Seite - 357 - in Wien und die jüdische Erfahrung 1900-1938 - Akkulturation - Antisemitismus - Zionismus

David Vogel: Love Story in Vienna or the Metropolis The reader is bewildered at the decision since no member of Gordweil’s Jewish family attends the ceremony while a number of the baroness’ side, including her fa- ther, the old baron, do attend. After a generation and more of legal emancipation, political acceptance and cul- tural openness — or rather cultural symbiosis be it illusionary or not –, some wanted to believe that acculturation went in all directions. Hence a Jewish marriage ceremony was a natural ceremony to bind two people. Indeed, Thea’s father, the tall, strong, noble aristocrat, with the erect gracious military stance, with the sprinkling of gray at his temples only adding an extra touch of aristocracy to his features, and other members of her family accept the union in the most natural way. The baron even holds a distinguished wedding dinner at his patrician home with ancient fine wine and tasteful fine food according to all rules of etiquette. Rudolf Gordweil in his bor- rowed black and white groom frock and a stiff bowler hat misplaced on his head looks extremely ridiculous and grotesque and the whole ceremonial marriage appears to be a plot against him. While waiting in the great hall of the synagogue, they can hear the singing of a choir accompanied by the deep bass notes of an organ. This seems beauti- ful to Rudolf. It seems to be borne towards them from a vast distance away. The sol- emn singing pours into the steep, winding Seitenstettengasse, filling it with a carefree, dreamy atmosphere not at all compatible with the coarse profanity of the wretched Jews struggling to make a living there by selling rags and second-hand clothes. Obviously, Gordweil is not one of these latter “unenlightened“ Jews. The reader can easily observe that after the opportunity of assimilation, everything Jewish was seen as grotesque while everything acculturated was seen as enlightened. Gordweil’s clumsi- ness during the ceremony attests to his remoteness from Judaism and the grotesque. The whole ceremony seems comic to him. At the same time, however, he proves to be at home with the prayers and is faster than the rabbi to the latter’s annoyance and the former’s amusement. Gordweil must have had a traditional, if not religious, Jewish upbringing. By mocking the rabbi, he gives the reader to understand that with as- similation he has given up any sign of Jewishness. Most importantly, his assimilation/ acculturation has worked and he is marrying a Viennese baroness. However, the first meeting between Gordweil and Thea is not a positive encoun- ter. No romantic feelings are involved, no liberated flows of desires or a pleasurable symbiosis of self and other. The meeting constitutes rather the defeat of one at the triumph of the other. The encounter is short (one date) and the two strangers are mar- ried. (Again on Thea’s initiative.) According to modern and postmodern cultural theories of marriage, speed dating and quick marriage is normal in an accelerated society. Love is a cultural contradic- tion in capitalist society.