Vienna
- LAST REVIEWED: 14 May 2024
- LAST MODIFIED: 07 January 2025
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199840731-0103
- LAST REVIEWED: 14 May 2024
- LAST MODIFIED: 07 January 2025
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199840731-0103
Introduction
Jews have long had a vexed relationship with Vienna. They count among the city’s most ardent fans as well as its loudest detractors. Facing much antisemitism both in the Middle Ages and in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Vienna’s Jews nevertheless helped shape a great deal of what is considered to be the best of Austrian culture. Ranging from assimilated Jews to enthusiastic converts to ardent Zionists, they drove and supported some of the most well-known ideas and movements of the modern era, including psychoanalysis and Zionism. That they did so in a city that hosted Adolf Hitler as he developed his destructive antisemitic ideologies underscores the paradox of Jewish life in Vienna. Many people remain fascinated by Jews’ participation in high culture and modernism around the fin de siècle: the works of Arthur Schnitzler, Sigmund Freud, and Stefan Zweig, to name only a few, continue to mark the landscape of international popular culture. However, the history of Jews in Vienna reaches far beyond the clichéd world of Vienna’s coffeehouses. The city’s reputation as a cosmopolitan capital of an empire, as well as its location between Eastern and Western Europe, meant that Jews from varying cultures mixed together in ways they often did not in other cities. By 1945, of the roughly 200,000 Jews living in Austria before the war, 65,000 had been murdered; most of the rest had been able to flee Nazi persecution between 1938 and 1941 and found refuge mainly in the United States, Great Britain, and British Mandatory Palestine (now Israel). Few of those who survived returned. In recent decades, however, Austrians have begun to come to terms with their active involvement in the destruction of its Jewish population. The reconstruction of Vienna’s postwar Jewish population of between 8,000 and 11,000, which now numbers around 15,000, continues amid growing possibilities for public debate and discussion.
General Overviews
Although most general overviews of the history of the Jews in Vienna are in German, Grunwald 1936 presents a readable, detailed study in English of the Jewish community in Vienna from the twelfth century to the first decades of the twentieth century. Feurstein and Milchram 2008 also presents a well-researched guidebook on the history of the Jews in Vienna arranged by district in an English translation that is suitable for undergraduates. A number of older accounts in German remain valuable as overviews to Jewish history in Vienna up to the twentieth century. Wolf 1876 covers the foundations of the Jewish community, the political decrees and laws that affected it, and early rivalries between the Orthodox and Reform communities. Bato 1928 surveys well-known figures from the late seventeenth through the mid-nineteenth centuries in a readable narrative that interweaves historical data with humorous anecdotes. Tietze 2007, which was first published in 1933, remains a standard overview of the history and culture of Vienna’s Jews from the Middle Ages through the early twentieth century. Gold 1966, written to honor the Jewish community destroyed in the Holocaust, is of value for its many reproductions of documents and photographs as well as extensive biographical information on significant Jewish men in culture and politics. Grab 2000 is a brief but thorough essay sketching the history of Jews in Vienna from the fifteenth century through 1938. Brugger, et al. 2013 is the most recent extensive survey of the history of the Jews in Austria from the Middle Ages to the early twenty-first century written by experts. It is especially useful for placing Viennese Jews in the historical context of Austria’s other Jewish communities. Corbett 2020 offers an original approach to Viennese Jewish history via a study of Jewish sepulchral culture from medieval times to the early twenty-first century.
Bato, Ludwig. Die Juden im alten Wien. Vienna: Phaidon, 1928.
Informative account of well-known figures and the Jewish community from the late seventeenth through the mid-nineteenth centuries. Interweaves historical data with humorous anecdotes.
Brugger, Eveline, Martha Keil, Albert Lichtblau, Chirstoph Lind, and Barbara Staudinger. Geschichte der Juden in Österreich. Vienna: Ueberreuter, 2013.
Wide-ranging survey of the history of the Jews in Austria from the Middle Ages to the early twenty-first century written by noted experts. Places Viennese Jews in the context of other Jewish communities in Austria. Especially strong on religious life and laws affecting Jews up to 1800.
Corbett, Tim. Die Grabstätten meiner Väter: Die jüdischen Friedhöfe in Wien. Vienna: Böhlau, 2020.
The first comprehensive analysis of the development of Jewish sepulchral culture in Vienna from the medieval era to the early twenty-first century. Provides new insight into the role of Jews in shaping the city’s history.
Feurstein, Michaela, and Gerhard Milchram. Jewish Vienna. Vienna: Mandelbaum, 2008.
Well-researched guidebook written by historians and helpfully ordered by district. Contains brief historical and personal essays. Useful as a guide to buildings, institutions, and memorials of historical significance. In English.
Gold, Hugo. Geschichte der Juden in Wien: Ein Gedenkbuch. Tel Aviv: Olamenu, 1966.
Overview written in honor of the community destroyed in the Holocaust. Especially valuable for reproductions of documents and photographs. Includes detailed biographical information on leading Jewish men in culture and politics after 1918.
Grab, Walter. Zwei Seiten einer Medaille: Demokratische Revolution und Judenemanzipation. Cologne: PapyRossa, 2000.
Vienna-born historian’s brief but thorough chapter “Das Wiener Judentum: Eine historische Überblick” (pp. 192–231) sketches the history of Jews in Vienna from the fifteenth century through 1938. Includes information about significant political events and leaders.
Grunwald, Max. Vienna. Translated by Solomon Grayzel. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1936.
Detailed study of the Jewish community in Vienna from the twelfth century to the first decades of the twentieth century, focusing on political conditions, significant events, legal status, and significant community and public leaders as well as wealthy families. Readable narrative, translated from German.
Tietze, Hans. Die Juden Wiens: Geschichte, Wirtschaft, Kultur. Vienna: Mandelbaum, 2007.
First published in 1933, this book remains a helpful standard overview of the history and culture of Vienna’s Jews from the Middle Ages through the early twentieth century. Written for a broad audience, it also includes information about the Jewish community and religious life.
Wolf, Gerson. Geschichte der Juden in Wien, 1156–1876. Vienna: Alfred Hölder, 1876.
Originally published in 1876, this book covers the foundations of the Jewish community and the political decrees and laws that affected it, and it outlines early rivalries between the Orthodox and Reform Jewish communities. Valuable for its reproductions of medieval primary sources. Also available as an e-book on Google Books.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Abraham Isaac Kook
- Aggadah
- Agudat Yisrael
- Ahad Ha' am
- American Hebrew Literature
- American Jewish Artists
- American Jewish Literature
- American Jewish Sociology
- Ancient Anti-Semitism
- An-sky (Shloyme Zanvil Rapoport)
- Anthropology of the Jews
- Anti-Semitism, Modern
- Apocalypticism and Messianism
- Aramaic
- Archaeology, Second Temple
- Archaeology: The Rabbinic Period
- Art, Synagogue
- Austria, The Holocaust In
- Austro-Hungarian Empire, 1867-1918
- Baron, Devorah
- Biblical Archaeology
- Biblical Literature
- Bratslav/Breslev Hasidism
- Buber, Martin
- Buczacz
- Bukharan Jews
- Canada
- Central Asia, Jews in
- Chagall, Marc
- China
- Classical Islam, Jews Under
- Cohen, Hermann
- Culture, Israeli
- David Ben-Gurion
- David Bergelson
- Dead Sea Scrolls
- Death, Burial, and the Afterlife
- Debbie Friedman
- Demography
- Deuteronomy
- Dietary Laws
- Dubnov, Simon
- Dutch Republic: 17th-18th Centuries
- Early Modern Period, Christian Yiddishism in the
- Eastern European Haskalah
- Economic Justice in the Talmud
- Edith Stein
- Emancipation
- Emmanuel Levinas
- England
- Environment, Judaism and the
- Eruv
- Ethics, Jewish
- Ethiopian Jews
- Exiting Orthodox Judaism
- Feminism
- Film
- Folklore
- Folktales, Jewish
- Food
- Forverts/Forward
- Frank, Jacob
- Gender and Modern Jewish Thought
- Germany, Early Modern
- Ghettos in the Holocaust
- Goldman, Emma
- Golem
- Graetz, Heinrich
- Hasidism
- Hasidism, Lubavitch
- Haskalah
- Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) Literature
- Hebrew
- Hebrew Bible, Blood in the
- Hebrew Bible, Memory and History in the
- Hebrew Literature and Music
- Hebrew Literature Outside of Israel Since 1948
- History, Early Modern Jewish
- History of the Holocaust
- Holocaust in France, The
- Holocaust in Germany, The
- Holocaust in Poland, The
- Holocaust in the Netherlands, The
- Holocaust in the Soviet Union, The
- (Holocaust) Memorial Books
- Holocaust Museums and Memorials
- Holocaust, Philosophical and Theological Responses to the
- Holocaust Survivors, Children of
- Humor, Jewish
- Ibn Ezra, Abraham
- Indian Jews
- Isaac Bashevis Singer
- Israel Ba'al Shem Tov
- Israel, Crime and Policing in
- Israel, Religion and State in
- Israeli Economy
- Israeli Film
- Israeli Literature
- Israel's Society
- Italian Jewish Enlightenment
- Italian Jewish Literature (Ninth to Nineteenth Century)
- Jewish American Children's Literature
- Jewish American Women Writers in the 18th and 19th Centuri...
- Jewish Bible Translations
- Jewish Children During the Holocaust
- Jewish Collaborators in the Holocaust
- Jewish Culture, Children and Childhood in
- Jewish Diaspora
- Jewish Economic History
- Jewish Education
- Jewish Folklore, Chełm in
- Jewish Genetics
- Jewish Heritage and Cultural Revival in Poland
- Jewish Morocco
- Jewish Names
- Jewish Studies, Dance in
- Jewish Territorialism (in Relation to Jewish Studies)
- Jewish-Christian Polemics Until the 15th Century
- Jews and Animals
- Joseph Ber Soloveitchik
- Josephus, Flavius
- Judaism and Buddhism
- Kafka, Franz
- Kalonymus Kalman Shapira
- Karaism
- Khmelnytsky/Chmielnitzki
- Kibbutz, The
- Kiryas Joel and Satmar
- Ladino
- Languages, Jewish
- Late Antique (Roman and Byzantine) History
- Latin American Jewish Studies
- Law, Biblical
- Law in the Rabbinic Period
- Lea Goldberg
- Legal Circumventions in Rabbinic Law
- Life Cycle Rituals
- Literature Before 1800, Yiddish
- Literature, Hellenistic Jewish
- Literature, Holocaust
- Literature, Latin American Jewish
- Literature, Medieval
- Literature, Modern Hebrew
- Literature, Rabbinic
- Magic, Ancient Jewish
- Maimonides, Moses
- Maurice Schwartz
- Medieval and Renaissance Political Thought
- Medieval Anti-Judaism
- Medieval Islam, Jews under
- Meir, Golda
- Menachem Begin
- Mendelssohn, Moses
- Messianic Thought and Movements
- Middle Ages, the Hebrew Story in the
- Midrash
- Minority Literatures in Israel
- Minsk
- Modern Germany
- Modern Hebrew Poetry
- Modern Jewish History
- Modern Kabbalah
- Moses Maimonides: Mishneh Torah
- Music, East European Jewish Folk
- Music, Jews and
- Nathan Birnbaum
- Nazi Germany, Kristallnacht: The November Pogrom 1938 in
- Neo-Hasidism
- New Age Judaism
- New York City
- North Africa
- Orthodoxy
- Orthodoxy, Post-World War II
- Palestine/Israel, Yiddish in
- Palestinian Talmud/Yerushalmi
- Philo of Alexandria
- Piyyut
- Poetry in Spain, Hebrew
- Poland, 1800-1939
- Poland, Hasidism in
- Poland Until The Late 18th Century
- Politics and Political Leaders, Israeli
- Politics, Modern Jewish
- Prayer and Liturgy
- Purity and Impurity in Ancient Israel and Early Judaism
- Queer Jewish Texts in the Americas
- Rabbi Yeheil Michel Epstein and his Arukh Hashulchan
- Rabbinic Exegesis (Midrash) and Literary Theory
- Race and American Judaism
- Rashi's Commentary on the Bible
- Reform Judaism
- Revelation
- Ritual Objects and Folk Art
- Rosenzweig, Franz
- Russia
- Russian Jewish Culture
- Sabbath
- Sabbatianism
- Sacrifice in the Bible
- Safed
- Sarah Schenirer and Bais Yaakov
- Scholem, Gershom
- Second Temple Period, The
- Sephardi Jews
- Sexuality and the Body
- Shlomo Carlebach
- Shmuel Yosef Agnon
- Shulhan Arukh and Sixteenth Century Jewish Law, The
- Sociology, European Jewish
- South African Jewry
- Soviet Union, Jews in the
- Soviet Yiddish Literature
- Space in Modern Hebrew Literature
- Spinoza, Baruch
- Sutzkever, Abraham
- Talmud and Philosophy
- Talmud, Narrative in the
- The Druze Community in Israel
- The Early Modern Yiddish Bible, 1534–1686
- The General Jewish Workers’ Bund
- The Modern Jewish Bible, Facets of
- Theater, Israeli
- Theme, Exodus as a
- Tractate Avodah Zarah (in the Talmud)
- Translation
- Translation in Hebrew Literature, Traditions of
- United States
- Venice
- Vienna
- Vilna
- Walter Benjamin
- Warsaw
- Weinreich, Max
- Wissenschaft des Judentums
- Women and Gender Relations
- World War II Literature, Jewish American
- Yankev Glatshteyn/Jacob Glatstein
- Yemen, The Jews of
- Yiddish
- Yiddish Avant-garde Theater
- Yiddish Linguistics
- Yiddish Literature since 1800
- Yiddish Theater
- Yiddish Women's Fiction
- Zamenhof
- Ze’ev Jabotinsky
- Zionism from Its Inception to 1948