Page - 127 - in Entangled Entertainers - Jews and Popular Culture in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna

Jewish Spaces of Retreat at the Turn of the Twentieth Century | 127 Gschicht’ von anno dazumal (A tale from yesteryear).28 It is about two women, Gertrud and her daughter Burgai, who can no longer pay the rent for their small house. Th e baron who owns the building is unmoved by his tenants’ unfortunate circumstances and gives them an eviction notice. At over sixty years of age, the property manager promises to appeal to the aristocrat on the women’s behalf if the eighteen-year-old Burgai marries him. However, she brusquely rejects this off er. Instead, she wants to persuade their aged roommate Isak to leave the house. “Th e old Jew,” Burgai’s derogatory name for him, lives with the women without contributing to rent or for his board. Burgai believes that if he moves out, they could save enough money to settle the rent. Gertrud, however, strictly opposes her daughter’s plan. She tells Burgai that Isak was her late father’s best friend. Isak had lent him the money that he needed to build his business, but because it had not gone well, Isak had never received any of his money back. Isak has secretly listened in on the women’s conversation and is deeply unset- tled by Burgai’s proposition. Consequently, he decides to leave the house forever. Before he goes, he tells Burgai why he and her late father were such good friends. Both were born in Lange nzersdorf, a small town not far from Vienna. As a young boy, Burgai’s father had often carried the peddler’s sack belonging to Isak’s father, while Isak would lie in the stall of Burgai’s grandparents and drink milk fresh from the cow. After his parents died, Isak inherited 3,000 gulden from them. He lost 2,000 gulden and gave the remaining 1,000 to Burgai’s parents over the years. Shortly before the notice is up for Burgai and Gertrud to evacuate their home, the baron, his daughter, and the manager stop by. Th e aristocrat has had a hunt- ing accident and wants to rest in the house for a while. Gertrud seizes the oppor- tunity and implores him to withdraw the eviction notice. Th e baron will not be swayed and merely gives her a short extension. As justifi cation for his decision, he claims that the women had declared they did not have money for the rent, but nonetheless could defray the costs for an old Jew’s board. When Isak enters the room where the women are sitting with their guests, the manager and the baron are voicing their anti-Jewish attitudes. Isaac, however, does not let himself be intimidated by their hostility toward him. He turns to the baron and tells him that he had saved his life some decades ago. At the time, Isak bought wares in Vienna and sold them to farmers in the surrounding area. On a forest path, he saw the baron, who at that precise moment had turned a revolver on himself. When Isak asked him why he was in despair, the baron ex- plained that he was deeply in debt. Isak took pity on him and gave him 2,000 gulden. He explains further that he never asked to be paid back. For that reason, Isak assumes that the loan is suffi cient to allow Gertrud and Burgai to continue to live in the house. Th e baron is moved by Isak’s remarks, and his displeasure with him transforms into a feeling of solidarity. He replies to Isak that after he inherited his father’s This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched.