Page - 70 - in Entangled Entertainers - Jews and Popular Culture in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna

70 | Entangled Entertainers cations to language, thus promoting the particular brand of linguistic nationalism that would ultimately lead to the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s downfall .135 Th e fact that the Jewish characters in the farces performed by Volkssänger ensembles also demonstrate their diff erence through language underscores Jewish participa- tion in the discourses and cultural processes of the time. Simultaneously, these pieces question the importance of language for ethnic identity. In particular, we see this in the fact that Jewishness was often indicated by the use of Yiddish ex- pressions that were also a part of everyday speech in Vienna. Although the Jewish characters spoke German with Yiddish infl ection (jiddeln), they used language that non-Jews could also understand and use. Th ese plays thus eliminate one potential clear distinction between Jews and non-Jews and call into question the signifi cance of diff erentiation based on ethnicity and culture. One farce that clearly illustrates the problem of language is the play Viennese Hospitality, written by Adolf Hirsch.136 It takes place in a Viennese coff eehouse that fails to attract business. For this reason, the coff eehouse’s owner is all the more pleased when Count Horlos, one of his few regular customers, announces that he wants to introduce a friend from Bohemia to Viennese hospitality. Count Horlos explains that he would like to invite his friend to the café that evening. Because he has to attend the opera with his wife and leave his friend to his own devices for a period of time, Horlos asks the owner to be friendly toward his guest and serve him well. He assures the owner that he will take care of the bill. Th at evening, a Berliner comes to the coff eehouse, and the staff assume that he is the count’s friend. Th e waiters provide him exemplary service, bringing him all the delicacies on their menu and the best champagne. When he attempts to pay the bill after his opulent meal, they not only comp his bill but also give him a cash sum. Th ey do all this on the assumption that Count Horlos will later pay the bill. Th e only diffi culty that arises is the conversation between the waiters and the guest. Th e conversations create misunderstandings, thereby also confu- sion and discord. Th e reason for this misunderstanding lies in the fi ne linguistic diff erences between the Berlin and Viennese ways of speaking. When the count’s real friend, a beer brewer from Bohemia fi nally shows up, they think he is a dine-and-dasher and almost throw him out. Only the appearance of the count prevents this embarrassment from happening. Once he arrives, they all clear up the misunderstanding. Th e play is more than a simple comedy of errors. Against the background of the multiethnic Habsburg monarchy with its linguistic pluralism and the closely related nationalisms, it deconstructs the notion of a language-based cultural ho- mogeneity. Although both the guest from Berlin and the Viennese waiters speak German, serious problems in communication arise that point to deeper cultural diff erences. Viennese Hospitality thus thematizes aspects of language use—a topic that has received considerable attention throughout Austrian history. Questions such as how to establish mutual understanding despite linguistic diff erences be- This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched.