The history of the Jews in Vienna, Austria, goes back over eight hundred years. There is evidence of a Jewish presence in Vienna from the 12th century onwards.[1]
At the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century, Vienna was one of the most prominent centres of Jewish culture in Europe, but during the period of National-Socialist rule in Austria, Vienna's Jewish population was almost entirely deported and murdered in the Holocaust. Since 1945, Jewish culture and society have gradually been recovering in the city.
History
Middle Ages
Remains of the synagogue at the Judenplatz that was destroyed in 1420/21Fanny von Arnstein owned one of the most important literary salons in the city in the 18th century
The first named Jewish individual was Schlom, Duke Frederick I’s Münzmeister (master of the mint), installed in 1194. Schlom and his family would later be murdered in a pogrom by crusaders.[2] In 1238, emperor Frederick II granted the Jews a privilege, and the existence of community institutions such as a synagogue, hospital and slaughterhouse can be proven from the 14th century onwards. Vienna’s city law empowered a special Judenrichter (Judge of the Jews) to adjudicate in disputes between Christians and Jews, but this judge was not empowered to rule in conflicts between two Jewish parties, unless one party filed a complaint with him.
The first Jews lived in the area near the Seitenstettengasse; from around 1280, they also lived around the modern-day Judenplatz. The centre of Jewish cultural and religious life was located here from the 13th to the 15th century, until the Vienna Gesera of 1420/21, when Albert V ordered the annihilation of the city’s Jews, leading to their murder, expulsion, and in some cases collective suicide.[2]
Early Modern (16th–18th centuries)
In the year 1512, 12 Jewish families lived in Vienna.[1] Although there was a ban until 1624 on new settlement,[3] this was repeatedly circumvented through the granting of exceptions, to the point that a new cemetery was established in the Seegasse in 1582. Jews’ rights were further restricted in 1637, leading to the second expulsion of Vienna's Jewish population in 1669/70 under Leopold I. A formerly Jewish neighborhood was then renamed, and remains, "Leopoldstadt."[3]
Following the Thirty Year's War and wars with the Ottomans, including the second Ottoman siege of Vienna, dire financial straits led to Austrian emperors relying on the aid of Jewish Bankers, in particular Samuel Oppenheimer and Samson Wertheimer.[4]Samuel Oppenheimer was appointed as a financier to the court in 1683; he was also responsible for the restoration of the cemetery. Oppenheimer was able to help Samson Wertheimer from Worms to come to Vienna in 1684. Wertheimer was later named Court Jew, but he could not perform his duties as a Rabbi in Vienna and therefore left for Eisenstadt, part of the Siebengemeinden, where Jews were welcomed under Paul I, 1st Prince Esterházy of Galántha.
From 1736, there was a small Sephardic population in Vienna, which had its own religious community with a synagogue at the time of Maria Theresa. The majority Ashkenazi population only obtained the same status much later under Franz Joseph I.
Influenced by the Enlightenment, emperor Joseph II decreed his Edict of Tolerance in 1782, which granted civil rights to Jews in Austria.[5] They were however still forbidden to form a religious community and to hold religious services in public.
Restoration (19th century)
Jewish population of Vienna[6][7][8][9] according to census and particular area
Year
total pop.
Jews
Percentage
1857
476,220
2617
1.3
1869
607,510
40,277
6.6
1880
726,105
73,222
10.1
1890
817,300
99,444
12.1
1890*
1,341,190
118,495
8.8
1900
1,674,957
146,926
8.7
1910
2,031,420
175,294
8.6
1923
1,865,780
201,513
10.8
1934
1,935,881
176,034
9.1
1951
1,616,125
9000
0.6
1961
1,627,566
8354
0.5
1971
1,619,855
7747
0.5
1981
1,531,346
6527
0.4
1991
1,539,848
6554
0.4
2001
1,550,123
6988
0.5
* = after expansion of Vienna
In 1824, Michael Lazar Biedermann's recommendation led to Rabbi Isaak Mannheimer being brought from Copenhagen to Vienna. As there was still officially no Jewish religious community, Mannheimer was employed as the “Director of the imperially approved public Israelite religious school of Vienna”. Mannheimer realised cautious reforms in Vienna without provoking a schism within the Jewish population, such as those that occurred in the majority of Jewish communities in Europe in the 19th century. With Lazar Horowitz, who was summoned to Vienna as a Rabbi in 1828, Mannheimer agitated for the abolition of the discriminatory Jewish Oath. The merchant Isaak Löw Hofmann also played a leading role in Vienna's Jewish community from 1806 until his death in 1849.
Jewish intellectuals participated in the Revolution of 1848.The new elected Imperial Diet, meeting for the first time in July 1848, included four Jewish deputies, three of whom were elected from Vienna.[5]
In 1867, under Emperor Franz Joseph I, Jews gained equal recognition under the law.[10] As a consequence of equal recognition, the Jewish community in Vienna grew rapidly: in 1860, the Jewish community in Vienna numbered 6,200; in 1870, that number had already risen to 40,200, and at the turn of the century, to 147,000.[5] Vienna's 2nd district, Leopoldstadt, developed into the centre of Vienna's Jewish life at this time. The Jewish population in this area of the city soon represented half of the entire population in the district. The neighbouring districts of Brigittenau (which was divided from Leopoldstadt in 1900) and Alsergrund equally had high proportions of Jews. The Jews that lived in these areas made up the majority of Vienna's Jewish population and belonged for the most part to the lower or middle classes – they were manual labourers, craftsmen, small-scale businessmen (e.g. café owners) and traders. Wealthy Jews lived for the most part in the villa suburbs of Döbling and Hietzing, and in the city centre, the Innere Stadt.
Theodor Herzl responded to the increasing spread of Antisemitism during this period with the creation of political Zionism. At the same time however, the Jewish community was led predominantly by assimilated Jews.
Collapse of the Habsburg monarchy and First Republic (1910s–1930s)
Jewish contributions to Vienna's economy (1934)[11]
Percentage of all activity attributable to Viennese citizens of Jewish origin
The Leopoldstädter Tempel, painted by Rudolf von AltUltra-Orthodox Jews in Leopoldstadt, 1915The Gerngross shopping centre, which was founded by Viennese JewsThe Wiener Riesenrad was also run by Viennese Jews until 1938
After the outbreak of World War I and the first Austrian defeats on the eastern front, an exodus of 350,000 refugees began in the eastern regions of the empire (Galicia). Amongst the refugees were some 50,000 (according to the police) to 70,000 (according to the Arbeiterzeitung newspaper) Jews, who all arrived at Vienna's northern railway station in Leopoldstadt.
Although around half of these new arrivals returned to their homes once the situation had calmed down on the eastern front,[12] the entire Jewish community in Vienna and its relations with Vienna's Christian population were put to the test by these events. The refugees were poverty-stricken, but work was hard to come by and factories were unwilling to employ the refugees. The situation has been described thus: “While the Germans were condemning the Jews in the east to forced labour, the Austrians were condemning them to forced unemployment”.[12] Many of the refugees tried to earn their daily bread as peddlers or salesmen, and many charity organisations sprung up to coordinate clothes donations and other campaigns, but the “Ostjuden” (Eastern Jews) were the victims of many negative prejudices and because of their poverty were more frequently the targets of antisemitic attacks than wealthy assimilated Jews. It was not made easy for them to establish themselves in Vienna.
With the fall of the Habsburg Monarchy in 1918, Jews could move freely throughout Austria-Hungary. The community in Vienna numbered around 200,000.[5] The majority of Viennese Jews lived in this neighborhood, which had served as the Jewish ghetto prior to the 1670 expulsion by Emperor Leopold.[13] The neighborhood's Jewish population later recovered, and by the interwar years was nicknamed Mazzesinsel (matzoh island).[13]
At this time, Vienna's Jews were divided into two groups. On the one hand, there were the Jews who had either lived for a long time in Vienna or who had been born there and who assimilated into Christian society. On the other hand, there were Orthodox Jews, who wished to live in line with traditional beliefs and practices. The community's voting habits also reveals a division; while the majority, made up for the most part of assimilated Jews, voted for the social democrats, others voted for Jewish parties, which disputed elections both in the empire and in the First Republic and which concentrated their campaign advertising on fighting the social democrats for votes. Over time, almost all Jews came to vote for the social democrats, because the Jewish parties were seen as not strong enough, while all other parties were antisemitic and refused to accept Jewish members.[12]
An antisemitic campaign placard used by the Christian Social Party during the 1920 elections in Austria.
Antisemitism became ever more pronounced during the first republic. In Jewish quarters, in particular in Leopoldstadt, antisemitic organisations distributed their flyers and newspapers aimed at turning the Christian population against their Jewish neighbours. A protest at the Praterstern organised by socialists and communists against such provocation ended in violence. When the German-nationalist Josef Mohapl was stabbed to death by an apolitical attacker who already had a criminal record, right-wing newspapers dubbed this the “Christian pogrom in Leopoldstadt”, and from this moment onwards, Nazi hooligans were to be seen in Leopoldstadt. One of the first attacks on prominent establishments that these groups instigated was the destruction of the well-known “Café Produktenbörse” in December 1929. The attack on a prayer room in the Café Sperlhof in 1932 was particularly violent; praying Jews were beaten and the attackers laid waste to the building.[12]
Many Jews joined socialist and/or Zionist (youth) organisations, the largest of which were Hashomer Hatzair, Poale Zion and the Jewish Socialist Workers’ Youth. In the 1930s, some socialist, Jewish and Zionist movements united in committees for action, to organise street patrols and to take action against “Hakenkreuzler” (thugs bearing the swastika), who were attacking Jews. The first such group was the “Jüdische Selbstwehr” (Jewish Self-Defence). The paramilitary organisation Betar also had members in Vienna.[12]
Immediately after the Anschluss, Vienna's Jews were forced by the local population to clean the city's pavements.
Following the Anschluss in March 1938, the estimated 206,000 population of Jews in Vienna faced severe harassment.[14] They were driven through the streets of Vienna, their homes and shops were plundered and the process of Aryanisation began. These events reached their climax in the Kristallnachtpogrom of 9–10 November 1938. All synagogues and prayer houses in Vienna were destroyed except one[14] – the Stadttempel was the sole survivor because its location in a residential area prevented it from being burned down. Most Jewish shops were plundered and then closed down; over 6000 Jews were arrested in this one night, the majority were deported to the Dachau concentration camp in the following days. The Nuremberg Laws applied in Austria from May 1938; they were reinforced with innumerable anti-semitic decrees. Jews were gradually robbed of their freedoms, were blocked from almost all professions, were shut out of schools and universities, and were forced to wear the Yellow badge.
According to the Government of Vienna, over 65,000 Viennese Jews were exported to concentration camps and murdered.[14]
The Nazis dissolved Jewish organisations and institutions, hoping to force Jews to emigrate. Their plans succeeded – by the end of 1941, 130,000 Jews had left Vienna, 30,000 of whom went to the USA. They left behind all of their property, but were forced to pay the Reich Flight Tax, a tax on all émigrés from the Third Reich; some received financial support from international aid organisations so that they could pay this tax. Following the Wannsee Conference in January 1942, where the Nazis resolved to completely annihilate the Jewish population, the majority of the Jews who had stayed in Vienna became victims of the Holocaust. Of the more than 65,000 Viennese Jews who were deported to concentration camps, only a few more than 2000 survived.
After World War II, it took a long time for Austria to come to a clear position with regard to its part of the responsibility for the horrors of the "Third Reich". In the 1980s, a shift in thinking took place that led to the declaration on the part of the Austrian government in June 1991, in which ChancellorVranitzky made the first explicit statement in parliament concerning the participation of Austrian citizens in the crimes of Nazi Germany.
Vienna's Jewish population numbered more than 201,000 before 1938. In 1946, just 4,000 Jews remainedArchived 2018-06-12 at the Wayback Machine , many of whom emigrated in the following years. Meanwhile, the Jewish population in Germany actually grew as a result of emigration from Eastern Europe at this time.[15] At the end of the 1990s, there were barely more than 7000 registered members of Vienna's Jewish community. Many of the Jews who live in Vienna today came to the city as refugees from Eastern Europe to begin a new life in the Austrian capital. Immigrants of Jewish origin from the lands of the former Soviet Union in particular have strengthened the ranks of Vienna's Jewish population. In 1992, a Sephardic Centre was officially opened in the city, while in 1994, the Psychosocial Centre Esra (Help) was established, and in 1999, the new school building of the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation opened in the Augarten. In 2000, the Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial, designed by Rachel Whiteread, was unveiled, and a Museum of Jewish history, life and religion was also opened at the Judenplatz.
In autumn 2008, the Zwi Perez Chajes school moved from the Castellezgasse to the Simon-Wiesenthal-Gasse next to the Messe Wien at the Prater. The school thus forms part of a complex including a Jewish kindergarten, primary school, and grammar school for around 600 children, and is located near the Hakoah Vienna sport club, which was re-opened in March 2008, an education centre, and an old people's home.[16]
The 2001 census in Austria counted 8140 Jews in Austria, of which 6988 were living in Vienna.[17] The Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien, however, believes that there are around 15,000 Jews in Austria;[18] some sources speak of as many as 20,000.[16]
Leopoldstadt continues to represent a centre of Jewish life in Vienna. The proportion of the population of Jewish religion is above average, at 3.1%. There are eight Ashkenazi and three Sephardic synagogues or prayer houses in this district of the city,[19] seven Jewish educational institutions,[20] as well as numerous kosher shops, bakeries and restaurants.
Over the centuries, 93 synagogues have been founded in Vienna. The only synagogue to have survived the Kristallnacht pogrom is the Stadttempel. Some new synagogues and prayer rooms have since been established.
Leopoldstadt is the 2nd municipal district of Vienna in Austria. As of 1 January 2016, there are 103,233 inhabitants over 19.27 km2 (7 sq mi). It is situated in the heart of the city and, together with Brigittenau, forms a large island surrounded by the Danube Canal and, to the north, the Danube. It is named after Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor. Due to its relatively high percentage of Jewish inhabitants before the Holocaust, Leopoldstadt gained the nickname Mazzesinsel. This context was a significant aspect for the district twinning with the New York City borough Brooklyn in 2007.
Ariel Muzicant is an Austrian-Israeli businessman, who served as the president of the Viennese Jewish community.
Judenplatz is a town square in Vienna's Innere Stadt that was the center of Jewish life and the Viennese Jewish Community in the Middle Ages. It is located in the immediate proximity of Am Hof square, Schulhof, and Wipplingerstraße. It exemplifies the long and eventful history of the city and the Jewish community focused on this place. Archaeological excavations of the medieval synagogue are viewable underground by way of the museum on the square, Misrachi-Haus. Two sculptural works, a carved relief and several inscribed texts are located around the square that all have subject matter relating to Jewish history. One of these sculptures is a statue of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. The other is a memorial to Austrian Holocaust Victims, a project based on an idea of Simon Wiesenthal and unveiled in 2000. Created by British artist Rachel Whiteread, the memorial is a reinforced concrete cube resembling a library with its volumes turned inside out.
The history of the Jews in Austria probably begins with the exodus of Jews from Judea under Roman occupation. There have been Jews in Austria since the 3rd century CE. Over the course of many centuries, the political status of the community rose and fell many times: during certain periods, the Jewish community prospered and enjoyed political equality, and during other periods it suffered pogroms, deportations to concentration camps and mass murder, and antisemitism. The Holocaust drastically reduced the Jewish community in Austria and only 8,140 Jews remained in Austria according to the 2001 census. Today, Austria has a Jewish population of 10,300 which extends to 33,000 if Law of Return is accounted for, meaning having at least one Jewish grandparent.
The Leopoldstädter Tempel, also known as the Israelitische Bethaus in der Wiener Vorstadt Leopoldstadt, was a Jewish congregation and synagogue, located on Tempelgasse 5, in Leopoldstadt, in the 2nd district of Vienna, Austria. Completed in 1858, the synagogue was destroyed as a result of Kristallnacht. A monument marks the location of the former synagogue.
The history of the Jews in Salzburg, Austria goes back several millennia. Despite being a non-secular province with a Catholic Archbishop as the head of the state, Salzburg has a long record of Jewish history.
Isaac Noah Mannheimer was a rabbi and member of the House of Deputies.
The Pazmanitentempel, also known as the Jubiläumstempel, was a Jewish synagogue, located at Pazmanitengasse 6, Leopoldstadt, in the 2nd district of Vienna, Austria. Completed in 1913, the synagogue was destroyed on Kristallnacht in 1938.
The history of the Jews in Switzerland extends back at least a thousand years. Jews and Judaism have been present in the territory of what is now Switzerland since before the emergence of the medieval Old Swiss Confederacy in the 13th century.
The Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial also known as the Nameless Library stands in Judenplatz in the first district of Vienna. It is the central memorial for the Austrian victims of the Holocaust and was designed by British artist Rachel Whiteread.
The Jüdisches Museum Wien, trading as Jüdisches Museum der Stadt Wien GmbH or the Jewish Museum Vienna, is a museum of Jewish history, life and religion in Austria. The museum is present on two locations, in the Palais Eskeles in the Dorotheergasse and in the Judenplatz, and has distinguished itself by a very active programme of exhibitions and outreach events highlighting the past and present of Jewish culture in Austria. The current director is Barbara Staudinger and the chief curator is Astrid Peterle.
The Jewish Community of Vienna is the body that represents Vienna's Orthodox Jewish community. Today, the IKG has around 10,000 members. Throughout history, it has represented almost all of Austria's Jews, whose numbers are sufficient to form communities in only a few other cities in Austria.
The Döbling Synagogue was a former Jewish synagogue that was located in the Dollinergasse in the suburb of Oberdöbling, in Döbling, in the 19th district of Vienna, Austria. Completed in 1907, the building was ruined and partially destroyed in the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 1938. Later, the synagogue was deconsecrated and in 1995, it was replaced with a modern apartment tower.
Lazar Horowitz, or Eleazar HaLevi Ish Horowitz, Eleasar ben David Josua Hoeschel Horowitz, aka El'azar Hurwitz was an Orthodox Rabbi who led the Jewish community of Vienna during the Vormärz period and became the first Chief Rabbi of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Vienna in 1852, while retaining his title and position as Chief Rabbi of Vienna.
Bernhard Wachstein was a Jewish community historian and bibliographer who rebuilt, expanded, and modernized the library of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien. He also performed important bibliographic work, particularly relating to the history of Austrian Jews.
Benjamin Israel Murmelstein was an Austrian rabbi. He was one of 17 community rabbis in Vienna in 1938 and the only one remaining in Vienna by late 1939. An important figure and board member of the Jewish group in Vienna during the early stages of the Second World War, he was also an "Ältester" of the Judenrat in the Theresienstadt concentration camp after 1943. He was the only "Judenältester" to survive the Holocaust. He helped thousands of Jews in emigrating and is accused of being a Nazi collaborator.
The Vienna Gesera was a persecution of Jews in Austria in 1420–21 on the orders of Duke Albert V. The persecution, at first consisting of exile, forced conversion and imprisonment, culminated in the execution of over 200 Jews. Some Jews escaped abroad, while others committed suicide. The Viennese Jewish community of about 1,500 effectively ceased to exist and its properties were confiscated by the duke. The name derives from a contemporary Jewish chronicle entitled Wiener Gesera.
Oskar Deutsch is an Austrian entrepreneur, and since 2012 President of the Jewish Community of Vienna (IKG) and the Federal Association of Jewish Religious Communities in Austria.
Schlomo Elieser Hofmeister is a European rabbi, mohel and author. In 2008, Schlomo Hofmeister, who was then living with his family in London and Jerusalem, was appointed Community Rabbi of Vienna by the Board of the Jewish Community of Vienna and has lived in the Austrian capital ever since - where his ancestors had already resided for several generations after their expulsion from Spain. He also holds the office of Landesrabbiner of Lower Austria, Burgenland, Carinthia and Styria, as well as Chief Rabbi of the Styrian provincial capital Graz and Baden bei Wien. He is also Chief Rabbi of the Austrian Armed Forces.
Sonia Wachstein is an Austrian-American psychotherapist, social worker, and writer. She was born October 25, 1907, in Vienna, Austria, and died in New York City, New York, August 10, 2001.
↑ census 1890, 1900, 1910 of the K. K. Statistischen Central-Kommission and census 1934 and Statistisches Jahrbuch der Stadt Wien für das Jahr 1910, in: Anson Rabinbach: The Migration of Galician Jews to Vienna. Austrian History Yearbook, Volume XI, Berghahn Books/Rice University Press, Houston 1975, S. 48 (in German)
↑ Statistisches Jahrbuch der Stadt Wien 1930–1935 (Neue Folge. 3. Band) published by Magistratsabteilung für Statistik. Contains figures of 1910, 1923 und 1934. (in German)
↑ Österreichische Historikerkommission: Schlussbericht der Historikerkommission der Republik Österreich. Band 1. Oldenbourg Verlag, Wien 2003, S. 85–87 (Ergebnis der Volkszählung 1934) (in German)
↑ Georg Glockemeier: Zur Wiener Judenfrage. Verlag Günther, Leipzig & Wien 1936. (Auf Grundlage der Volkszählung 1934.) (in German)
1 2 3 4 5 Ruth Beckermann: Die Mazzesinsel. In: Ruth Beckermann (Hrsg.): Die Mazzesinsel – Juden in der Wiener Leopoldstadt 1918–38. Löcker, Wien 1984, ISBN978-3-85409-068-7, S. 16f. (in German)
1 2 Marijana Milijković: Von einer Blüte ist keine Rede – Dennoch tut sich was in der jüdischen Gemeinde: Der Campus im Prater eröffnet.Der Standard, 12. September 2008, S. 2 (in German)
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