CU/HS 399 - Jewish Life in Vienna: Past and Present

Vienna has always been—and continues to be—a palimpsest of Jewish life: a city layered with traces of Jewish presence, written and  rewritten over time. Three mass expulsions (1420/21, 1669/70, and 1938–45) stand in stark contrast to periods of flourishing  cultural and intellectual life, particularly during the 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1938, the year of the Anschluss, Vienna was home to nearly 200,000 Jewish residents, making it the largest Jewish city in the German-speaking world—surpassing even Berlin, both in absolute numbers and relative proportion. Today, eight decades after the Shoah, this number stands at 12,000. Yet it is a mix of Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe since the 1970s, a growing historical awareness—especially regarding the Nazi period—
and a renewed Jewish self-confidence that make Jewish life a lasting and visible presence in contemporary Vienna.
In this class, we will explore the rich and complex history of Jewish life in Vienna. We will examine what it means to “read” a city from a historical perspective, with a particular focus on its Jewish dimensions. We’ll engage with the city’s “grammar”—its streets, sites, past and future tenses—as well as its wounds and its present state. In order to do so, we will work with a mix of primary and secondary literature as well as films. Students will visit the Jewish Museum Vienna, the Leopold Museum, and the Documentation Center of Austrian Resistance, participate in a walking tour, and hear from a guest speaker. Assignments include written and oral responses to the readings, presentations, a midterm exam, and a final project.