Page - 54 - in Entangled Entertainers - Jews and Popular Culture in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna

54 | Entangled Entertainers Another point that makes it unlikely that the “Polish” performed in Yiddish pertains to the group’s leadership. Th is aspect deserves particular attention, be- cause it exemplifi es the intertwining of Jews and non-Jews and their joint for- mation of Viennese popular culture. When the Lemberg Singspiel Society was founded in Vienna in 1901 and performed in Edelhofer’s Leopoldstadt Folk Or- pheum, it was renamed the Fritz Lung Si ngspiel. Th is means that the “Polish” performed under the aegis of Fritz Lung’s license, with Lung acting as director. Th ough Lung (1844–1922) was Catholic, he was fi rmly rooted in the Jewish cul- tural milieu.43 We know this to be the case because, as I discussed earlier, he also served as a license holder for the performances of the Folies Comiques. In the spring of 1902, Albert Hirsch took over as director of the Lemberg Singspiel Society. Unlike Lung, he was Jewish, but it is doubtful whether as a native of Vienna he was familiar with the eastern European Jewish milieu, from which the members of the Lemberg Singspiel Society came. Nevertheless, his own troupe, which he had led before he took over the “Polish” group, had often used Jewish jargon. But that does not mean that he could speak or understand Yiddish. As was the case with Lung, it is unlikely that Hirsch would have applied for a position in a Yiddish-language troupe. Hirsch urged the “Polish” to bring their program more in line with local Viennese cultural expectations. To this end, he had the group perform pieces that he himself had written and already performed with his previous ensemble. Hirsch’s plays included, for example, A Game of Klabrias in Court and Th e Rich Mr. Herzl.44 Additionally, under his direction, the “Polish” staged Dada-Dodo, written by (non-Jewish) Volkssänger Wilhelm Wiesbe rg (1850–96).45 But this does not mean that the Lemberg Sing- spiel Society broke away from its eastern European Jewish cultural roots. Th e Lemberg Singspiel Society’s performances also included dramas and burlesques from the Yiddish theatrical repertoire, such as Shmendrik by Abraham Goldfaden (1840–1908). But even this play was not likely to have been performed in Yid- dish, as we may deduce from the publicity used to promote it. It was specifi cally advertised with the title Shmendrik, oder: Eine Dorfhochzeit (Schmendrik, or: the village wedding).46 Th e Lemberg Singspiel Society, with its “mixed program” that encompassed both eastern European cultural traditions and Viennese Volkssänger pieces, seems to have found considerable favor with audiences. We see the group’s popularity not least of all in the fact that it had many imitators. For example, these imitators included a “German-Polish ensemble from Lemberg” that performed in various venues in the fi fth, sixth, and fourteenth districts, all of which had only a small percentage of the city’s Jewish population.47 “Polish” may have been synonymous with “eastern Jewish,” and the use of the term “German” may have been used to distinguish the copycat group from the original Lemberg Singspiel Society. In any event, the “Polish-German” group also performed plays composed by Yid- dish authors.48 This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched.