Architecture & Memory: Jewish Museum

Where: Innere Stadt, 1010 Vienna - Austria

What: Museum

When: 1993

Admission: Regular admission € 10,-
Reduced admission € 8,-
Students € 5,-
Children (18 and under) FREE
Group rate € 7,-
Guided tours € 40,- per group and hour
School classes Admissions free of charge, guided tour € 20,-

The building: The Jewish Museum of Vienna is located, nowadays, in the Palais Eskeles, owned by the jewish family Eskeles. Over the years Vienna had many different Jewish museums, in different locations. The first one, funded in 1895, was closed when the WWII started. The one active today, in the Palais Eskeles, was only established in 1993, its renovation was led by a Viennese team of architects called Eichinger oder Knechtl. The palais was in the Eskeles family since 1829, but it had other owners before. The museum displays the history of Jews in Vienna.

Context: Vienna had the first Jewish museum in the world, founded in 1895 by the private “Society for the Collection and Conservation of the Art and Historical Monuments of Judaism”. The focus was to present the cultural influences of the Jews in the Viennese society, the collection focused in the history and culture of Jews in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and had a vast range of Zionist objects. It was closed in 1938 by the Nazis, and the collection was transferred to different museums in Vienna. From 1950 to 1990 some objects were returned to the Vienna Israelite Community (IKG), but many disappeared. All the objects now in the Palais Eskeles are on permanent loan from IKG. Only in 1986 a new museum was announced. The museum was founded in 1988 but only in 1993 it moved to Palais Eskeles.

The exhibition: The ground floor is reserved for their history from 1945 until the present, and the second floor, from ancient times until 1945. The first floor houses temporary exhibitions. There is also a third floor with many objects donated, they are part of the Jewish culture, there we can find candleholders, books, silver cups etc. The permanent exhibition has a vast range of documents, but mainly letters. The temporary exhibition was about Jews in the IWW, and was a compilation of personal and official documents, from photos and letters to posters, medals and crowns. The exhibition was divided in many categories, trying to show the many faces of war. Each room depicts an aspect, there is “ugly faces of war”, “anti-Semitism”, “youth movement”, “women in war” and others.

Personal impressions: The temporary exhibition has a really dark design, the walls are dark blue, and the lights are low, there are not many colours, which gives a dramatic tone to the exhibition, and enhances the feeling of importance and respect for what you are seeing. What I thought was most interesting about the organization was that, although they want to impose the feeling of gravely, they tried also to show a part of war that wasn’t as tragic, as the youth movement and how women participated. The content is also really good; you can see how many things are related, not only with the WWI but also with the WWII.

What I found most interesting in the permanent exhibition was the part of Vienna before 1945. Many is said about the IIWW and its afterwards, but I never really had thought about the before. What I think is well shown in this exhibition is that, at least in Austria, Jews already suffered a lot of prejudice and persecution. The exhibition shows that there was a time of relative peace and good coexistence, but not exactly, after 1780 Jews had to pay a tolerance tax to stay in Vienna. They played an important role in Vienna’s history, but were never well accepted. Only in 1867 that they achieved equal civil rights, but there were always a feeling of Anti-Semitism. This is also shown in the temporary exhibition, there is a part that demonstrates how the Jews helped in the War but were never really accepted in the Viennese society. This part was really reviling for me, for that’s the society Hitler grew up, he was Austrian and they never had accepted Jews as a part of their society. I think that in both exhibitions show clearly that there were always great xenophobic actions from Austria, not only with Jews, but also with other groups, as the Armenians. This also kept me thinking why?

References:

http://www.viennareview.net/news/austria/the-worlds-oldest-jewish-museum-looks-to-the-future

http://www.jmw.at/en/about-us

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Museum_Vienna

http://www.wien.info/en/vienna-for/jewish-vienna/jewish-museum

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/21/arts/design/jewish-museum-in-vienna-said-to-lag-in-restitution.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palais_Eskeles
http://archive.today/3zqIJ#