Jewish Men and Dress Politics in Vienna, 1890–1938
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Kleider machen Leute: Jewish Men and Dress Politics in Vienna, 1890–1938 Jonathan C. Kaplan Doctor of Philosophy 2019 University of Technology Sydney Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building Production Note: Signature removed prior to publication. Acknowledgements Many individuals have offered their support and expertise my doctoral studies. First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my primary doctoral supervisor, Distinguished Professor Peter McNeil FAHA, whose support and wisdom have been invaluable. In fact, it was Peter who persuaded me to consider undertaking higher degree research in the first place. Additionally, special thanks go to my secondary doctoral supervisor, Professor Deborah Ascher Barnstone, whose feedback and advice have been a welcome second perspective from a different discipline. Thank you both for your constant feedback, quick responses to queries, calm and collected natures, and for having faith in me to complete this dissertation. I would also like to express gratitude to the academics, experts and historians who offered expertise and advice over the course of this research between 2014 and 2018. In Sydney, these are Dr Michael Abrahams-Sprod (University of Sydney), who very generously read draft chapters and offered valuaBle feedback, Dr Avril Alba (University of Sydney) and Professor Thea Brejzek (University of Technology Sydney) for your encouragement, scholarly advice and interest in the research. In Vienna, Dr Marie-Theres Arnbom and Dr Georg Gaugusch for your advice, hospitality and friendship, as well as Dr Elana Shapira (Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien), Magdalena Vuković (Photoinstitut Bonartes), Christa Prokisch (Jüdisches Museum Wien), Dr Regina Karner (Wien Museum), Dr Dieter Hecht (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften), and Dr Tirza Lemberger. In Hohenems, Dr Anika Reichwald (Jüdisches Museum Hohenems). In Jerusalem, Professor Michael Silber (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Dr Stefan Litt (National Library of Israel), and Dr Yochai Ben-Ghedalia and Inka Arroyo Antezana (Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People). In Launceston, Dr Virginia Wright. In Budapest, Associate Professor Michael L. Miller (Central European University) and in Fredonia, Kim Taylor (Daniel A Reed Library, State University of New York at Fredonia). iii Thanks to professional editor, Hazel Baker, who provided copyediting services according to the IPEd guidelines for editing research theses. Any remaining errors are my own. To members of Sydney’s Jewish community who agreed to participate in my oral history interviews—even if you are not mentioned in the final dissertation— thank you for taking the time to participate in my research, sharing your memories and photographs with me, and for inviting me into your homes with such hospitality. In alphaBetical order: Eva Bostock, Betty Buchner, Susie Carleton, Eva Engel, Erika Fulop, Selma Kahane, Dr Harry Rich, Fritzi Ritterman, Egon Sonnenschein, Hedy Spencer, William Winston and Lisl Ziegler. My colleagues, friends and family have also been a vital support and source of mental wellbeing over the past four years. To the other inhabitants of the ‘Imagining Fashion Futures Lab’ at UTS, Catriona Fisk, Enya Moore, Tracey Sernack-Chee Quee and Tom Stoddard, thank you all for your understanding, scholarly exchange and entertainment. It has been a pleasure sharing an office space and bouncing ideas off you on a daily basis. To my friends, who at times found it comical and strange that I could be so passionate about fin-de-siècle Vienna, clothing and Jewish history, thank you for your endless support, encouragement, and distraction when needed: Daniel Elias, Daniella Maryasin, Dina Mekler, Daniel Rose (it seems I have a ‘thing’ about people whose name starts with ‘D’) and Yana Smagarinsky. A special thanks to my Stammtisch—it seems fitting that I should find my own Kaffeehaus while reading and writing about those in Vienna a century ago—Brigitte Serhan and Ross Henderson. To Dr Harry and Shirley Rich, who have Become dear friends since I interviewed Harry about his childhood in Vienna, thank you for your kindness, hospitality and continued interest in my research. To my friends in Vienna, thank you for always making my research visits enjoyable: once again Dr Marie-Theres Arnbom and Dr Georg Gaugusch, Dr Christian Witt-Dörring and Michael Huey, and Tommy, Shirley and Efraim Moskovics for your hospitality and a seat at your Schabbes table whenever I am in town. iv This research truly would not have been possible without the unconditional love and support, encouragement and levelheadedness of my family: my parents Morris and Ilana Kaplan, my partner Pasko Schravemade, my siblings, Michael, Hadassa and Hannah Kaplan, my grandmothers Miryam (Mimi) Wise and Lena (Lee) Kaplan, and my many aunts, uncles and cousins both here in Australia and abroad—especially Odette Kesler in Toronto, Ontario, for our regular ‘Facetime’ calls, your hospitality when I have been in Toronto, and your enthusiasm in discussing my research. Finally, a special mention must go to my cousin Isabelle Neuburg of Reinach, Switzerland. Thank you for so many things, including visiting me in Vienna while I have been on research trips, your hospitality in Switzerland, the ‘care packages’ you have sent to Australia, our weekly Skype calls and the opportunity to practice speaking German on a regular basis, and of course, your kindness, patience and expertise in helping me with translating old German texts when I could not always find the right English words or phrases. v Table of Contents Certificate of original authorship ii Acknowledgements iii Note on terminology viii Note on place names ix Note on spelling x List of illustrations xi Abstract xxii Preface xxiii Chapter 1. Introduction 1 INTRODUCTION DEFINING JEWISHNESS FIN-DE-SIÈCLE VIENNA LITERATURE ON VIENNESE JEWRY, 1890–1938 METHOD AND APPROACH JEWS AND DRESS: AN OVERVIEW THE MALE SUIT USING AND READING PHOTOGRAPHY CHAPTER SUMMARIES Chapter 2. The Jewish man 38 INTRODUCTION LOOKING JEWISH: VISUAL MANIFESTATIONS OF JEWISHNESS THE JEWISH MAN IN GENTILE SOCIETY THE JEWISH BODY: DER OPERIERTE JUD’ Chapter 3. Jewish identity and Jewishness in fin-de-siècle Vienna 64 INTRODUCTION JEWS IN VIENNA: FRAMES FOR ANALYSIS ACCULTURATION AND ASSIMILATION, AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR JEWISHNESS ‘JEWISHNESS’ IN VIENNESE SOCIETY BETWEEN EAST AND WEST: THE MYTH OF OSTJUDEN AND GERMAN JEWS IN VIENNA Chapter 4. Refashioning the self: Viennese Jews and dress 99 INTRODUCTION PARTICIPATING IN FASHION: JEWS AND DRESS MODERN COMMERCE AND THE DEPARTMENT STORE JEWS IN THE VIENNESE TEXTILE AND DRESS INDUSTRIES VIENNESE MALE FASHIONS DURING THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY REFASHIONING THE SELF: THE ROLE OF DRESS IN ACCULTURATION CONCLUSION Chapter 5. Clothing and space 141 INTRODUCTION ADOLF LOOS AND THE JEWS: DESIGNER AND PATRON MALE SARTORIAL POLITICS IN VIENNA: THE ENGLISH GENTLEMAN INTIMACY, DRESS AND MASCULINE SPACE ADVICE ON CLOTHES vi THE KAFFEEHAUS: HOMOSOCIAL ARENA FASHIONING A MASCULINE ‘JEWISH’ SPACE Chapter 6. The man in the suit 169 INTRODUCTION SIGMUND FREUD: GODLESS JEW THEODOR HERZL: BOURGEOIS NATIONALIST ARTHUR SCHNITZLER: LITERARY BON VIVANT STEFAN ZWEIG: COSMOPOLITAN EUROPEAN PETER ALTENBERG: BOHEMIAN ASSIMILATIONIST KARL KRAUS: RENEGADE JEW CONCLUSION Chapter 7. Strangers in the city: ‘rootless’ Jews and urbanity in Vienna 223 INTRODUCTION JEWS AND COSMOPOLITANISM VIENNA AS A COSMOPOLITAN WELTSTADT THE JEW IN THE CITY AND THE GOY IN THE PROVINCE: VIENNA AS A DANGEROUS JEWISH METROPOLIS TRACHTENMODEN AND SOMMERFRISCHEN JEWS AND TRANSNATIONALITY RABBIS AND THEIR CLOTHES: PROPAGATING AN INTERNATIONAL IMAGE JOSEPH SAMUEL BLOCH: ASSERTING NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS Chapter 8. Der kleine Cohn: laughing at Jews and fashion through caricatures 261 CARICATURE: CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES JEWS IN VIENNESE CARICATURES AND SATIRE: PERSONALITIES AND STEREOTYPICAL TYPES THE UGLY/BEAUTIFUL BINARY UBIQUITOUS OSTJUDE THE JEW AS UPWARDLY-MOBILE PARVENU THREE JEWS ON A PARK BENCH: JEWS AS INWARD-LOOKING CONSPIRATORS FEARS OF ‘JEWIFICATION’: AN INCREASING JEWISH POPULATION REVENGE AND RIDICULE: REACTION TO JEWISH ‘INTRUSION’ CONCLUSION 9. Conclusion 295 Appendix: Illustrations 305 Bibliography 413 Glossary 453 Abbreviations 462 vii Note on terminology Throughout this dissertation I use the word ‘Jew’ and its plural form ‘Jews’ when referring to Jewish individuals—both those who practised the religion and those who were of Jewish origin but non-practicing or converts to other religions. Although the term ‘Jew’ has had negative connotations throughout history and has even been used at times in a derogatory nature, I use this term in preference to the more cumbersome ‘person/people of Jewish origin’. In this manner ‘Jew’ or ‘Jews’ refers to actual individuals, while I use the term ‘the Jew’ or ‘the Jews’ when referring to Jewish people as an abstract idea, or the antisemitic manifestation of Jewish ‘difference’. viii A note on place names Deciding to follow a certain spelling and pronunciation of the names of cities, towns and villages throughout East and Central Europe is fraught with trouble. Electing to use a particular version of a city, town or village name often reveals a certain political agenda. Many of the places referenced in this thesis were subject to name changes based on which side of the border they fell within any given period. Even those places that found themselves well within the borders of the Habsburg Empire were known by different