Around 1900, an extraordinary generation of thinkers and artists, most of them Jews, transformed Vienna into one of the greatest cultural centers in the world.
The capital of the multiethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire experienced intensely the transition between the two centuries, a period characterized by effervescence and intellectual and scientific transformation, as well as political and ideological, which would have serious consequences in European history in the subsequent decades, until the outbreak of World War II. Worldwide.
No fin-de-siecle, as the period is called, despite the city being the bastion of Hasburg conservatism, it became one of the world's epicenters of modernism and creativity. In a short period of time, traditions were reformulated and schools of thought were founded. Meanwhile, Viennese society experienced the rapid rise and fall of liberalism and this political transition highlighted the existence of another Vienna. The city was a true cauldron of hatred and prejudice, which produced an ideology firmly based on anti-Semitism. We cannot forget that it was the only European capital to have an anti-Semitic government in power. Furthermore, it was there that Hitler shaped his nefarious vision about the Jews and the "solutions" that would be put into practice to deal with the "problem".
Modernism and Jewish participation
We give the name "modernism" to a generic movement that has affected the cultural and artistic life of the Western world. It was based on the idea that "traditional" forms, both of the arts and of social organization, had become outdated and, therefore, a new culture had to be created. Although it was not an exclusively Viennese phenomenon, nowhere else was modernism as palpable as in the Austrian capital, where it was in flagrant opposition to the culture of a Catholic-Jesuit nature, with baroque manifestations, dictated by the aristocracy and the Habsburgs.
From 1960 onwards, with the publication of the work In fin-de-siècle Vienna: politics and culture, authored by Carl E. Schorske, professor of History at Princeton University, sparks interest in the period. As it became clear that the most important cultural and scientific figures active at the time were Jews, interest in the extent of their contribution to the phenomenon that historians called "Viennese modernity" increased.
In 1989, Steven Beller, a respected academic, published a study on the subject. In your book Vienna and the Jews - 1867-1938, a Cultural History, Beller analyzes the period, indicating that the contributions of Viennese Jews in medicine, philosophy, music, literature and journalism were impressive. It was a reaffirmation of the words of the Viennese writer, Stefan Zweig, when he said that "...90% of what the world celebrates as 19th century Viennese culture was promoted, nurtured or created by the city's Jews". There were names like Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis; Ludwig Wittgenstein, philosopher; writers Karl Kraus, Franz Kafka and Hugo von Hofmannsthal; the composers Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schönberg, who helped to constitute this "Viennese modernity".
It is also important to highlight that Vienna's entry into artistic modernism was thanks to numerous art critics, collectors and Jewish patrons. It was in the salons of the cultured and wealthy Jewish bourgeoisie - and not among members of the aristocracy - that avant-garde artists found the ideal forum to launch new ideas; It was also where architects fromArt Nouveau found their customers. O show by Berta Zuckerkandl, daughter of the famous journalist Moritz Szeps and wife of an equally renowned doctor, for example, it was a meeting point for avant-garde intellectuals. It was in this hall that the "Vienna Secession" was born, a protest movement against traditional artistic norms.
A provocative romance,"The City Without Jews: A Novel of Our Time", written in 1922 by Hugo Bettauer, who had converted to Protestantism, can give us an idea of the importance of the Jews in the city, and the population's feelings towards them. In the novel, Bettauer imagines what would happen in Vienna if it were the expulsion of "undesirable elements", that is, the Jews, was approved. The author states that he decided to write the satire after reading the graffiti on a wall "Hinaus mit den Juden!" ("Out with the Jews!").
In the novel, when all the Jews are expelled, including the converts, "because no one trusted them", Vienna returns to being a provincial city. Without the patronage of their patrons, art salons and libraries close. Publishers and newspapers, too. Theatrical production fell into decline and there were no more operettas, as there were no more Jews to compose the music and booklets. The cafes where the writers met are deserted and the artists have lost their customers. Even haute couture stores no longer have anyone to sell to, as elegant Jewish women dictate fashion. Even politicians miss him, as they no longer have anyone to blame for Austria's ills. When the city hits rock bottom and everyone realizes there is no other way out, the Jews are called back and the entire population welcomes them with parties.
The Jewish cultural elite
After emancipation, with restrictions on the number of Jews who could live in Vienna abolished, thousands of immigrants from other parts of the Empire and Eastern Europe settled there. In 1869, there were already 40 thousand in the city and, in 1890, there were 119 thousand, representing 12% of the population. Twenty years later, the number had reached 175 thousand, with an estimated 200 thousand in 1938. Emancipation had also caused drastic changes in the social and professional structure. Access to universities led to an increase in the number of liberal professions. In 1880, a third of Vienna's university students were Jews, and in law, philosophy and medicine courses the proportion was much higher, as these were the only professions, besides journalism, open to those who wanted a career without, in However, convert. At the Vienna Medical School, for example, in 1890, 48% of students were Jews.
By the end of the 19th century, the acculturation and assimilation of much of the Jewish community reached unparalleled proportions. Since the Enlightenment and, even more so, after emancipation, they had changed their appearance, adopting German language, customs and philosophy, in an attempt to stop being seen as "outsiders", as Vienna was at the time a German city. Mainly members of the Jewish bourgeoisie sought to assimilate through culture, in a city that worshiped music, belles lettres and literature. They knew that while wealth alone did not always make them socially equal, fame and culture always did. The upper bourgeoisie sometimes prevented very wealthy Jews from accessing their elegant salons, but they never closed the doors to a renowned artist or scientist.
It is undeniable that a Jew, even when he intended to move away from his roots, continued to have his Judaism reflected in his life, way of thinking and work. Freud himself, when trying to explain why he followed previously unknown paths of the human mind, wrote: "Because I was Jewish, I found myself free from several prejudices that restricted other people in the use of their intellect."
Seeking to make Judaism "more acceptable" in the eyes of others, the acculturated Jewish bourgeoisie also sought to "westernize" religious services, adapting them to Western and Christian aesthetic concepts. Thus, they abandoned ancient rituals or traditions because they considered them too old-fashioned or oriental.
However, it was still not enough. If legal oppression had disappeared by force of law, contempt towards the Jews remained, as well as the unofficial impediments that denied them a full place in society. There were countless situations and positions that they would only have access to if they converted. This was the option chosen by 9 Jews, between 1868 and 1903, when they embraced Catholicism in the vain hope of being part of a world that, otherwise, was closed to them.
But at the turn of the 19th century it became increasingly evident that all efforts had failed. On the contrary, the Jewish "invasion" into local culture had aroused intense resentment. If, among the lower classes, hatred of the Jews was still of a religious nature, with a medieval flavor, as people rose on the social scale, a new anti-Semitism was seen to be germinating - secular, racial and cultural.
The rejection became even more intense when Karl Lueger won the municipal elections in 1895. Anti-Semites came to power, with their virulent rejection of everything Jewish. A generation that had everything it needed to become a cultural elite suddenly found itself facing an impasse. They had left their past behind; the present had been closed to them and only the future, they mistakenly believed, was open to them. The path taken by this elite was to take refuge in an alternative world, confronting the dominant culture with their own.
Unfortunately, the Jews believed that their alternative world was a reality. This mistake would cost the lives of millions of our brothers.
Others, such as the philosopher Max Nordau and Theodor Herzl, renowned Viennese journalist and father of Zionism, understood, faced with the inexorable growth of anti-Semitism, that the solution was not in assimilation, nor in the intellectuality they had created for themselves. There was only one way, in his view, for Jews to live in safety: the creation of a Jewish National Home.
Some names
There are so many Jewish personalities in Vienna fin-de-siecle We can only mention some of the best known.
Among the jurists is Hans Kelsen, main representative of the so-called Positivist School of Law. In the field of philosophy, in addition to Ludwig Wittgenstein, Martin Buber, Karl Popper and Josef Popper-Linkeus also lived in Vienna during this period.
Most of the city's doctors were Jews. In fact, the renown of the Vienna School of Medicine is largely due to the work and achievements of several of them, two of whom - Robert Bárány (1914) and Otto Loewi (1936) - received the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Psychoanalysis was born with Sigmund Freud, with practically all members of the Psychoanalytic Society, founded in 1906, being Jews.
Among them, Alfred Adler stands out, creator of the current known as "Individual Psychology".
In the sciences, Siegfried Marcus, inventor of the automobile, stands out; in Physics, Lise Meitner, who discovered nuclear fission; Wolfgang Pauli (1945 Nobel Prize) and Felix Ehrenhaft; biochemist Max F. Perutz (1962 Nobel Prize); botanist Julius von Wiesner; chemists Fritz Feigl, who lived in Rio de Janeiro; Leo Grünhut; Edmund von Lippmann and Otto von Fürth, as well as the astronomer Samuel Oppenheim, among many others.
In the field of literature, Jewish personalities predominated, especially among the circle of writers known as Young Vienna(Jung Wien), whose headquarters was the Griensteidl Café. In addition to those mentioned above, writers include Stefan Zweig (who lived and died in Petrópolis, RJ, in 1942), Franz Kafka, Elias Canetti, Arthur Schnitzler, Hermann Bahr , Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Richard Beer-Hofmann, Peter Altenberg, Karl Kraus, Jakob Wassermann, Alfred Polgar, Franz Werfel, Friedrich Torberg, Hans Weigel, Fritz Hochwälder, Josef Roth, Felix Salten, Hilde Spiel.
Vienna's liberal press had Jewish exponents, as did all the major newspapers, including the Neue Freie Press, considered the The Times from Central Europe. We can mention the names of famous journalists such as Egon Friedell, Karl Ausch, Friedrich Austerlitz and Anton Kuh.
In Vienna, music was considered the main art and Jews shared this passion. More than a third of the students in the city's conservatories were Jews. As we saw above, two composers were mainly responsible for revolutionizing the musical world. Gustav Mahler, considered one of the greatest of his time, converted so he could be Kappellmeister of the Vienna Court Opera. His music, between romantic and modern, and his legacy had a great influence on Arnold Schönberg. For all those who detested Mahler's musical innovations, his conversion, rather than erasing his "Jewish stigma", brought even more resentment upon him. His wife once wrote that Mahler was aware that "people would not forget that he was Jewish...nor did he want it to be forgotten." Arnold Schönberg's story is different, because despite being born Jewish, he was raised as a Catholic, converting to Protestantism at the age of 18. In 1933 he returned to Judaism. At the time, people were wondering whether it would be a good idea to leave the capital of European music in the hands of Jews! Other famous composers were Egon Wellesz, Erich Korngold, Alexander Zemlinsky, Oscar Straus, Emmerich Kalmán, Leo Fall and Edmund Edmund Eysler.
Faced with so many names, Steven Beller's inevitable conclusion in his book, compatible with that of other historians, is that Jewish intellectuals were mainly responsible for making Vienna one of the most dynamic and creative cultural centers of the time.
The strength of hatred, however, was greater than that of intellect. On March 12, 1938, the Nazis marched on Vienna to the applause of a jubilant population. Spontaneous anti-Semitic violence became a constant. The Jews quickly lost rights and freedoms. Among Vienna's 200 Jews, around 130 left Austria, fleeing Nazism. Freud himself, already old and sick, after having his daughter arrested by the Gestapo, decided that the time had come to leave. Like him, hundreds of those who had made the city a center of culture left the country. Melancholy end of a great era.
