Jews As Consumers and Providers in Provincial Towns: the Example of Linz and Salzburg, 1900–1938

JEWS AS CONSUMERS AND PROVIDERS IN PROVINCIAL TOWNS: THE EXAMPLE OF LINZ AND SALZBURG, 1900–1938

Michael John

This paper discusses the role of Jewish entrepreneurs and consumers in provincial towns in Austria. Linz and Salzburg had the status of capitals of Austrian crown-lands until 1918. After the collapse of the Habs- burg Monarchy they became capitals of so-called “provinces” (federal states) of the new Republic of Austria. In both towns Jews acted as economical pioneers by introducing new forms for the distribution of goods, especially concerning the department store. The new trading platform can be seen as a signifi cant indicator of modern consumer culture. Although Linz was a town with no more than 800–900 Jews, the city somehow became a small Jewish center with a functioning infrastructure, including the fi eld of providing and consuming. Salz- burg City permanently had 200–220 Jewish inhabitants. The analysis will cover the period 1900–1938, ending with the year of the Anschluss, the unifi cation of Austria with National Socialist-ruled Germany. Jew- ish consumers and entrepreneurs were then forced to leave the coun- try, their shops, apartments and houses were Aryanized or confi scated.

Jewish Life in Linz and Salzburg

Jewish settlement in Austria centered on the metropolis of Vienna; more than 90% of Austrian Jewry lived there during the inter-war years. There were 175,318 Jews living in Vienna in 1910 and 201,513 in 1923, as compared to 176,034 in 1934. The ﬁ gures for the whole of Austria were, respectively, 221,003 Jews (1923) and 191,481 (1934) out of a total population of approximately 6.5 million.1 The decrease

1 The census of 1923 reported 6.53 million inhabitants in Austria and 1934 6.76 million were registered. Statistisches Handbuch für die Republik Österreich, 8 (Vienna: Öster- reichische Staatsdruckerei, 1927), 14; Statistik des Bundesstaates Österreich. Ergebnisse der österreichischen Volkszählung vom 22. März 1934, vol. 2 (Vienna: Österreichische Staats- druckerei, 1935), 2. 140 michael john from 1923 to 1934 can be traced to low birthrates, emigration, and apostasy.2 Jews living in the territory of modern-day Austria had in many cases cultivated up to 1918 a high level of identiﬁ cation with the Habsburg dynasty on one hand and with German language and culture on the other. In the “provinces” of inter-war Austria, outside Vienna, the number of Jews added up to more than 15,000 persons. The majority of them lived in Lower Austria, and for those Vienna was the center. Graz was the central place for Jews living in South East Austria and Linz was regarded as the center of the Jews in the Alpine lands. According to the census of 1900, 702 Jews lived in the city of Linz, a ﬁ gure that rose to 931 in 1923 (out of 94,600) and shrunk to 671 in 1934 (total 108,800 inhabitants). Out of the entire province of Upper Austria 966 Jews were counted in 1934. From an early age Jewish school children were confronted with anti-Semitism. As is widely known, Adolf Hitler grew up in this German-national and anti-Jewish atmosphere at the turn of the century.3 The discrimination reinforced exclusivist tenden- cies among Linz Jews, and many organized their own associations. The older generation, including well-established entrepreneurs, more or less rejected Zionist ideas; however, increasing numbers of young people seem to have adopted them. An unknown number of Upper Austrian and Salzburg Jews actually emigrated to Palestine before March 1938.4 Demographical surveys show that approximately 4,200 Jews emigrated between 1934 and March 1938 from Vienna and more than 300 from the other federal states including Upper Austria.5 Karl Schwager (1895–1980), the last president of the Jewish community of Linz/Upper Austria before the Anschluss, wrote an article, titled, “Geschichte der Juden in Linz” (“History of the Jews in Linz”), in which he described the decades before the National Socialist takeover:

2 See for example the Jewish community of 1927: 2,739 Jews died in Vienna, 1,479 births were registered, 283 converted to Judaism, and 1,063 dropped out. The demo- graphic balance for 1927 was minus 2,040 (without migration). Bericht der Israeliti- schen Kultusgemeinde Wien über die Tätigkeit in der Periode 1927–1928 (Vienna: Eigenverlag, 1928), tab. XIX. 3 See Brigitte Hamann, Hitlers Wien: Lehrjahre eines Diktators (Munich: Piper, 1996), 11–86. 4 Evan B. Bukey, Hitler’s Hometown: Linz, Austria 1908–1945 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986), 184. 5 Jonny Moser, Demographie der jüdischen Bevölkerung Österreichs 1938–1945 (Vienna: Doku mentations archiv des Österreichischen Widerstandes, 1999), 16; Benjamin Murmelstein, Report of the Vienna Jewish Community, hectographed manuscript (Vienna, 1940), 14–16.