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Vienna, the 1890s: Jews in the Eyes of Their Defenders. (The Verein zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Jacques Kornberg
Jacques Kornberg
Affiliation:
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
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Extract

Advocates for minority rights make stringent demands upon those they defend. The relationship between the persecuted and their defenders is often a minefield of conflicting agendas, made even worse by patronizing attitudes on the one side and wounded pride on the other. One example is the Verein zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus (The Association for Defense Against Antisemitism), founded in Vienna in 1891 to combat the alarming rise of political antisemitism, unmistakable in the stunning electoral successes of the Christian Social Party led by Karl Lueger. Abwehrverein members came from Austria's elite of education and property (Bildung und Besitz): Liberal politicians, large-scale industrialists and merchants, members of the free professions, and artists. Most members were Austro-German liberals, and Liberal Reichsrat deputies sat on its board. Its founder and president was Baron Arthur Gunduccar von Suttner (1850–1902), a writer, and husband of Bertha von Suttner, recipient of the Noble Peace Prize in 1905. My intention is to explore the attitude of the Abwehrverein to Jewry, and to raise the question of whether it served Jewish interests well. But before that, a word or two must be said about the association.

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Articles
Information
Central European History , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , June 1995 , pp. 153 - 173
Copyright
Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 1995

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References

1. ABBREVIATIONS: OW = Oesterreichische Wochenschrift: Centralorgan für die gesammten Interessen der Judenthums; FB = Freies Blatt; NZ = Die Neuzeit: Wochenschrift für politische, religiöse und Cultur-Interessen; MdO-IU = Mitteilungen der Oesterreichisch-Israelitischen Union; LBIYB = Leo Baeck Institute Year Book; DW = Die Welt. Records of Abwehrverein meetings were published in Vienna by the Verlag des Vereines zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus. For the seminal work on the decline of Austro-German liberalism, see Schorske, Carl, Fin-de-Siècle Vienna: Politics and Culture (New York, 1980).Google Scholar

2. “Verein zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus,” OW, 5 June 1891.

3. “Der Antisemitismus und die Friedensbewegung,” FB, 25 September 1892.

4. Hamann, Brigitte, Bertha von Suttner: Ein Leben für Friden (Munich, 1986), 202, 205, 211, 214, 229–30;Google ScholarHerzl, Theodor, Briefe und Tagebücher, vol. I, Briefe und Autobiographische Notizen, 1866–1895, ed. Wachten, Johannes (Berlin, 1983), 519.Google Scholar

5. Suttner, Bertha von in “Wehrt Euch!” FB, 12 February 1893; Jewish apathy in “Die hundertste Nummer,” FB, 4 March 1894; Bloch in “Verein zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus,” OW, 10 July 1896.Google Scholar

6. “Verein zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus,” OW, 24 July 1891.

7. Schöpf in Stenographische Aufnahme der am geselligen Abend des Vereins zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus am 5 April 1894 gehaltenen Reden (1894), 5–6. For similar comments by the Liberal deputy Eduard Suess, a member of the Abwehrverein board, and for Jewish agreement, “Zur Steuer der Wahrheit,” FB, 11 November 1894.

8. Am geselligen Abend, 7–8; “Der Jude als Soldat,” FB, 4 March 1894; “Die Juden und die Criminalistik”, FB, 26 March 1893.

9. Haase quoted in Weinzierl, Erika, “Der Österreichisch-Ungarische Raum,” in Kirche und Synagoge: Handbuch zur Geschichte von Christen und Juden, ed. Rengstorf, Karl & Kortzfleisch, Siegried von, (Stuttgart, 1970), 2:544. Haase was a pastor, a leading figure in the Evangelical Church, Liberal Reichsrat deputy and later a member of the House of Lords.Google Scholar

10. “Mischehen,” FB, 17 February 1895. “Mittel zur Abwehr,” FB, 8 January 1893.

11. [Von einem katholischen Privatgelehrten], Der Antisemitismus vom katholischen Standpunkte als Sünde verurteilt, 3rd ed. (Vienna, 1891), 56–57. The author was the Ctholic publicist Julius Lang. He does not appear to have chosen anonymity out of fear: similar statements in his other signed writings easily mark him as the author of the brochure. Lueger quoted in Weinzierl, “Österreichisch-Ungarische Raum,” 507.Google Scholar

12. Der Antisemitismus, 7–10, 16–17.

13. For this trend, Manuel, Frank, The Broken Staff: Judaism through Christian Eyes (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1992), 250–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14. Der Antisemitismus, 19, 21, 29–33.

15. Ibid., 25.

16. Ibid., 13, 20, 38–39, 44. Marion Kaplan has argued that such pseudo-celebrations of Christmas among German Jews went along with maintaining some Jewish rituals. Kaplan, Marion, “Gender and Jewish History in Imperial Germany,” in Assimilation and Community: The Jews in Nineteenth Century Europe, ed. Frankel, Jonathan and Zipperstein, Steven, (Cambridge, UK, 1992), 213–14.Google Scholar

17. Der Antisemitismus, 98–112. Citations are from the first edition of the brochure. This section was omitted in the abridged edition published by the Abwehrverein. The first edition was published in 1890; no publisher is named.

18. Schöpf in Kissling, Karl von, Offenes Schreiben an den Hochwürdigen Herrn Johann Hauser (Linz, 1893), 15–18;Google ScholarHaase, in Wiener Kalender für Stadt und Land für das Jahr 1895, ed. Suttner, Arthur v. (Vienna, 1895), 168.Google Scholar

19. Offenes Schreiben, 15–18.

20. Abwehrverein opponents of antisemitism from a Christian standpoint included the Catholic priest and academic, DrSchöpf, Josef, the notary and prominent Catholic layman Karl von Kissling, the pastor and Reichsrat deputy, Theodor Haase, later in the House of Lords. The views they expressed were similar to Lang's. See, Wiener Kalender, 162–71 and Offenes Schreiben, 14–18; Nothnagel in “Verein zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus,” OW, 24 July 1891 and “Verein gegen den Antisemitismus,” NZ, 22 May 1891; Bertha von Suttner quoted in Hamann, Bertha von Suttner, 219–20.Google Scholar

21. Wistrich, Robert, The Jews of Vienna in the Age of Franz Joseph (Oxford, 1990), 175, 241–42; “Periculum in mora,” FB, 29 07 1894.Google Scholar

22. Rozenblit, Marsha, “Jewish Assimilation in Habsburg Vienna,” in Assimilation and Community, ed. Frankel, and Zipperstein, , 238. I translate “Stamm” as “ethnic group.” “Tribe” or “race” to denote a blood relationship, have too negative a connotation today.Google Scholar

23. Grünwald, Max, Vienna(Philadelphia, 1936), 416, 422. See also Wistrich, Jews of Vienna, 190–91. An Abwehrverein publication objected to the charge of exclusivist Jewish loyalties, as a pretext to bar Jews from appointments as state officialsGoogle Scholar See Fall, Gustav Heinrich, Die rechtliche Stellung der Juden in Oesterreich (Vienna, 1892), 11.Google Scholar

24. MdO-IU 6 (March 1894): 13; MdO-IU 6 (April): 2–6.

25. “Noske und Ofner” FB 1 April 1894.

26. John Boyer has argued that Liberal willingness to share power in a coalition with Clerical-Conservatives was a sign that they had become one interest group among many, in spit of their universalistic pretensions. Boyer, John, Political Radicalism in Late Imperial Vienna: Origins of the Christian Social Movement 1848–1897 (Chicago, 1981), 321–23.Google Scholar

27. Endorsement of Bloch in Wistrich, Jews of Vienna, 197; Toury, Jacob, “Years of Strife: The Context of the Österreichisch-Israelitische Union for the Leadership of Austrian Jewry,” LBIYB 30 (1988): 184–89;Google Scholar For the call for bloc-voting for other parties, Mayer, Sigmund, Ein jüdischer Kaufmann, 1831 bis 1911: Lebenserinnerungen (Leipzig. 1911), 308–12. In 1895, an antisemitic candidate from the Leopoldstadt—whose Jewish population was just over 30 percent—won election to the city council because Jewish voters abstained, topunish the Liberals for their record on antisemitism. See Boyer, Political Radicalism, 350.Google Scholar

28. “Noske und Ofner,” FB, 1 April 1894; “Zur Wahl in der inneren Stadt,” FB, 18 February 1894.

29. Baumgarten, Emanuel, “Das Recht der eigenen Meinung,” FB, 8 April 1894.Google Scholar

30. On Jewish exclusion, Hein, Robert, Studentischer Antisemitismus in Österreich. Beiträge zur österreichischen Studentengeschichte, vol. 10 (Vienna, 1984), 24–26, 36–42, 53–57, 61–63, 77–79; “Separatismus unter der jüdischen Studentischaft,” FB, 19 March 1896.Google Scholar

31. “Die Zionisten,” FB, 12 March 1893; “Die Zionisten,” FB, 19 March 1893; “Gegen die Zionisten,” FB, 11 November 1894; “Ein Wort an die Kampfmüden,” FB, 19 April 1896.

32. Nothnagel in Bloch, Chaim, “Herzl's First Years of Struggle,” Herzl Year Book, 3, ed. Patai, Raphael (New York, 1960): 89; “An unsere Leser!” FB, 21 June 1896.Google Scholar

33. For the trend away from the Liberals, “Ein Wort an die Kampfmüden,” FB, 19 April 1896 and “Das Judentum und die verschiedenen Parteien Oesterreichs,” NZ, 3 May 1895. Only a small number of eligible Jews voted in IKG elections, See Friedenreich, Harriet, Jewish Politics in Vienna, 1918–1938 (Bloomington, Indiana, 1991), 72.Google Scholar

34. “Gedanken zur Zionistenbewegung,” DW, 27 July 1897. Suttner's support was expressed even more enthusiastically in a letter to his friend Theodor Herzl, the same in which he bemoaned his reduction to “moral preacher.” See Nussenblatt, Tulo, Ein Volk unterwegs zum Frieden (Vienna, 1933), 82–85; Suttner on the Abwehrverein in Bericht der Siebenten General-Versammlung des Vereines zur Abwehr Antisemitimus (1897), 8.Google Scholar

35. Bericht der Fünften General-Versammlung des Vereines zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus (1895), 11; von Suttner, Bertha, “Nach dem Haag!” DW, 26 May 1899; Arthur von Suttner in Nussenblatt, Ein Volk, 82–83.Google Scholar

36. Nussenblatt, , Ein Volk, 82–83; “Antwort der Baronin Bertha v. Suttner,’ DW, 18 June 1897.Google Scholar

37. Gundaccar, A.Suttner, v., “Gedanken zur Zionistenbewegung,” DW, 23 July 1897; “Antwort der Baronin Bertha v. Suttner,” DW, 18 June 1897; “lach dem Haag,” DW, 26 May 1899, “Gespräche über den Zionismus aus dem Haag,” DW, 14 July 1899.Google Scholar

38. Protokoll der achten ordentlichen Generalversammlung abgehalten am 31. Mai 1898 (1898), 10–11; Nussenblatt, Ein Volk, 84–85.

39. Suttner, to Herzl, , 15 October 1897, Suttner to the publisher [of Die Welt], 3 May 1898, Suttner to Herzl, 17 July 1898. Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem. The epic poem “Bar Kochba,” by the Czech writer Jaroslav Vrchlicky, appeared in 1897. The German translation appeared in 1899.Google Scholar The translator dedicated the work to Bertha von Suttner Vrchlicky, Jaroslav, Bar-Kochba, trans. Victor GrafBoos-Waldeck (Dresden 1899). Vrchlicky was the pen name of Emil Frida. “Bar-Kochba” also appeared in a Hebrew translation.Google Scholar

40. Nothnagel quotedin Bloch, “Herzl's First Years,” 86; Herzl, “Die Woche,” DW, 11 June 1897.

41. For this complaint, “Die hundertste Nummer,” FB 4 March 1894.

42. For a comprehensive account of the German association, Suchy, Barbara, “The Verein zur Abwehr des Antismitismus,“ part 1, ”From its Beginnings to the First World War,“ LBIYB 28 (1983): 205–39, part 2, “From the First World War to its Dissolution in 1933,” in LBIYB 30 (1985): 67–103, takes the swtory up to 1933.Google Scholar For another valuable account, Schorsch, Ismar, Jewish Reactions to German Anti-Semitism, 1870–1914 (New York, 1972), 79–101. For lack of coordination between the Austrian and German Defense Associations, see Suchy, “The Verein,” 205.Google Scholar

43. Suchy, “The Verein,” 210, 222–34, and Schorsch, Jewish Reactions, 96–100, 133.The German Abwehrverein changed its policy on publicly downplaying Jewish participation in 1904, Suchy, “The Verein,” 219. It had long kept the name of the Jewish editor of its newspaper secret. See Suchy, , “The Verein zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus,” part 2, in LBIYB 30 (1985): 83.Google Scholar

44. Suchy, “The Verein,” 216.

45. Ibid., 236.

46. Lamberti, Marjorie, “Liberals, Socialists and the Defense against Antisemitism in the Wilhelminian Period,” LBIYB 25 (1980): 150;Google Scholar For the Austrian Social Liberals, Wistrich, The Jews of Vienna, 321, 331, and Boyer, Political Radicalism, 401. For equivocation by Austrian Liberal deputies in the Abwehrverein, “Freisinnige Kundgebungen,” FB, 17 June 1894, “Epilog zur jüngsten Wiener Reichratswahl,” OW, 6 April 1894, and “Geschäft und Politik,” FB, 16 December 1894. For Boyer's explanation of German left-liberal strength in city governments, and of why Austria had no left-liberal tradition, 19, 324–26. For left liberal party networks, Nipperdey, Thomas, Die Organisation der deutschen Parteien vor 1918 (Düsseldorf, 1961), 176–83.Google Scholar

47. Suchy, “The Verein,” 206.

48. For Jews in the Abwehrverein, Schorsch, Jewish Reaction, 95, and Lamberti, Marjorie, Jewish Activism in Imperial Germany: The Struggle for Civil Equality (New Haven, 1978), 11–12.Google Scholar

49. Lamberti, “Liberals, Socialists,” 150–53.

50. Schorsch, Jewish Reaction, 96.