A look back

New Approaches to a History of Jews in Vienna around 1900

The aim of the project is to write a history of Jews in Vienna around 1900 that is conceived as an integral component of general history. The project stems from the observation that current narratives regarding the Jewish past, as with any other ethnic-cultural group, are predominantly narratives of particularity. In this project, we, Susanne Korbel and Klaus Hödl, argue that this emphasis on particularity often leads to a one-sided, somewhat distorted, historical account, and we seek to revise and modify this distorted account by writing an "integrative" narrative.

We plan to undertake this project, which is principally located at the intersection of history and Jewish Studies (but is relevant to other related disciplines as well), through the use of new analytical concepts. The central questions posed here refer to the complex network of relationships that have historically connected Jews and non-Jews, taking into account not only their cultural differences but also their similarities.

Project Manager: Univ.-Doz. Dr. Klaus Hödl(klaus.hoedl(at)uni-graz.at)

Interrelationships of the most diverse kinds have shaped and continue to shape Jewish worlds of experience and knowledge at least since the Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment. Be it encounters and processes of exchange between different Jewish communities, between Jewish and non-Jewish actors, be it interactions between different fields of knowledge. However, these interactions reached their limits in the wake of nationalism and anti-Semitism, for example.

The project, consisting of a workshop and lecture by Marc Volovici, focuses on the ambivalences and limits of interrelationships. It takes a critical, comparative and transdisciplinary look at the idea of interrelationships, both as a descriptive category and as an analytical tool for processes of exchange and the interweaving of Jewish worlds of life and knowledge.

The regions of Southeastern Europe are characterized in historical as well as in contemporary perspective by a high degree of ethnic, religious, lingual and cultural diversity and heterogeneity. Belonging to the Ottoman Empire or Austria-Hungary, forming supranational nation states such as Yugoslavia, or arising as nation states such as Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, but also Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, and (European) Turkey they were framed in different legal, referential and ideological settings, providing spaces for various encounters, entanglements and conflicts. Jews, be they Sephardim, Ashkenazim or Romaniots, settling there in different periods, experienced divergent life worlds (Lebenswelten) engendering over the centuries a rich cultural production. The language they chose depended on their respective cultural and political position - be it Hebrew, Ladino, a Slavic language such as Croatian, Bosnian or Serbian, Turkish, Greek, Yiddish or Italian.

Scholarly interest in those regions has grown impressively in the last years, however, predominantly in the realms of historiography. Literature and cultural production in general are still an under-researched area today demanding attention. The project, carried out by Renate Hansen-Kokoruš and Olaf Terpitz, takes up on this lacuna. Based on an international conference in 2019 (https://static.uni-graz.at/fileadmin/gewi-institute/Slawistik/Dokumente/Programm_Konferenz4_2019.pdf) the project's results will be published in a peer reviewed volume in fall 2021 (in the CJS book series).

Project Manager: Priv.-Doz. Dr.phil. M.A Olaf Terpitz(olaf.terpitz(at)uni-graz.at)

Funded by: Land Steiermark, the University of Graz, the Schroubek Foundation, the David Herzog Fonds.

Research project funded by the FWF (Austrian Science Fund)

The social and political unrest in many countries of the Euro-Mediterranean region, the refugees humanitarian crisis and the appalling terror attacks that shattered Europe, are putting into question the very idea of European integration that promotes multiple religious, ethnic and cultural belonging as a factor that enables integration whilst respecting diversity.

Europe's (In)Visible Jewish Migrants has the ambition to develop, in line with European policies, richer interpretations of the past as a way to better understand and inform our troubled present. In order to do so, the project focuses on the memories and identities of Jews who forcedly emigrated from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region towards Europe during the second half of the 20th century as an example of the social and cultural entanglements that exist between Europe and the MENA region and their long-lasting legacies.

Following colonial and post-colonial tensions, the rise of Arab nationalism and the Six-Day War between Israel and Arab countries in 1967, hundreds of thousands of Jews chose Europe to start a new life because they were citizens of a European state or because they considered themselves as "Europeans" in terms of cultural and linguistic affiliations. Were these migrations a "return home" for Jewish subjects who often perceived themselves as "European" in their country of origin and yet became "Easterner or Arab" in their country of destination? Which ruptures and/or continuities in terms of cultural affiliation and social and religious ties did they experience?

To address these questions and achieve its aim in an original way, the project will assess the impact that the arrival of Jews from the MENA region had on migrants themselves and hosting European Jewish communities by considering the not yet explored case of Jewish migrations from Arab Muslim countries to Italy. By adopting an interdisciplinary approach that combines memory studies, oral history and digital humanities, the project will portray a richer picture of the multiple possible ways by which Judaism(s) can be lived in contemporary Europe.

To learn more about the project, visit the academic blogBe-longing. Roots, Routes and Memories Across the Mediterranean

Project Manager: Dr. Piera Rossetto(piera.rossetto(at)uni-graz.at)

The project deals with the democratic reconstruction of the Karl-Franzens-University Graz. May 1945 saw not only the re-establishment of the Republic of Austria after the years of National Socialist terror, but also a democratic reorientation/reorganization of Austrian universities and thus also of the University of Graz. One of the most central and difficult tasks was to free the institutions and committees from the National Socialist structures and the National Socialist actors. It was necessary to establish a democratic self-image among the teaching staff and students as well as democratic structures. This was an undertaking that became particularly problematic under the conditions of the Cold War and the social and political pressure to integrate former National Socialists that began to take hold in 1948.

How did the processes of 'refounding' the University of Graz proceed? How were the committees organized and who was responsible for the implementation of the new foundation/reorganization? What socio-political position did the University of Graz take during the 'new beginning' in the Second Republic? How did the university committees, Styrian state politics, the federal authorities and the Soviet (briefly) and British occupying powers interact? What role did these different actors play in personnel matters? Who was dismissed, who was kept on and who was later rehired?

In recent years, many universities in Germany have forced such an examination of their own history. In Austria, projects at the University of Vienna and the Academy of Sciences have done pioneering work. For the University of Graz, this project systematically examines breaks and continuities at institutional and personal levels on the basis of a comprehensive source base. The research focuses on the Faculty of Philosophy (natural sciences and humanities) and the Faculty of Law.

Project leader: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gerald Lamprecht(gerald.lamprecht(at)uni-graz.at)

Funding bodies: City of Graz Science, Future Fund of the Republic of Austria, The Province of Styria - Science and Research

Partner institutions: Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Social and Cultural History, CLIO - Association for Historical and Educational Work, Research Center for Post-War Justice (FStN)

The project recontextualizes and researches the experiences and memory practices of Jewish soldiers of the Habsburg Monarchy during the First World War using German-language first-person documents (letters, postcards, diaries, memoirs), visual documents (photos, posters, pictures, drawings) and objects (cult objects, personal mementos, etc.). At the same time, this is intended to make an important contribution to Jewish studies, history and media studies with a cultural studies focus, with regard to First World War research.

Project management: Priv. Doz. Dr. Petra Ernst-Kühr

Project staff: Dr. Dieter J. Hecht

Funded by the Future Fund of the Republic of Austria (project number P12-1078)

The planned project aims to reconstruct the tasks and experiences of the 76 field rabbis who served in the Imperial-Royal Army during the First World War. Army during the First World War and to compile a collective biography of this hitherto completely ignored group of people. With regard to First World War research, this will make an important contribution to Jewish studies as well as to the historiography of cultural studies. The activities of the field rabbis not only reflect the presence of Jewish soldiers in the Habsburg army (approx. 300,000), but also provide information about the situation of Austrian Jewry during the war as well as the pre-war and post-war period, as many of the field rabbis were community rabbis in peacetime. A key research objective is therefore to make visible and analyze the constitutive connection between war, everyday life, religion and culture. The project aims to shed light on the changing concepts of Jewish identity(ies), the ideological orientations, political views and cultural values of field rabbis and contrast them with their everyday experiences in military hospitals, at funerals and church services. The different religious and cultural backgrounds of the rabbis and many of the Jewish soldiers they looked after played a special role in this context, as did the changing relationship between rabbis, Christian chaplains and imams in the Imperial-Royal Army. Army.

An extensive corpus of autobiographical texts, photos, postcards and objects will be examined in order to reconstruct the lives and activities of the field rabbis. Relevant research questions relate above all to aspects of religion, (regional) origin, generation, age, social class and the question of nationalism, which was particularly sensitive in the war situation. Of central importance here are questions about changes in the Austrian-Jewish self-image with regard to religion, state and society during the war, and furthermore which of these discussions had an impact on the non-Jewish surrounding societies. The innovative potential of the project lies in the combined and equal recording of first-person documents, pictorial documents, objects and artifacts of field rabbis with reference to the First World War. In addition, the project's theoretical approaches refer to lifeworld concepts as well as identity, memory and cultural transfer research.

Supported by the Jubilee Fund of the Austrian National Bank

This book project is dedicated to the life and work of the writer Gershon Schoffmann (1880-1972), who wrote in Hebrew. The focus is on the texts that Schoffmann wrote during his years in Austria (1913-1938; from 1921 in Wetzelsdorf near Graz), most of which deal with reflections on everyday life.

While Gershon Schoffman is considered one of the most important writers of the founding generation of Hebrew literature in Israel (1946 Bialik Prize for Literature and 1956 Israel Prize for Literature), his work is largely unknown in Austria. The reason for this is that only a few of his stories have been translated into German so far. However, this is astonishing and a pity, as Schoffmann's stories always deal with observations of his immediate surroundings and are therefore important contemporary documents of Jewish life in Austria, especially in Styria.

The present book project takes this lack as its starting point. The plan is to translate central texts from Schoffmann's Austrian/Styrian years. In addition, a biography will be compiled based on the evaluation of Schoffmann's estate and other historical sources, and the short stories will be contextualized historically.

The aim of the project is to make this important writer accessible to a German-speaking audience and in this way to provide in-depth insights into Jewish life in Austria and, in particular, in Styria in the first three decades of the 20th century.

Supported by the City of Graz - Science, the Province of Styria - Science, the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism, the University of Graz and the David Herzog Fund of the Styrian Universities.

The planned project aims to draw attention to forgotten German-Jewish literature and journalism during the First World War and to its particular significance for German literature studies with a cultural studies orientation, for Jewish studies, history and media studies. The focus is on the situation of Austrian Jewry immediately before the war, during the war and in the interwar period - and how this is negotiated in literary and journalistic texts and in 'first-person documents'. An essential research objective concerns the constitutive connection between literature/culture, life practice and war. On the one hand, this connection is to be made visible in comparative analyses of the medial and aesthetic characteristics of the sources as well as the (temporally arranged) transformations reflected in the texts with regard to the perception of war. On the other hand, by examining motifs, topoi, images, narrative strategies and discourses, the changing conceptions of Jewish identity(ies), the ideological orientations, political views and cultural values discussed by various Jewish population groups in the Habsburg Monarchy and post-war Austria will be traced, as will the changing relationships between Jewish and non-Jewish population groups. The researchers will examine an extensive corpus of texts relating to the period in order to (re)contextualize the complex problem areas of Jewish existence during this time. At the same time, the aim is to make visible how literature in turn influenced the discourses that it apparently only dealt with. Relevant research questions relate to aspects of religion, (regional) origin, generation, social class, 'nation' and gender, among others. Furthermore, those discursive premises and narratives are to be examined which, beyond concrete and described experiences and events, should also convey symbolic meanings and constructs of meaning of the war. The culturally oriented research approaches refer to theories from literary studies and (social) history, among others. The triad of expectation - experience - memory and the category of space form overarching heuristic guiding concepts. The former also influence the selection of source material. The category of space will be helpful in dealing with phenomena such as the "war landscape" (Kurt Lewin), flight, expulsion, exile, homeland, etc. Contrary to popular belief, it can already be stated that there was neither a uniform Jewish expectation of the First World War, nor a Jewish experience of war, nor a Jewish memory in Austria. Nevertheless, dominant images emerged from the diversity of individual and group-specific expectations, experiences and memories that were presented, commented on, interpreted and given meaning in literature and journalism (e.g. the new image of the Jewish fighter, biblical providence, Jewish patriotism, loyalty to the Kaiser, Jewish war welfare, the raped Jewish woman, the construction of the image of the 'Eastern Jew'). An initial review of texts already allows us to hypothesize that the end of the First World War was also accompanied by the end of a "grand (cultural) narrative" that had prevailed for more than a hundred years. Many Jews had pinned great hopes on it, as it promised the seemingly unstoppable path to assimilation. For large sections of the Austrian-Jewish population, however, this promise lost ground with the First World War; it gave way to the 'older', Bible-based narratives of exile and longing for Zion, but the hope of 'redemption' through left-wing political movements also gained new impetus.

Supported by FWF.

The project "Emigration, flight and expulsion of Austrian Jews to Palestine in the 1930s and 1940s" is dedicated to the flight of Austrian Jews to Palestine in the years 1938 to 1941 and embeds this in a history of Palestine migration since the 1930s. On the one hand, the focus is on the cooperation between the Jewish community, the "Central Office for Jewish Emigration" established in August 1938 and the Palestine Office. On the other hand, the focus will be on the policies and interests of the British Mandate, the work of the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem and the experiences and fate of individual refugees. The results of the research will be presented to the academic and non-academic public in lectures and articles on an ongoing basis. The aim is to write a comprehensive book manuscript which will be published in the series "Schriften des Centrums für Jüdische Studien" (Studienverlag Innsbruck-Wien-München).

Supported by the Future Fund of the Republic of Austria, The Province of Styria - Science, National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism.

Contents

Theoretical considerations on popular culture and, in particular, research on Jews in popular culture in Vienna at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Short report

I worked on the Jubiläumsfondsprojekt Juden in der allgemeinen Populärkultur in Wien um 1900 from January 16 to July 31, 2011.
During this time I carried out a series of literature searches in the Austrian National Library and mainly examined old magazines. In part, I was able to refer to them for my introductory lecture at the conference Nicht nur Bildung, nicht nur Bürger: Juden in der Populärkultur, which was organized by Prof. Stefanie Schüler-Springorum and myself and took place on 29/30 May at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Some of the lectures will be published in an anthology due to appear next year.
I have further developed my theoretical reflections on (popular) culture, which I formulated in my project proposal, in an article entitled Jewish Culture in Historical Studies. The text will also be published next year in The Routledge Companion to Contemporary Jewish Cultures.

Publications

- Jewish Culture in Historical Studies. In: The Routledge Companion to Contemporary Jewish Cultures, ed. Laurence Roth, Nadia Valman (London 2012)

Supported by the Jubilee Fund of the Austrian National Bank

A contribution to the cultural and social history of the Jewish community of Graz in the 19th and 20th centuries

After the Shoah, the Jewish cemeteries in Austria are often the last relics and evidence of a largely destroyed Jewish culture. At present, due to the effects of the destruction of Jewish life, their preservation and care is moving from a purely internal Jewish context into the realm of responsibility for society as a whole. Academic and public engagement with them therefore makes a significant contribution to ensuring that Jewish life and Jewish culture remain part of the collective memory.

Apart from the political component of remembrance, the academic study of Jewish cemeteries provides insights into the cultural and social history of the Jewish communities. A perspective that is only possible to a limited extent through other sources for the time before the Shoah.

The present project takes into account both the scientific and the political aspects of remembrance. On the one hand, it aims at the photographic documentation, the scientific recording (transcription), the art-historical description of the entire cemetery complex of the Jewish cemetery in Graz, its buildings, monuments and above all the gravestones, in the sense of preservation and making them visible to society as a whole. On the other hand, the historical-biographical evaluation of the grave inscriptions and the cultural and art-historical analysis will provide important insights into the social structure, religious orientation and, finally, the identity of the Jewish community in Graz society.

The aim of the project is to compile a cultural and social history of the Jewish community in Graz over the last two centuries. The results of the project are to be presented in a publication and in a photo exhibition and thus made accessible to a wider public.

In addition, this project will be used to develop long-term structures of cooperation between schools and the University of Graz and to implement them in the university and school structure.

In cooperation with the Akademisches Gymnasium Graz and JuniorUni Graz

Supported by Sparkling Science.

In addition to those persecuted as "gypsies", the present research project attempted to investigate the fates of the inhabitants of the Oberwart district who were persecuted as Jews under the Nuremberg Racial Laws. Two levels in particular were brought into focus. On the one hand, it was about making the Jewish population of the district of Oberwart, their history and their fate in the period before and after March 1938 visible. On a second level, it was about the structure of Nazi rule and the persecution of the Jewish population in the district of Oberwart. The aim of the project was to conduct the first comprehensive and broadly contextualized scientific research into National Socialism in the district of Oberwart and the fate of the victims defined by racial criteria. The work ultimately resulted in a print-ready manuscript that makes the research results accessible to a broad public in published form.

Funded by the Department of Science and Research of the Styrian Provincial Government.

The project deals with the history of the Protestant Heilandskirche in Graz during the National Socialist era, with a particular focus on the members and their families who were persecuted by the National Socialists as Jews.
In addition to the structural development of the Heilandskirche since the end of the 19th century, its leadership and members in the context of Graz, Styria, Austria and Germany, the project also examines the individual dimensions of those persecuted as Jews due to their origins. Using archive material, first-person documents and interviews, life stories will be researched and made visible. Based on a praxeological approach, according to which actors are not compliant puppets of the structures that shape them, but also shape these structures themselves through their actions, the focus is on the people and their individual scope for action while at the same time embedding them in the respective overarching context.
The aim of the project is to reconstruct the history of the Heilandskirche and its members who were persecuted by the National Socialists because of their origins. Furthermore, the topic of the conversion of Jews, which has so far received little attention in Styria and in Graz in particular, will be addressed.
In addition to researching a subject area that has not yet been dealt with, the particular added value of the project lies above all in the cooperation with schoolchildren.

In cooperation with the Akademisches Gymnasium Graz, the BG/BRG Kirchengasse Graz, the Evangelische Pfarrgemeinde Graz: Heilandskirche and the JuniorUni Graz.

Supported by Sparkling Science.

Funded by the City of Graz - Science.

This text is a request for an extension of the ongoing project Vom 'Text' zur 'Performanz'. New Aspects of the History of Vienna's Jews in the Fin de Siècle. In the course of my work, new questions have arisen and new fields of research have opened up, which are to be answered and addressed with the help of the follow-up project. The proposal is divided into four sections. The first chapter deals with theoretical questions resulting from the use of performance as a methodological approach to researching Jewish history. They relate, among other things, to the construction of a historical narrative on the basis of discrete performative acts and to the transition from description to explanation of performative events. The second part is dedicated to Yiddish theater. It is partially linked to the questions of the current project, but at the same time goes beyond them in terms of time and geography. Another field of investigation is 'translations' of classical European drama into Yiddish. The third chapter examines Jewish performative activities. This is a departure from the current project, which examines interactions between Jews and non-Jews. Nevertheless, it does not only trace intra-Jewish cultural processes (see explanations in the first field of investigation). The areas of research relate to the roles played by rabbis and cantors during religious services, as well as to the interior architecture of the synagogue and its influence on the organization of religious services. In the final part of the project, the performative approach will be applied to the field of anti-Semitism research. It will examine anti-Semitic articulations resulting from encounters between Jews and non-Jews.

Funded by FWF

Funded by the Department of Science and Research of the Styrian Provincial Government.

Funded by the City of Graz - Science.

Supported by the Styrian Future Fund.

For about a decade, a paradigm shift has been observable in cultural studies, leading to a new understanding of culture. The model of "culture as text", which is widely regarded as static, is increasingly being pushed into the background by a dynamic concept of culture.
This development has so far only been partially reflected in the work on Jewish history and culture. This project, however, aims to take up the paradigm shift with emphasis and apply it to a selected area, the history of Vienna's Jews at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The central fields of investigation are Yiddish theater in Vienna at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Vienna Jewish Museum and the performative style in public action. In addition, topics such as historical awareness and the identitary convergence of 'Western' and 'Eastern' Jews will also be addressed.

The aim of the project work is to question and also to abolish existing categorizations, especially the dichotomy of 'Jews versus non-Jews'. Instead, the aim is to show that both together shaped Vienna's society, that there were diverse networks of relationships between them that transcended ethnic boundaries. Jews and non-Jews were jointly involved in generating cultural meaning.

Funded by FWF