Seite - 88 - in Entangled Entertainers - Jews and Popular Culture in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna

88 | Entangled Entertainers an initiative in response to the Hungarian authorities. Th is time, the agenda in- cluded additional problems that the Volkssänger faced. Th e Professional Associ ation of Viennese Volkssänger and Artists (Fachverein der Wiener Volkssänger und Artisten) took initial steps. Th e organization’s chair- man, Albert Hirsch, accompanied by two colleagues, visited the police advisor for Volkssänger aff airs in early October. Th e deputation submitted a request to allow Volkssänger to perform in coff eehouses, as musicians and “nature” singers were permitted to do. In addition, Hirsch addressed the problems that German-speak- ing Volkssänger encountered in Hungary. In order not to appear as xenophobic, he stressed that in principle he had nothing against “foreigners” such as the French, the Germans, or the Polish. However, he did take a stand “against the Hungarian mu- sicians, because German speakers also face diffi culties performing in Hungary.”42 And fi nally, he mentioned the “questionable services” that some female ensemble members provided. According to Hirsch, there were innkeepers “who directed fe- male singers to motivate guests to further consumption after the performance in a small ‘parlor’ [Stüberl]. Th ese ‘stimula tion waitresses’ [Animirmamsellen] bring th e moral standard of the Volkssänger down even more than it already is.”43 In terms of content, the deputation’s demands, with Hirsch at the helm, dif- fered in two essential respects from the items discussed at the meeting held at the end of 1901. For one, Hirsch and his colleagues pursued the goal of expanding the performance opportunities of the Volkssänger. Th is topic had not come up at all ten months earlier and was not slated to be addressed until February 1904, nine months after the Volkssänger dispute would end.44 Second, Hirsch and his party did not mention the question of licensing. Hirsch may not have been in- terested in lobbying for a special protection for license holders. Hirsch’s decision to ignore this issue would have considerable ramifi cations for the further course of the Volkssänger confl ict. It appears that Hirsch went to the police advisor for Volkssänger aff airs without fi rst consulting the organizers of the meeting on 27 December 1901. Hirsch pre- sumably pursued a double strategy: On the one hand, he may have surrounded himself with a group of colleagues who could, if necessary, assist him in protect- ing and enforcing separate interests. Th is angle may have included ignoring the petition for stricter guidelines for issuing Volkssänger licenses. On the other hand, Hirsch also wanted to become involved in the meetings that Recher and Rötzer organized, thereby infl uencing their outcome. We see this in particular in the fact that Hirsch, together with Recher, took over as co-chairman of the fi rst Austri an “Volkssänger and Vocal Artists’ Day,” which took place on 27 October 1902, a few weeks after Hirsch’s visit to the police advisor. We can interpret this event as a continuation of the meeting that had taken place at the Goldener Luchs in December of the previous year. In contrast to the meeting ten months earlier, almost all the performing musi- cians active in Vienna were present at the Volkssänger and Vocal Artists’ Da y. Th e This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched.