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134 | Entangled Entertainers
of time. Walter Benjamin, Siegfried Kracauer, and especially Georg Simmel, all
of whom were Jewish, are some of the most famous commentators on this per-
ception of time.58
A comparison between the aforementioned proponents of a break from the
past and those who advocated that it be made subjective, and with it an expan-
sion of the present, reveals that the fi
rst group does not include Jews, while the
second consists of Jews alone. Th
e American historian Stephen Kern traces this
diff
erence to the historical experiences of the Jews. According to Kern, Jews,
on account of their historical existence in the ghettos and the lack of their own
home, ascribed little meaning to place and instead became fi
xated upon time.
Since Jews could look back on a long history, their concept of time was anchored
in the past to a far greater degree than that of non-Jews.59
Generally speaking, Kern provides an insightful point of departure for tracing
the development of a distinct concept of time and place among Jews over the
course of their history.60 For my analysis of fi
n-de-siècle Vienna, however, Kern’s
assertion applies only in part. Space, in its function as an interstice, was of the
utmost importance to Viennese Jews, as I have demonstrated with the examples
of Felix Salten and Stefan Zweig.61 Nonetheless, we may bring Kern’s argument
regarding the diff erences between how Jews and non-Jews understood time to
bear on the case of the Hapsburg capital. It appears that there was a dividing
line also in Vienna between Jews and non-Jews, between those who sought to
break from the past and those who advocated the notion of an expanded present.
Moreover, this diff
erence in the perception of time, as I demonstrate below, was
connected to ideas about social interaction and concepts of space. A present that
is experienced as the sum of momentary impressions largely corresponds to a net-
work of interpersonal relationships that is just as fragmented. Th
e reason for this
lies in the lack of the temporal continuum that is necessary to deepen liaisons.
In this manner, people often remain strangers. Georg Simmel clearly describes
this atmosphere in his thoughts on life in the metropolis, which is defi
ned by
a multitude of selective sensory impressions. He writes, “In formal terms, the
spiritual attitude of city dwellers toward one another may be deemed as reserve.”
Moreover, Simmel continues that “as a consequence of . . . [the reserve] we often
do not recognize by sight neighbors of many years.”62 Although physically pres-
ent, one’s closest neighbor is a stranger in everyday life. Th
ere is no time to engage
with fellow human beings. In lieu of places where diff
erences among people be-
come insignifi
cant and solidarity may be forged, diff erent groups have their own
respective spaces. In this context, we may also refer to the spaces the Volkssänger
Carl Lorenz denoted as Jewish (see chapter 3).
By contrast, the expanded present off
ers a time frame in which human rela-
tionships can be formed such that a feeling of togetherness arises. Primarily taking
Niklas Luhmann’s argument as a point of departure, Aleida Assmann writes that
in “an expanded space of the present” there may be “simultaneous perceptions,
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Entangled Entertainers
Jews and Popular Culture in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna
- Title
- Entangled Entertainers
- Subtitle
- Jews and Popular Culture in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna
- Author
- Klaus Hödl
- Publisher
- Berghahn Books
- Date
- 2019
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-1-78920-031-7
- Size
- 14.86 x 23.2 cm
- Pages
- 196
- Categories
- Geschichte Vor 1918
- International
Table of contents
- Introduction 1
- 1. Jews in Viennese Popular Culture around 1900 as Research Topic 13
- 2. Jewish Volkssänger and Musical Performers in Vienna around 1900 44
- 3. Jewishness and the Viennese Volkssänger 78
- 4. Jewish Spaces of Retreat at the Turn of the Twentieth Century 121
- 5. From Difference to Similarity 148
- Conclusion 163
- Bibliography 166
- Index 179