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CONCLUSION
d
In this study, I have sought to provide an overview of Viennese Jewish Volkssänger
while simultaneously investigating the question of their Jewishness. I have fo-
cused primarily on burlesques and farces that Jewish Volkssänger either wrote or
performed, as a method for analyzing their Jewish self-understanding. Given this
focus, it is also important to ask whether the insights we gain by investigating
their conception of Jewishness pertain solely to the fi ctional characters in their
works or whether we may also draw conclusions about Jewish Volkssänger and
their personal experiences in the real world.
I have proposed to answer this question by plumbing Albert Hirsch’s bi-
ographical details, specifi
cally his professional life. Chapter 3 off ered insights
into his sometimes diffi
cult relationship with his colleagues. At the height of the
“Volkssänger war,” he presented his colleagues with statements that speak to his
conception of Jewishness. At the same time, I have ascertained numerous similar-
ities between individual protagonists in his plays and Hirsch’s biography. We may
reasonably conclude that his farces more or less clearly trace his own personal un-
derstanding of Jewishness. Because there are numerous similarities between the
portrayal of Jewishness in Hirsch’s performances and the plays penned by other
Jewish Volkssänger, I argue that their manuscripts and performances provide in-
sight into their self-understanding as well, no matter how fl
uid it may have been.
Th
ese Volkssänger plays, I assert, repeatedly address certain topics, despite that
a variety of authors penned them and numerous ensembles performed them.
Th
is repetition potentially indicates that they were topoi that the public both
recognized and anticipated seeing in the performances. But these themes may
have also preoccupied Viennese Jews (or at least a portion of the Viennese Jewish
population) to a considerable extent and therefore consistently appeared in theat-
rical works. Seen in this light, these farces represent important sources regarding
everyday life among Viennese Jewry.
One of these themes that these farces often incorporate is suicide or the threat
of suicide by plunging into the Danube. As I discussed in the introduction by
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Entangled Entertainers
Jews and Popular Culture in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna
- Titel
- Entangled Entertainers
- Untertitel
- Jews and Popular Culture in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna
- Autor
- Klaus Hödl
- Verlag
- Berghahn Books
- Datum
- 2019
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-1-78920-031-7
- Abmessungen
- 14.86 x 23.2 cm
- Seiten
- 196
- Kategorien
- Geschichte Vor 1918
- International
Inhaltsverzeichnis
- 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