Page - 137 - in Entangled Entertainers - Jews and Popular Culture in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna

Jewish Spaces of Retreat at the Turn of the Twentieth Century | 137 the late nineteenth century, scientists also researched and devised medical justi- fi cations for the phenomenon of nomadism among Jews. In this manner, they associated it with nervous disorders to which Jews were particularly susceptible.73 Th us, Little Kohn’s perpetual appearance and disappearance was nothing out of the ordinary. According to the prejudicial thinking of the time, Jews were to a certain degree generally characterized as itinerant. Little Kohn’s second defi ning attribute was his extraordinary appetite for ex- tramarital sex. Th is idiosyncrasy was an integral part of the contemporary anti- semitic repertoire as well. Jews were seen as sexually hyperactive.74 However, Little Kohn was hardly successful in his libidinous aff airs. His relationships were always only short-lived, were destroyed by a series of mishaps, and never resulted in the longed-for gratifi cation. Th us, they remained nothing more than innocuous trysts. Both of Little Kohn’s attributes circulated in an extremely popular contem- porary street song (Straße nschlager). Written by Julius Einödshofer (1863–1930), the song describes Little Kohn enjoying the company of a young woman. While strolling along the street, he suddenly recognizes his wife. Since he does not want her to see him with his female companion, he disappears suddenly, without in- forming her of his escape beforehand. Bewildered, she begins to search for him with increasing worry and in the process asks every obliging person if he or she has seen Little Kohn. A growing crowd of sympathizers joins the search, asking, “Haven’t you seen Little Kohn?”75 Th ese words were a common phrase in Vienna in the late nineteenth century, lending Little Kohn a presence in the everyday antisemitic discourse of his time. Th e second prejudice that the play Little Kohn challenged stems from news- paper accounts of the Jellinek aff air. Edmund Jellinek was a bank employee who had embezzled money and escaped his arrest by going on the lam (see chapter 1). Th e majority of the daily papers attributed Jellinek’s criminal activity to his Jew- ishness. Little Kohn sought to expose the contradictions of antisemitic thought that found expression therein and thereby rob them of their potency. Th e Plot of Little Kohn Caprice’s play is far more complex than Hirsch’s Th e Apostle of Schottenfeld. In no small part, this is due to the fact that Little Kohn is named for an anti-Jewish stereotype. In order to prevent the attributes commonly associated with Little Kohn from becoming more fi rmly anchored in common discourse, Caprice had to expose the weaknesses of antisemitic thinking and portray Little Kohn in an agreeable manner. Th is required a subtle approach. Th e fi rst scene begins with the entrance of Leopold Kohn, the teller at Mar- cus Spitzer’s bank. He is in his employer’s home teaching a parrot to say “Little Kohn.” Kohn is clearly at ease and appears to be fully integrated in the Spitzer This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched.