“Closed books and stilled lives”

   Review: Whiteread’s concrete tribute to victims of nazism

Kate Connolly in Vienna

The Guardian, Thursday 26 October 2000 02.04 BST         

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/oct/26/kateconnolly

The statue of the man just says Lessing.  I wondered why his statue was in the Judenplatz.  First I found this article written in 1935.

Statue to Lessing is Erected on Jewish Square in Vienna

July 5, 1935     

A statue to Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, famous German poet, dramatist and critic of 150 years ago, whose essays and plays stimulated the emancipation of the German Jews, has been erected in the Judenplatz (Jewish Square) here.

Jews were once burned alive in the square where the statue now stands. A tablet still remains with the inscription, “Jewish dogs were burned here.”

In spite of this, when Vice Mayor Lahr announced that the name of the square had been changed to “Lessingplatz,” there were some objections in Jewish circles.

The idea for the statue was conceived twenty years ago by a committee headed by the then Premier Ernst von Koerber and Josef Unger.

The unveiling was witnessed by leaders of Vienna intellectual circles and admirers of Lessing, including Chief Rabbi David Feutchwang, Federal Councillor Frankfurter, Prof. Gluecksmann of the German People’s Theatre and Dr. Fischer, historian.

The dedication address was made by former Minister Oswald Redlich, president of the Academy of Science. The government was represented by Vice Mayor Lahr.

Herr Lahr pointed out that Lessing had described Vienna as a city where one is allowed to write and speak in freedom, adding: “Let us hope that Vienna will soon be such a city again.”

Read more:  http://www.jta.org/

This is a contemporary story.

“An imposing statue in the center is the German playwright Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781). The original statue was created by Siegfriend Charoux and unveiled in 1935, but removed in 1939 by the National Socialists and melted down for weapons. Charoux created a second Lessing monument out of bronze, unveiled in 1968 and moved to Judenplatz in 1981 where it stands today.”

http://travelwritersmagazine.com/tag/judenplatz/

Our lunch place: A bit overpriced for what you get, but it’s a lovely place to sit and sip during the week when the area must be full of activity.

“The Viennese Beisl is more alive and well than it has been in a long time. Several recent waves of fashionable dining may however have done some harm to these basic pubs or inns of Vienna: There was nouvelle cuisine (which translated as “eating tiny specks of stuff you don’t know on a very large plate”). Then there was the post-modern dining fashion that spelled “anything goes,” and in fact all sorts of crossover restaurants did go, many of them out of business. We also witnessed the attempts of convenience food chains, theme diners, fake Irish pubs and very Middle Eastern-Italian trattorie to conquer the Austrian palates.

Through all this, the Beisl stayed. Last spring and summer, the Wien Museum paid homage to this institution that not only provides its clients with affordable food but also serves as a real-life chatroom and ersatz living room for those less literarily inclined than the Kaffeehaus patrons and favoring beer over coffee (though of course you get both in both places).” http://www.viennareview.net/services/restaurant-reviews/beisl-cuisine

To the right of the chairs is the open plaza with the memorial.

The plaque tells about the memorial

And then I had a flash that I recognized the name Rachel Whitread. 

“Rachel Whiteread unveils golden frieze at Whitechapel Gallery” which I wrote about after a visit to the gallery while in London. http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-18432744

Jewish Museum was closed on Saturday.

“A memorial plaque on the outside of Misrachi-Haus reads: Thanks and acknowledgment to the just among the people, who in the years of the Shoah risked their lives to help Jews, persecuted by the Nazi henchmen, to escape and survive.—The Austrian Jewish Community, Vienna, in the month of April 2001

in April 2001, the Jewish Community placed another memorial plaque, this one devoted to those who helped Jews during the Nazi era, on the so-called Misrachi House at Judenplatz 8.”

http://travelwritersmagazine.com/tag/judenplatz/

Half the carriage drivers I saw were women!  The sound of clip clop was very distinct on the streets.

Something Barbara Timmerman had said made me stop to look at this plaque.

“In this area in 1194 Duke Leopold V founded the first mint in Vienna to strike silver coins from the ransom of King Richard the Lion Heart” are the words engraved on the plaque.

“1194: Duke Leopold V installs Shlom as mint master. Shlom is the first Jew whose settlement in Vienna can be documented.” www.vienna.info

Anker Clock at Hoher Markt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYmYCQ6h5P8 is a video of the noon time performance.

Blink and you missed the movement from one minute indicator to the next.  At noon the people moved but we weren’t there to see that.

“This clock (built 1911 – 1914) was created by the painter and sculptor Franz von Matsch and is a typical Art Nouveau design.

It forms a bridge between the two parts of the Anker Insurance Company‘s building. In the course of 12 hours, twelve historical figures or pairs of figures move across the bridge. Every day at noon, all of the figures parade, each accompanied by music from its era. During the Advent season daily at 5 and 6 p.m. Christmas Carols.” http://www.wien.info/en/sightseeing/sights/from-a-to-f/anker-clock

A statue of Gutenberg which was appropriate as not far from his statue are many book shops.

The statue was erected on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of book printing in Vienna.

http://www.vanderkrogt.net/

I recognize Merkel and Putin but not sure who’s wearing the polka-dots

A square typical of Vienna Baroque

A walk through the vanished world of Vienna’s Jewish Quarter between the Danube and the Canal. Leopoldstadt, Vienna’s second district, was once a hub of Jewish life. Some of the town’s finest synagogues were to be found there, also a wide array of Jewish shops, clubs, theatres and coffeehouses, and the splendid Grain Exchange, focal point of Jewish commercial interests. Leopoldstadt was also a central-European stronghold of Zionism and Chassidism. Sigmund Freud spent his youth there, composers Arnold Schönberg and Oscar Strauss were born there. This Jewish world was brutally destroyed in the Shoah, but new Jewish life has come back. On this tour we also follow the "Path of Remembrance" commemorating Jewish victims of the Nazi terror. http://www.viennawalks.com/indexe.php?page=start

Regardless of its origin, ghettos were a significant part of medieval Jewish life.  But as Ravid points out, “All ghettos were Jewish quarters, but not all Jewish quarters were ghettos.” Jews sometimes voluntarily agreed to live in separate sectors, but often it was not their choice. http://www.momentmag.com/jewish-word-ghetto/  is an interesting discussion of the word ghetto which came up during our tour.  Leopoldstadt was a “Jewish quarter” rather than a ghetto.

Barbara Timmermann was warm, friendly, knowledgeable and truly interested in each of our stories.  She was helping several of the women on our tour find information about their families.  Two of the women were researching parents and grandparents who had lived in Vienna. Barbara speaks English, German, Spanish and probably others too.  People who take the time and make the effort to learn other languages are wonderful!  She seems to see Vienna as a very livable city attracting many educated Jews connected with their work; many from America.

“Just as enthusiastic and lively as her mother is Barbara, who joined VIENNAWALKS & TALKS as a junior partner in 2002. It is not surprising that her interest in other cultures, her work experience abroad and her love of both foreign languages and adventure qualify her quite naturally for a career in guiding and tourism. A graduate of a Vienna College of Tourism she is a brilliant organizer when it comes to setting up sightseeing programmes for large parties, but her knowledge, thoughtfulness, and most of all, her flexibility are also greatly appreciated by small parties or individual travellers. Among her many special themes are Jewish Vienna, the world of the Habsburgs, and post-World War II history. With her eye for the eccentric and her sense of humour she easily catches the hearts of her clients, and it is hardly surprising that she is very much in demand. When she is not guiding, she is in charge of the company’s books, indulges in diving, skippering through the Mediterranean, or improving her command of the Spanish language.” http://www.viennawalks.com/indexe.php?page=wir

Crossing the canal to the area of Leopoldstadt.

http://www.hakoah.at/en/textedetail.asp?Block=1&ID=150

In Vienna, on the night of Saturday, November 7, the Sports Club Hakoah, also known as Hakoah Vienna, held a gala ball to celebrate its 100th anniversary. The evening’s entertainment included a bare-chested acrobat whose midair gyrations, on a swath of purple cloth hung from the ceiling, suggested both the precarious nature of Jews in Vienna and the skills used to pull off this event.Fittingly, the ball was held at Hakoah’s new Karl Haber Sports & Recreation Center. The center’s completion last year, funded by the Austrian government as part of the 2001 “Washington Agreement,” figures in the ongoing reckoning between Jews and non-Jews in Austria today. Steps away from the sports center is a new secondary school, Zwi Perez Chajes Schule, which offers Hebrew and Judaic studies in addition to a standard Austrian curriculum. Also within the complex is a nearly finished building with assisted-living units for the elderly. All three organizations are open to non-Jews.

http://forward.com/

http://forward.com talks about the history of Hakoah, the Jewish Austrian Olympic athletes and how Austrian Jews feel today.

This blah looking building has apartments that sell in the millions of euros.  Location, location, location.

A kosher bakery especially popular on Sunday when “non-kosher” bakeries are closed.

A kosher grocery store

I believe there was a small synagogues in this building. 

“For the many people who were murdered whom nobody remembers.”

http://www.steinedererinnerung.net/

Remembrance Stones similar to the German Stumbling Stones.

The project began in May 2005 when Elisabeth Ben David-Hindler got a request from her Israeli uncle, who wanted to put a commemoration plaque on his parents’ house in the 9th District, where about one third of the population was Jewish before WWII. Elisabeth’s parents managed to escape to Britain, but her grandparents stayed in Vienna and were deported to the concentration camp in 1941 and 1942. And she could never understand why there was nothing in the 2nd District, where she lived, to commemorate the Jews who had lived there. So she approached city authorities, and in two months was able to place the first of 84 plaques on Volkertplatz, near the Augarten in the 2nd district. …….

    This is what the Path of Commemoration is all about, a path of stones laid by the Stones-of-Remembrance Society for those who have no relatives left to remember them and to mourn for them. Others are laid by the surviving relatives, who have come back to honor them from émigré communities all over the world.

http://www.viennareview.net/news/special-report/path-of-memory

This woman from New Jersey’s father lived in the section that Barbara’s mother-in-law lives in now.  Barbara would help her more through email.

Tachles Cafe

Barbara said many Yiddish words were found in Austrian/German and showing up more once again.

tachles – (Yiddish) Literally derived from the word “purpose”. It means, “bottom line, concrete, tangible”. Example: “That’s enough talk, tell me tachles…” When someone says “Let’s talk tachles”, you know they mean business. http://www.culturalsavvy.com/expressions_Hebrew.htm

Leopoldstadt now is a sought after address because it’s near the underground, the old town, and it’s being renovated.

I believe that through the curved entrance is a rabbinical seminary.  Hence the guard house though I don’t know if they are always staffed.

A kosher Italian restaurant with two kitchens so they can serve both dairy and meat dishes.  Wonder if the tables are separated as they were in Ashdod in Israel.

A Jewish cultural gem: the Nestroyof Jewish Theatre in Vienna

   “Now, after more than half a century of neglect, the theater has been discovered virtually intact within the Nestroyhof building. However, it remains closed, blanketed in dust and lost to public view. The theater is on the first floor of a privately owned apartment building, which is to be granted landmark status soon. The original building was designed at the beginning of the 20th century by Oskar Marmorek, a well-known Viennese Art Nouveau architect and Zionist Jew. While Austria’s current landmark-protection laws forbid the owners from destroying architectural details, it would not proscribe what the theater space could be used for or require the owners to foot the bill for restorations……..

     But Vienna’s vibrant Jewish Broadway became a distant memory as the theater troupes and their audiences fled abroad or died in the Holocaust. Many of the buildings housing the theaters were damaged during the war, including the Nestroyhof, which was restored in 1957. Others were later torn down. Of the eight Jewish theaters that existed before 1938, only the Nestroyhof remains.” http://www.jewish-theatre.com/

The Leopoldstädter Tempel was the largest synagogue of Vienna, in the district (Bezirk) of Leopoldstadt. It was also known as the Israelitische Bethaus in der Wiener Vorstadt Leopoldstadt. It was built in 1858 in a Moorish Revival style by the architect Ludwig Förster. The tripartite facade of the Leopoldstädter with its tall central section flanked by lower wings on each side became the model for numerous Moorish Revival synagogues, including the Zagreb Synagogue, the Spanish Synagogue in Prague, the Tempel Synagogue in Kraków and Templul Coral in Bucharest. It was destroyed during the Reichskristallnacht on November 10, 1938. A memorial plaque on the site reads in German (and Hebrew): "Hier befand sich der Leopoldstädter Tempel, der im Jahre 1858 nach Plänen von Architekt Leopold Förster im maurischen Stil errichtet und am 10. November 1938 in der sogenannten "Reichskristallnacht" von den nationalsozialistischen Barbaren bis auf die Grundmauern zerstört wurde. -Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien" (Here stood the Leopoldstädter Tempel, built in 1858 in the moorish style according the plans of architect Leopold Förster, all but the foundation of which was completely destroyed by National Socialist barbarians on the so-called "Night of Broken Glass", on 10 November 1938).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopoldst%C3%A4dter_Tempel

The part of the building to the left in the photo is all that remains.

A photo of the synagogue

The pillars were erected by the Viennese government to illustrate the size of the original structure.

Further along Templestrasse is this colorful mosaic of the synagogue’s façade.

I noticed this Mezuzah on a doorway

For some reason green windows indicate part of the building is used as a synagogue.

Since 1951, a memorial stone on the site of the former Gestapo headquarters commemorates those who were imprisoned here. In 1985, the City of Vienna set up an official monument here, this time dedicated to all victims of National Socialist tyranny.

The Federation of Concentration Camp Survivors held a meeting on 11 April 1951 where they erected and unveiled a memorial stone for the Gestapo victims that had been designed by the Federation. The memorial stone was erected without official authorization and was later taken care of by the City of Vienna. A new memorial for the victims of the Nazi tyranny was unveiled by the "Austrian federations of concentration camp survivors and resistance fighters" instead of the memorial stone. A bronze sculpture and a block of granite from Mauthausen now symbolise the fate of the victims.

https://www.wien.gv.at/