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Ten audio guide stations bring the Jewish past of the 15th district back to life
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Jewish life in Vienna revived
The “Herklotzgasse 21” initiative revives Jewish history in Vienna’s 15th district. With the support of the local council and in cooperation with Radio Orange 94.0 ten audio guide stations have been installed featuring commentaries by eye witnesses of a time gone by.
Between 1906 and 1940 Vienna Fünfhaus had a very large Jewish population. Many people from the crown lands of Hungary/Slovakia, Bohemia and Galicia also moved there in the late nineteenth century, which meant that for over a century the district has been influenced by the widest variety of cultures. Even today, Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus is one of the districts of the city with the highest proportion of non-Austrian inhabitants.
“The project arose out of a feeling”
The inhabitants of the district today can only have the slightest inkling of the former Jewish life there. Herklotzgasse 21, which has given its name to this ambitious project, used to be a meeting place for Jews of all ages. There was a kindergarten, the Makkabi XV sports club, free meals for the poor and the local Zionist headquarters. The new tenants of Herklotzgasse 21 – dieloop.at and the Bundesdachverband für soziale Unternehmen – have revived the past and transformed this former meeting place again into a hub for different generations and cultures. “The Herklotzgasse project arose not from any objective plan but from a vague feeling. We knew from stories that we had heard by people living and working here that the building in which we worked had an interesting history.”
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Herklotzgasse 21 also housed a Jewish kindergarten
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In the beginning was a book …
The research started with Inge Rowhani-Ennemoser’s family saga Nachricht vom Verlust der Welt (Message about the loss of the world), one chapter of which takes place in Herklotzgasse 21. An exhibition was held from October 2008 to January 2009 combining archive research with the recollections of the people who grew up here. Fifteen survivors, most of whom live today in Israel, were asked about their childhood and youth in Fünfhaus. The first interviewee, Moshe Jahoda, also gave the exhibition its name: “My childhood revolved around the triangle Herklotzgasse 21, the Turner temple and Storchenschul (…).” The exhibition “Das Dreieck meiner Kindheit” (“The triangle of my childhood”) featured the Turner temple, Vienna’s third synagogue that was burnt down in 1938, and the Storchenschul, an orthodox prayer house, along with other centres of Jewish activity at the time, and can now be seen again in a modified form.
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The sausage and smoked meat factory at Herklotzgasse 17 (left); the Turnergasse temple was burnt down in the infamous Kristallnacht in November 1938 (centre); a rabbi of the prayer house on Storchengasse (right) | ||
Seeing and hearing history
To bring the history of the district out into the open, audio guide stations have been installed at ten locations around Herklotzgasse. Texts and pictures describe these sites and their importance for Jewish life before they were destroyed. Visitors can also dial a telephone number to listen to eye witness accounts by seventeen survivors, who bring to life again the forgotten stories surrounding the buildings and streets of Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus – be it anecdotes about the school on Henriettenplatz, Konzertcafé Palmhof (now a supermarket), or Reindorfgasse with its Jewish stores, the former “Broadway” of Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus. Even without the audio guide, the voices of this former Jewish district can thus be recalled at any time of the day or night – in German, English, Turkish, Bosnian/Croat/Serbian and Hebrew.
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Information:
„Das Dreieck meiner Kindheit“ 2.0 Mon–Fri 10Mam to 3pm Prior notification required on 01–236 7612 or office@dieloop.at Erinnerungs- und Dialograum Herklotzgasse 21 15., Herklotzgasse 21 www.herklotzgasse21.at Vienna 15 audio guide The history of a Jewish suburban community Information panels relating to the audio guide can be found at the following ten locations: Goldschlaggasse 84 (former orphanage) Henriettenplatz 6 school Herklotzgasse 17 (sausage and smoked meat factory founded around 1900) Herklotzgasse 21 (Jewish club house) Mariahilfer Strasse 135 (Konzertcafé Palmhof) Reindorfgasse (Fünfhaus’s “Broadway”, with many Jewish stores) Sechshauserstrasse 12 (until 1938 a large shoe shop, subsequently Aryanised) Storchengasse 21 (1873 founding of an orthodox prayer house, 1934 second synagogue, 1955–74 Hashomer Hatzair club house) Turnergasse 22 (1871–72 construction of Turner temple, Vienna’s third synagogue, burnt down in 1938) Auer-Welsbach-Park (here the latent anti-Semitism within the population was evident, with stickers prohibiting Jews from using the benches) On the telephone numbers indicated, callers can listen to recollections in German, English, Turkish, Bosnian/Croat/Serbian and Hebrew for the price of a local call. The eye witness accounts can also be downloaded in five languages at www.herklotzgasse21.at |
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Exhibition:
“Have You Seen My Alps – A Jewish Love Story” The exhibition takes visitors on a journey of discovery through time and space – from Hohenems to Vienna, from Vienna to Switzerland, and finally to Merano, a journey through the worlds of Jewish Alpinism and the development of the mountains for international tourism. The history of the Jews in the Alpine region actually goes back to the expansion of the Roman Empire, although Jewish communities did not settle in the Alpine valleys until much later and remained a rarity: Hohenems, Innsbruck and Merano, with Lugano and Lucerne coming later, or the seasonal Jewish life in the spas of Graubünden and Valais. “Have You Seen My Alps” enables visitors to rediscover the Alps as they embark on a fictional journey to a land of dreams and aspirations. 16 December 2009 – 14 March 2010 Free guided tours in German: Sundays at 2pm Jewish Museum Vienna – Palais Eskeles Dorotheergasse 11 1010 Vienna www.jmw.at |
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Fotos © Initiative Herklotzgasse21
erstellt am: 2009-12-09
