Page - 14 - in Entangled Entertainers - Jews and Popular Culture in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna

14 | Entangled Entertainers Th e anonymous author of this quotation works from the assumption that Jews were responsible for a feeling of alienation that pervaded both Viennese folk songs and theatrical Volkssänger (performing musician) performances and plays.5 According to the stereotype evoked in this quotation, Jews exerted a detrimental infl uence on local Viennese culture. Th is culture is described as atmospheric and authentic, while the musical productions of Jews deviated from this tradition and therefore created an unnatural eff ect. In addition, Jews consciously and em- phatically manipulated popular Viennese culture, as the use of the term “graft” (a ufpfropfen) suggests. Th e supposed distortion of the Viennese folk song is implicitly related to the widespread antisemitic stereotype of the cosmopolitan Jew. According to this prejudice, Jews are stateless and remain unrooted in the local, native culture and can therefore never understand it. Th e speaking of Yiddish (m auscheln) men- tioned in the quotation symbolizes the allegedly diffi cult and complicated rela- tionship between Jews and the majority culture in which they lived.6 However, we may also read this short newspaper quotation from a diff erent perspective, keeping in mind that Jews helped considerably to shape the tradition of the Viennese folk song (W ienerlied), an interpretation that points to their cultural participation in Viennese folk culture. Although the author of this news- paper notice exaggerates the number of Jews who were involved as producers of Viennese songs and other popular folk pieces, he also does not entirely distort the facts. Jewish participation in this arena of cultural production was indeed re- markable. Th e importance of this Jewish involvement comes to the fore indirectly in an obituary written to eulogize K arl Kratzl (1852–1904). Kratzl composed the music for songs written by J osef Modl (1863–1915), A nton Amon (1862– 1931), and other musicians, making him one of the best-known Viennese song composers. Th e author of his obituary remarks that Kratzl’s “‘Mir hat amal vom Himmel tramt!’ [will] live forever, just like the songs of Krakauer, Pick’s ‘Vienna Coachman’s Song’ [Fiakerlied], and certain songs by Wiesberg and the melodies of Sioly.”7 Of the four people named in the obituary, two were Jews, G ustav Pick (1832–1921) and Alexander Krakauer (1 864–97). Th e author of the obituary also references the founding of the association Jolly Knights by Kratzl and Modl (who was also Jewish), hinting further at Jewish and non-Jewish cooperation in the realm of music and entertainment.8 We can therefore interpret the newspaper quotation regarding the ostensible detrimental infl uence of Jews on the Viennese Volkssänger tradition in a variety of ways, and no single interpretation is entirely correct or incorrect. To some degree, the interpretation of this quotation is subjective, dependent upon the individual reader. It is worth noting that the author of the quotation does not resort to the notorious prejudice that Jews were only capable of imitation and were therefore incapable of independent achievements.9 Instead, the author objects to the infl u- ence Jews had on the Viennese Volkssänger tradition and their attempt to assert This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched.