Page - 86 - in Entangled Entertainers - Jews and Popular Culture in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna

86 | Entangled Entertainers cratic hurdles that made it diffi cult for them to do their jobs and make a living. At the same time, we should also take note of the xenophobic atmosphere present at the meeting. Th is sense of xenophobia may have been rooted in the discrepancy between the performers’ popularity among segments of the population and their actual social position: as performers, the (at least successful) Volkssänger enjoyed the attention of the public eye on a daily basis. Th ey provided entertainment on the numerous suburban stages and enjoyed the attention and recognition they received. Th eir popularity sometimes had fl attering consequences that extended into their everyday lives. For example, when Josef Modl was performing at the Drexler Singspielhalle located in the Prater, a group of boys habitually followed him whenever he left his house, boisterously chanting “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow.”35 Th e most well-known representatives of the entertainment scene even received public honors. Karl Bla sel (1831–1922), who was briefl y director of the Viennese vaudeville Colosseum, had an audience with Emperor Franz Jo seph on the occasion of his fi ftieth anniversary, and the mayor Karl Lueger presented him with the Golden Salvator Medal for special services to the city of Vienna.36 In September 1900, the Persian shah invited a group of artists and Volkssänger to travel to the health resort Marianske Lazne to provide entertainment during his stay there.37 Even though the Volkssänger sometimes received acclaim and public honors, they must have been aware that they belonged to the lowest social class. Th e con- trast between everyday subjective experiences and their actual social status may have lingered, gnawing at their self-esteem. In such a situation, people often tend to use every available opportunity to maintain or improve their social position, even if they do this at the expense of their colleagues. Th e sense of xenophobia among the Volkssänger, which my discussion of the meeting at the Goldener Luchs has brought to light, may have been rooted in this impulse toward self- preservation.38 Foreign ensembles reduced the performance opportunities of local Volkssänger on the hotly contested Viennese market and diminished their oppor- tunities to step into the spotlight. In addition to certain aspects of a xenophobic mood that may have been trig- gered by social envy, we also see evidence of slight hostility directed toward Albert Hirsch during the assembly at the Goldener Luchs. Th e archival evidence that I have examined, however, shows no indication of explicit antisemitism, neither in general nor specifi cally related to Hirsch. On the contrary, Recher emphasized in his remarks that the “Polish”—that is, Galician Jewish troupes that performed in Vienna—were not foreign groups that should be prohibited from taking the stage. As Recher saw it, the “Polish” troupes were “no competition for the Vien- nese Volkssänger.”39 During the meeting, Albert Hirsch emerged as spokesman for the Volkssänger who favored banning Hungarian groups from performing in Vienna. Th is atti- tude would prove to be an integral part of Hirsch’s profi le over the next fi fteen This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched.