Page - 96 - in Entangled Entertainers - Jews and Popular Culture in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna

96 | Entangled Entertainers Another salient moment on Hirsch’s path to revealing his true intentions was 19 January 1903. Surprised by the deep-seated and widespread dissatisfaction that the Volkssänger demonstrated with the legal requirements for their professional practice, the Vienna police conducted on this day an enquiry regarding their de- sire for a new set of regulations.79 Th ey invited experts to represent the profession, including Hirsch, Recher, Rötzer, Karl Walenta, and Spacek. Th e compromise be tween the Volkssänger and the police was that the licenses would be awarded for a three-year period and could subsequently be extended if the licensee did not commit any infractions. Th ey also agreed that licenses could not be leased to third parties. When the question arose as to whether Volkssänger ensembles would be required to hire licensed members or be permitted to employ cheaper, unlicensed colleagues, the debate became so heated that the enquiry had to be adjourned and postponed for a week. On behalf of forty-one fellow Volkssänger, Walenta submitted the request to abolish any and all licensing requirements. Recher and Rötzer in particular were against this proposal. Th ey argued that this “would mean the complete ruin of the Viennese Volkssänger. Th e unlicensed performers would then completely oust the licensed ones.”80 Hirsch remained in the background during the argument. At the time, Recher and Rötzer did not know that he was also one of the Volkssänger whom Walenta represented. Hirsch fi rst spoke up when it came to the so-called harassment of Austrian Volkssänger in Hungary. He again demanded that the Hungarian performers be shut out. In this matter, he seemed to be faithful to the positions that he had previously held. He was still considered one of the most relentless opponents of performances by Hungarian groups in Vienna. In February and March 1903 events unfolded in rapid succession. Th e trigger for this acceleration was the rumor that the Hungarian group Folies Caprice planned to move to Vienna in the near future. As rumor had it, the performance facilities at the Hotel Central on Taborstrasse were already being updated to ac- commoda te the group. In response to the news, three singspiel ensemble man- agers, whose establishments were located in the immediate vicinity of the Hotel Central, submitted a protest to the local authorities. Th e three protestors were Karl Lechner, who led the Budapest Orpheum Society; Fritz Lung, the director of the Folies Comiques; and Albert Hirsch, the manager of the Lemberg Singspiel Society at Edelhofer’s Leopoldstadt Folk Orpheum.81 It is worth noting that all three groups in the broader sense were considered “Jewish” ensembles. Th is des- ignation was also applicable to the Hungarian group Folies Caprice. Given this context, we may view a large part of the commotion that took place in the world of the Volkssänger in Vienna of 1902–3 as “intra-Jewish competition.” A few days afte r this protest was issued, a delegation of Viennese Volkssänger and singspiel ensemble managers, consisting of Recher, Rötzer, and Lechner, paid a visit to the Reichsrat. Th e delegation presented a memorandum to Reichsrat member Alois Heilinger. In it, they criticized the treatment of Austrian Volkssänger This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched.