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From Diff
erence to Similarity | 155
First, it held a fi rm place in the mental cartography of Viennese Jews. Several
diff erent Volkssänger plays reference the location. For example, in Caprice’s 1913
farce Ein Schmoch, Grosswardein is the young couple’s honeymoon destination,
where they visit relatives.20 In addition, the play Th e Woman with the Mask (dis-
cussed previously), performed in 1909 by Ludwig Kirnbauer
’s singspiel hall,
takes place entirely in this city.
Another reason Armin may have chosen this location for his play is that the
theme of the futile attempt to travel to Grosswardein seems to have been a topos
among the Viennese Volkssänger. Th
e town makes an appearance in “Das jüdische
Schaff
nerlied” (Th
e Jewish conductor’s song), composed by Carl Lorens and per-
formed by Adolfi
, the son of Albert Hirsch. Th e text of the song is about a Jewish
boy from the Galician town of Tarnow, whom his father sends to Grosswardein
to fi
nd work. Th
e boy, however, takes the wrong train and arrives at the Vienna
North Station. At fi
rst, he wants to return to Tarnow, but then he stays in Vienna,
earning his money as a peddler and even attaining prosperity.21 Grosswardein is
the destination to which the boy wants to travel but cannot ultimately reach. And
Vienna seems to be a better alternative. Th
e boy from Tarnow quickly adapts to
his new fate and manages to lead a contented life.
Josef Armin’s play is not the only text in which Grosswardein serves as a sym-
bol of an unattainable Palestine. Armin, however, expands this theme into a bit-
ing satire of Zionist aspirations. Not unlike “Th
e Jewish Conductor’s Song,” Th e
Journey to Grosswardein suggests that Jews who fl ee diffi
cult situations at home do
not succeed in fi
nding better conditions abroad. We see this portrayed in Armin’s
play when Lipperl and Maxi’s wives also try to board the train to Grosswardein.
Th
is turn of events further suggests that the individuals responsible for the neg-
ative and oppressive living conditions in Vienna will only follow the tormented
Jews to their place of refuge. Emigration is therefore not a solution to the prob-
lems that Jews face.
Emigration’s failure to provide a real solution to antisemitism also seems to
be the signifi
cance of the scene in which Fritz Engländer follows his friends to
the train station. As it turns out, he is actually an Austrian, whose surname just
happens to be Engländer (Englishman). We also learn that he is a member of a
fraternity, an institution that formed the radical spearhead of antisemitism in
Vienna at the end of the nineteenth century. Had Engländer as fraternity brother
joined Lipperl and Maxi, then a potential antisemite might have accompanied
the Jews on their journey to escape such problems. Again, it seems that emigra-
tion to Palestine is a fruitless enterprise.
We identify another aspect of the play’s humorous critique of Zionist ideol-
ogy when Lebele courts Rosl. Th
e Zionist movement, especially the Viennese
Kadimah, strove to create a social environment that prevented “Jewish” assimila-
tion.22 Interdenominational marriages were considered one of the most import-
ant aspects of assimilation. But Lebele, who grew up in Grosswardein, the meta-
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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