History of the Jews in Vienna

The history of the Jews in Vienna, Austria, goes back over eight hundred years. There is evidence of a Jewish presence in Vienna from the 12th century onwards.

At the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century, Vienna was one of the most prominent centres of Jewish culture in Europe, but during the period of National-Socialist rule in Austria, Vienna’s Jewish population was almost entirely deported and murdered in the Holocaust. Since 1945, Jewish culture and society have gradually been recovering in the city.

Proof exists of a Jewish presence in Vienna since 1194. The first named individual was Schlom, Duke Frederick I’s Münzmeister (master of the mint). In 1238, emperor Frederick II granted the Jews a privilege, and the existence of community institutions such as a synagogue, hospital and slaughterhouse can be proven from the 14th century onwards. Vienna’s city law empowered a special Judenrichter (Judge of the Jews) to adjudicate in disputes between Christians and Jews, but this judge was not empowered to rule in conflicts between two Jewish parties, unless one party filed a complaint with him.

The first Jews lived in the area near the Seitenstettengasse; from around 1280, they also lived around the modern-day Judenplatz. The centre of Jewish cultural and religious life was located here from the 13th to the 15th century, until the Vienna Gesera of 1420/21, when Albert V ordered the annihilation of the city’s Jews.

Although there was a ban on new settlement in place until 1624, this was repeatedly circumvented through the granting of exceptions, to the point that a new cemetery was established in the Seegasse in 1582. Jews’ rights were further restricted in 1637, leading to the second expulsion of Vienna’s Jewish population in 1669/70 under Leopold I. The second Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683 however led to Samuel Oppenheimer’s appointment as a financier to the court; he was also responsible for the restoration of the cemetery. Oppenheimer was able to help Samson Wertheimer from Worms to come to Vienna in 1684. Wertheimer was later named Court Jew, but he could not perform his duties as a Rabbi in Vienna and therefore left for Eisenstadt, part of the Siebengemeinden, where Jews were welcomed under Paul I, 1st Prince Esterházy of Galántha.

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Wikipedia