Page - 130 - in Entangled Entertainers - Jews and Popular Culture in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna

130 | Entangled Entertainers this kind of communal sense of belonging had been relegated to the past. With great uneasiness, Salten followed the rise of antisemites in the Viennese outskirts, where they eroded the creation of community between Jews and non-Jews. Con- founded by the increasing resonance of anti-Jewish hostility among the general public, Salten increasingly lost sympathy for the outskirts so closely linked to his biography. He therefore bid farewell to the Stalehner, and with it the periphery and the old Viennese period: “One must say, that better, more venerable and more valuable locales have been lost than the Stalehner. Th e new young city has overtaken it, and we have forgotten the one to which it belonged. We will also get over the Stalehner.” Shortly thereafter, he reckons, “It certainly deserves an obituary.”39 Salten’s writings do not express a lament, but rather an epitaph that allows one to come to terms with the past. In this refutation of the past lay a sig- nifi cant moment of modernity, which played an important role for the formation of self-understanding among Jews in Vienna.40 In this respect, Old Vienna and the outskirts lost their relevance. Th is shift was not only apparent in a considerable decline in Jewish cultural fi gures’ eff orts to draw attention to a Jewish presence in earlier decades and centuries. Th e Old Viennese past as a whole was also represented with increasing ambivalence. Ulti- mately, during this period, Jews in Vienna lived with many restrictions. Pogroms and residency bans made their existence in the city impossible for long spans of time. Th e last expulsion of Jews took place in 1670, and it would be 180 years be- fore a new Jewish community was offi cially permitted to live in Vienna.41 Julius Löwy’s texts highlight this sober view of Old Vienna. Löwy was born in the Bo- hemian town of Edlitz and came to Vienna at the age of three. Th ere he attended secondary school and began to study medicine. After a year, he decided to devote himself instead to journalism, a fi eld in which he was very successful. As early as 1873, he was a member of the editorial board of the Illustrirtes Wiener Extrablatt. For years, he published his “Wiener Skizzen” (Viennese sketches) there.42 Th ese short stories primarily equated the city’s past with Old Vienna. Th ey illustrate nostalgic views of the past and homey descriptions of a time gone by. Unlike Hirsch, Löwy makes scarcely any reference to Jewishness in his writing. If Jews are present in his narratives, they merely play bit parts. One of Löwy’s descriptions of old buildings and courtyards, which until then had been spared demolition, demonstrates just how idyllic his work depicts the past. Especially in comparison to the modern housing complexes for the working class, these buildings—most of which would soon be demolished—provide gen- uine sources of joy in everyday life for their occupants. In contrast to the dreary streets where the tenement houses stand, “everything in the old courtyard” is fragrant and the pleasant fresh green of the garden beckons in such a friendly manner. Th e tender fl owers in their simple beds are resplendent in red and green, yellow and white. Since This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched.