Seite - 89 - in Entangled Entertainers - Jews and Popular Culture in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna

Jewishness and the Viennese Volkssänger | 89 assembly even had a semi-offi cial character, since it was held in the presence of a member of the Imperial Assembly (Reichsrat) as well as the district head of Vien- na-Meidling. Th is meeting’s ag enda included the question of whether Volkssänger should strive to be recognized as a licensed trade. Th e idea was that this new status would allow them increased access to social security and insurance bene- fi ts. Th e alternative, however, was not for them to maintain their present status, according to which they were little more than beggars. Rather, the alternative was whether the Volkssänger should declare themselves as artists. Th is decision would have two ramifi cations. First of all, each Volkssänger would have to prove that they had received a spe- cial musical education to receive permission to perform. Indeed, the law applying to Volkssänger already maintained similar stipulations. But the proposed change in status would also mean further tightening of these prerequisites. Some per- formers may have seen the proposal as a hindrance to obtaining a license. Others may have considered stricter rules as a reasonable way for Volkssänger to escape their crisis, which was tied to dwindling public interest. Th ey thought that the crisis was due to what they deemed to be poor vocal skills of many performing musicians. One of the Volkssänger present at the meeting on 27 October 1902 made the connection: “Th e public no longer desires [to hear] the eternal ‘Th is Is My Vienna,’ ‘O, You, My St. Stephen’s Tower,’ and all the other songs; . . . if these songs are not performed well, then they lose value.”45 Th e second consequence of the proposal to consider Volkssänger as artists would have entailed the elimination of Volkssänger licenses. Th e abolishment of licenses would have not only dissolved an internal distinction between licensed and unlicensed Volkssänger (those with a license were allowed to manage their own ensembles), but it also would have made restricting the access of foreign groups to the Viennese market impossible. Th e discussion about drawing up measures to retaliate against Hungarian groups who wanted to perform in Vi- enna would have been rendered pointless by such a decision. Th e decision for or against artist status basically came down to the question of whether the Volkssänger wished to modernize. Should the Volkssänger, who increasingly lost audiences to variety shows, respond to their declining popular- ity by blocking innovative fellow performers who were unlicensed or of foreign extraction? Or should they expand their profession to include intensifi ed compe- tition, in the hope that those most capable of responding to the public’s expecta- tions would in the end prevail, thus garnering greater respect for all Volkssänger? Th e Volkssänger Crisis Th e Volkssänger did not gain their popularity in Vienna solely by being entertain- ers. Th eir ability to convey a bygone—and therefore glorifi ed—attitude toward life in their Viennese songs (Wienerlieder) and singspiels was equally importa nt. This open access edition has been made available under a CC BY 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched.