Page - 8 - in Entangled Entertainers - Jews and Popular Culture in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna

8 | Entangled Entertainers as Jewish. In one way or another, this often open-ended aspect of Jewishness frames this entire study, functioning as a contextual parenthesis: How is Jewish- ness expressed; how is it made legible? Th e diffi culties involved in comprehend- ing Jewishness has a discernible impact on historiography and the terms used for portraying the relationship between Jews and non-Jews. To highlight these diffi culties, I specifi cally investigate two terms that scholars have often employed, “assimilation” and “acculturation.” Ultimately, my investigation of the reception of general (i.e., not specifi cally Jewish) media by Jews who did not belong to the enlightened upper middle class clearly illustrates the intertwining of Jewish and non-Jewish culture, thereby calling attention to another reason for the diffi culty posed by the topic of Jews in Viennese popular culture. Th e question of how to understand Jewishness among both non-Jewish and in particular Jewish Volkssänger and performing musicians permeates my entire study. My treatment of this topic proceeds on several levels. First, I analyze a series of theatrical works. In chapter 2, I frame this analysis with a description of the most important Viennese Jewish Volkssänger groups. My investigation focuses on specifi c aspects of language that Jewish Volkssänger used, the origins of indi- vidual performers, intra-Jewish tensions and confl icts, and the gradual replace- ment of the Volkssänger by vaudeville (i.e., the variety show). Th is chapter thus provides an overview of Jewish participation in Viennese popular culture. I argue that popular culture in the Habsburg capital would likely have been an entirely diff erent phenomenon had Jews not been actively involved in the entertainment industry. Chapter 3 traces the confl ict between the Jewish Volkssänger Albert Hirsch and his Jewish and non-Jewish colleagues. Over the course of this dispute, described by contemporary media as a “Volkssänger war” (or “war among performing mu- sicians”), Hirsch demonstrates a performative concept of Jewishness. By probing the statements and comments made during this sometimes bitter confl ict, I off er a detailed examination of the Viennese Volkssänger milieu and the historical context in which it developed. By exploring this wider context, I discuss the extent to which antisemitism was widespread among the Volkssänger, as well as in other ar- eas of society, and to what extent we must understand the hostility against Hirsch as an expression of Judeophobia. I provide an in-depth analysis of the “Hirsch af- fair,” because it reveals how the world of the Volkssänger in the early twentieth cen- tury was constructed and outlines, at least in part, the relationship between Jews and non-Jews in the Habsburg capital. Within this context, the Volkssänger war represents a micro-histo ry of Jewish–non- Jewish relations in Vienna around 1900. Chapter 4 explores how Jewish artists in fi n-de-siècle Vienna conceived of time and space. I discuss, among other things, whether these conceptions show evidence of a Jewish diff erence that is not based on religion. In light of my anal- ysis, articulated throughout this book, this question is of considerable relevance. This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched.