salons, such under Emperor Leopold I. as that of Fanny von Arnstein, Fanny von Arnstein Their residential area in the was established. In 1825/26, “Unterer Werd” area was re- the City Temple was built in named “Leopoldstadt”. Seitenstettengasse based on plans by Josef Kornhäusel. As the demand for money rose steeply after the Turkish 1848 – The first step towards Wars, Jews were brought the Jewish Community back to Vienna in 1683. Fol- The revolutionary year 1848 lowing the final peace settle- was also an important and ment with the Ottoman Em- seminal year for the Viennese 5 Jews, especially because of ishing community that con- the leading role some of them tributed essentially to the de- played in these events. For ex- velopment of Vienna in these ample, it was the Jewish decades. The Viennese Jews physician Adolf Fischhof who identified with Habsburg on 13 March 1848 formulated Austria, with the liberal ideas the key demands of the revo- of the period and with what is lution – freedom of religion, commonly considered “Ger- of the press, of teaching and man-language culture and learning – in front of the thought” while yet preserving Adolf Fischhof “Landhaus” (provincial as- their own identity – a diffi- sembly) in Herrengasse. Many cult tightrope walk that was other Jewish citizens fol- not facilitated by the reli- lowed in his footsteps and giously motivated anti-Semi- thus contributed significant- tism of Vienna’s Mayor Karl ly to the long road towards Lueger. the Austrian Constitution fi- nally adopted in 1867. Zionism and workers’ movement One of the belated conse- “If you will, it is no fairytale” quences of the 1848 revolu- – these words of Theodor Her- tion was the permission zl are true both of the emerg- granted in 1852 to establish a ing Zionist movement and the Theodor Herzl Jewish Community of Vienna budding emancipation of the (“Israelitische Kultusge- working class. In 1878, meinde”). This paved the way Theodor Herzl transferred for the rise of the Jewish pop- from Budapest to Vienna. As ulation to the haute bour- an editor of the “Neue Freie geoisie and aristocracy. Jew- Presse” newspaper, he was ish families played a promi- confronted with virulent reli- nent role in the economic and giously as well as politically cultural upswing that charac- motivated anti-Semitism. In terised the second half of the 1896, Herzl’s visionary book 19th century. The liberation “The Jewish State” put politi- from prohibitions and re- cal Zionism on the map. The Viktor Adler strictions stimulated a flour- physician Viktor Adler, too, 6 was concerned with political Social Democrats were vio- issues. Aware of the social lently removed from Vienna tensions of his time, he cease- City Hall by representatives lessly drew attention to the of the corporative state. miserable conditions of life and work of the proletariat – Despite all political prob- and taught the workers to lems, Jews played an impor- fight. Viktor Adler died on 11 tant part in Austrian society November 1918, one day be- during the monarchy and the fore the proclamation of the First Republic. The majority Republic. In its obituary, the of Austrian Nobel Prize win- “Arbeiter-Zeitung” newspaper ners, many well-known writ- compared him to Moses, ers, musicians, stage and vi- “who, like Adler, never set foot sual artists or physicians inside the Promised Land …” came from Jewish families.
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