[Vienna Congress 1815: The Jewish rights
after the
partly emancipation of the Jews under Napoleon are not renewed]
VIENNA, CONGRESS OF,
international congress held in Vienna, September 1814 to June 1815, to
reestablish peace and order in Europe after the Napoleonic Wars. the
congress met in the Apollosaal [[Apollo hall]] built by the
English-born Jew, Sigmund Wolffsohn, and the delegates were often
entertained during the course of the proceedings in the (col. 131)
*salons of Jewish hostesses, such as Fanny von *Arnstein and Cecily
*Eskeles.
The Jewish question, raised explicitly for the first time at an
international conference, arose in connection with the constitution of
a new federation of German states. The Jews of Frankfort and of the
Hanseatic towns of *Hamburg, *Luebeck, and *Bremen had previously
attained equal civil rights under French rule. The Hanseatic cities
were annexed to France in 1810, and Jewish emancipation in France was
effective ipso facto there. The Frankfort community paid the French
staff of the duke a vast sum of money in 1811 in return for being
granted equality. They now sent delegates to the Congress to seek
confirmation of their rights, as well as emancipation for the Jews of
the other German states.
The delegates for Frankfort were Gabriel Oppenheimer and Jacob Baruch
(the father of Ludwig *Boerne), while the Hanseatic towns were
represented among others, by the non-Jew Carl August *Buchholz. They
succeeded in gaining the support of such leading personalities as
Metternich (Austria), Hardenberg, and Humboldt (Prussia). In October
1814 a committee of five German states met to prepare proposals for the
constitution of the new federation. Bavaria and Wuerttemberg, fearing
the curtailment of their independence, opposed Austria, Prussia, and
Hanover, specially on the question of Jewish rights.
At the general session of the Congress in May 1815, the opposition to
Jewish civil equality grew, despite favorable proposals by Austria and
Prussia. On June 10, paragraph 16 of the constitution of the German
Federation was resolved:
The Assembly of the Federation will
deliberate how to achieve the civic improvement of the members of the
Jewish religion in Germany in as generally agreed a form as possible,
in particular as to how to grant and insure for them the possibility of
enjoying civic rights in return for the acceptance of all civic duties
in the states of the Federation; until then, the members of this
religion will have safeguarded for them the rights which have already
been granted to them by the single states of the Federation.
This formulation postponed Jewish equality to the far distant future,
while by changing one word in the final draft to "by", instead of "in
the states", a formulation arrived at only at the meeting on June 8, a
loophole had been left by which the states could disown rights granted
by any but the lawful government, namely, those bestowed by the French
or their temporary rulers. The Congress, therefore, did nothing to
better the status of the Jews but, in effect, only worsened their
position in many places.
The Jewish question arose again at the Conference of Aix-la-Chapelle
(1818), when the powers met to determine the withdrawal of troops from
France and consider France's indemnity to the allies. Various Jewish
communities turned to the conference for relief, and Lewis *Way, an
English clergyman, presented a petition for emancipation to Alexander I
of Russia. Despite a sympathetic reception, however, there were no
practical results.
Bibliography:
M. J. Kohler, in: AJHSP, 26 (1918), 33-125
-- L. Wolf: Notes on the Diplomatic History of the Jewish Question
(1919), 12-15
-- S.W. Baron: Die Judenfrage auf dem Wiener Kongress (1920)
-- M. Grunwald: Vienna (1936), 190-204.
[S.ETT.]> (col. 132)
[since 1815: Emancipation of the
Jews in Vienna step by step - Haskalah and flow of Jews from Galicia -
new generation of Jewish intellectuals]
At the time of the Congress of Vienna in 1815 (see *Vienna, Congress
of) the salons of Jewish hostesses served as entertainment and meeting
places for the rulers of Europe. In 1821 nine Jews of Vienna were
raised to the nobility.
From the close of the 18th century, and especially during the first
decades of the 19th, Vienna became a center of the *Haskalah movement.
The influence and scope of the community's activities increased
particularly after the annexation of *Galicia by Austria.
Despite restrictions, the number of Jews in the city rapidly increased.
Several Hebrew authors, including the poet and traveler Samuel Aaron
*Romanelli, the philologist Judah Leib *Ben-Zeev, the poet Solomon
Levisohn, Meir *Letteris, etc., wrote their works in Vienna. Some of
them earned their livelihood as proofreaders in the city's Hebrew
press. The character of Haskalah and the literature of the Jews of
Vienna was gradually Germanized. There emerged a generation of
intellectuals, such as Ludwig August *Frankl, Moritz *Hartmann, Leopold
*Kompert, and Ignaz *Kuranda, that did not know Hebrew. The first
Jewish journalists, such as Isidor Heller, Moritz Kuh, and Zigmund
Kulischer, inaugurated an era of Jewish influence on the Viennese
press.
[Inner Jewish struggle about
religious reforms in Vienna - Isaac Noah Mannheimer]
At a later period the call for religious reform was heard in Vienna.
Various
maskilim, including
Peter Peretz *Ber and Naphtali Hertz *Homberg, tried to convince the
government to impose Haskalah recommendations and religious reform on
the Jews. This aroused strong controversy among the Vienna community.
The appointment of Isaac Noah *Mannheimer as director of the religious
school in 1825 was a compromise between the supporters of reform and
its opponents.
In 1826 a magnificent synagogue, in which the Hebrew language and the
traditional text of the prayers were retained, was inaugurated. It was
the first legal synagogue to be opened since 1671. Mannheimer and the
hazzan [[cantor]] Solomon *Sulzer
tried to improve the decorum of the services in the new synagogue,
which became a model for all the countries of the Austrian empire.
[1850-1920: Significant Jewish
immigration to Vienna from the eastern regions of Austria-Hungary -
figures]
During the second half of the 19th century and the first decades of the
20th, the Jewish population of Vienna increased as a result of
immigration there by Jews from other regions of the empire,
particularly Hungary, Galicia, and Bukovina. There were 3,739 Jews
living in Vienna in 1846, 9,731 in 1850, and about 15,000 in 1854.
After 1914 about 50,000 refugees from Galicia and Bukovina established
themselves there, so that by 1923 there were 201,513 Jews living in
Vienna, which had become the third largest Jewish community in Europe.
In 1936 there were 176,034 Jews in Vienna (8% of the total population).
Jews in Vienna
|
Year
|
number
of Jews
|
1846
|
3,739xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
|
1850
|
9,731xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx |
1854
|
15,000xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx |
1923
|
201,513xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx |
1936
|
176,034xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx |
Table
by Michael Palomino; from: Vienna; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. 16,
col. 124
|
The occupations of the Jews in Vienna became more variegated. Many of
them entered the liberal professions: out of a total of 2,163
advocates, 1,345 were Jews, and 2,440 of the 3,268 physicians were
Jews. Prominent as a financier and industrialist was Moritz Pollak
(1877-1904) who was a member of the Vienna city council and president
of the Jewish community.
[Jewish outstanding personalities
and Jewish institutions before 1933]
Before the Holocaust there were about 59 synagogues of various
religious trends in Vienna. There was also a Jewish educational
network. The rabbinical seminary, founded in (col. 124)
1893, was a European center for research into Jewish literature and
history. The most prominent scholars were M. *Guedemann, A. *Jellinek,
Adolph *Schwarz, Adolf *Buechler, David *Mueller, Victor *Aptowitzer,
Z. H. *Cahjes, and Samuel *Krauss.
There was also a "Hebrew Pedagogium" for the training of Hebrew
teachers. Many charitable and relief institutions existed in the town,
including the Rothschild Hospital and three orphanages. Vienna also
became a Jewish sports center; the football team Ha-Koah and the
*Maccabi organization of Vienna were well known. A Jewish daily
newspaper in German,
Wiener
Morgenzeitung [[Vienna Morning Post]], was published from 1919
to 1927.
Viennese scientists, musicians, and writers of Jewish origin (Jews and
apostates) achieved world fame, including the authors Arthur
*Schnitzler, Franz *Werfel, Richard *Beer-Hofmann, Jakob *Wassermann,
Stefan *Zweig, and Felix *Salten, and the musicians Gustav *Mahler, and
Arnold *Schoenberg. Many Jews were actors and producers. Scientists,
researchers, and thinkers included Sigmund *Freud, Heinrich Neumann,
Joseph *Unger, and Joseph *Popper-Linkeus. Among Jews active in general
politics were Adolf *Fischhof, Victor *Adler, Max *Adler, and Otto
*Bauer. The leading newspaper,
Neue
Freie Presse, to which Theodor *Herzl contributed, was owned in
part by Jews.
[Nationalism and Jewish
nationalism in Vienna - Herzl Zionism against all Arabs]
Though in the social life and the administration of the community,
there was mostly strong opposition to Jewish national action, Vienna
was also a center of the national awakening. Peretz *Smolenskin
published *Ha-Shahar between 1868 and 1885 in Vienna, while Nathan
*Birnbaum founded the first Jewish nationalist student association,
*Kadimah, there in 1882, and preached "pre-Herzl Zionism" from 1884. It
was due to Herzl that Vienna was at first the center of Zionist
activities [[provoked by the
Dreyfus case in
France. Herzl stated in
his book "The Jewish State" that an Israel could be found and all Arabs
could be driven away like the natives in the "USA", and this would be a
"modern solution" of the "Jewish question"]]. He published the Zionist
movement's organ,
Die *Welt,
and established the headquarters of the Zionist Executive there. The
Zionist movement in Vienna gained in strength after World War I. In
1919 the Zionist Robert *Stricker was elected to the Austrian
parliament. The Zionists did not obtain a majority in the community
until the elections of 1932. Desider *Friedmann was the last president
of the community of Vienna before its destruction in the Holocaust.
[YO.BA.]> (col. 127)
[[Supplement: The Arab reaction on
Herzl
At the same time the Arabs at once founded newspapers against Herzl
Zionism. Herzl never has been in Palestine, has never spoken with any
Arab, and 10,000s of impoverished Jews of Eastern Europe and since 1933
German and Austrian emigrating Jews went into the Herzl trap: the
eternal war against the Arabs of whom Zionist agitators never had
spoken. Palestinians got no voice in the UNO until 1974, and the Herzl
book is not forbidden until now (2007). Human
rights would be better. Details about Herzl Zionism see under
Zionism...]]
[[Supplement: National
frustrations and anti-Semitism in German Austria 1871-1918 - the
Austrian Hitler
There are more subjects to consider about the time between 1871 and
1918: Since 1848 (since the establishment of the liberty of the press)
the Jewish press and the national anti-Semitic press in Austria were
fighting
against each other. Since 1871 since the German victory against France
the German Austrians had the feeling that they would like to belong to
Germany because they would have liked to be "present" in the Second
Empire of Bismarck. But the Emperor of Vienna never wanted a union with
Berlin because
otherwise he had to subordinate to the German Emperor of Berlin.
Add to this after the worldwide collapse of the stock markets in 1873
the Emperor of Vienna helped the Jewish banks in Austria but did not
help the normal Austrian citizens, and Austria did not have an
insurance system like Bismarck's Germany had. So the anti-Semitism in
Austria was raising
much since 1873 against the rich Jews and the Jews at court in Austria
without considering that there were also many poor Jews suffering by
the economic crisis.
During World War I the Jews were serving in the
army, and Austria and Germany tried to germanize all Europe. In
1918 Austria-Hungary was split, and the Jewish politicians in the new
mini Austria were always heavily attacked by nationals with
anti-Semitism
which wanted to have the Empire back and wanted to be a member of
Germany at last, but now the French dominance in Europe prohibited the
union. Add to this also in Germany was a big frustration now because of
the
loss of all colonies and of German territories. This combination of
national frustrations in Germany and Austria at the same time was in
the head of an Austrian person which name was Adolf Hitler. He was seen
as a leader for re-establishment of
"German honour" in the world, and the German industrial leaders and the
industrial leaders of the "USA" ... supported this criminal foreigner
in Germany ... and the German police did not act against this criminal
foreigner and did not kick him out to Austria ...]]
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