58 CultureShock! Austria
are similar to those around the world, with a few exceptions.
Only a small number of Austrian Catholics practise their
religion and attend church. They have many beautiful
churches to choose from, several fashioned in the Baroque
style. There is usually daily mass. On Sundays, there are
three masses: early morning, late morning (where the priest
gives a sermon called a Hochamt, and a choir performs) and
late evening.THE JEWS
The Jews have always been in Vienna. In a commercial edict
passed in AD 966, less than a century after the name Vienna
first appeared on historic documents, the phrase ‘Jews
and other legitimate merchants’ shows up. In the 1300s,
a contemporary observer remarked, “There are more Jews
in Vienna than in any other German city familiar to me.”
Vienna had become known in the Jewish world as a centre of
learning, and rabbis and Hebraic scholars were often referred
to as the ‘sages of Vienna’ (Vienna and Its Jews, page 29). The
history thereafter is one of being exiled, then let back in, and
so on and so forth. At one point, the Jews were the reason for
the economic stability of the Austrian empire. Maria Theresa
hated them and said, “I know of no greater plague on the
state than this nation which, through deception, usury and
cheating, brings people into beggary.” She should have bitten
her tongue, as her finance minister was a Jew. Her son, Josef,
was a true son of the Enlightenment, and issued a Tolerance
Ordinance in 1781 that protected many Jews.
The Jews came in great numbers to Vienna in the 19th
century. In fact, at the close of the century, they accounted for
11 per cent of the population. Jews held a variety of positions
at differing economic levels and many were very successful.
Many of those positions were in the retail and wholesale
trade, banking and in the press. In fact, 61 per cent of the
doctors, 57 per cent of the lawyers and 86 per cent of the
law clerks were Jewish.
At the turn of the 19th century, the population of Jews
started dwindling. They were used as scapegoats during
the 1873 stock market crash. Karl Lueger, Vienna’s mayor