Arnold Schönberg and summer retreat antisemitism in the Salzkammergut
Online memorial exhibition
Einstein’s propaganda speech
Object #36
Einstein’s propaganda speech
Wiener Morgen-Zeitung 3/878, July 1921, p. 4
Austrian National Library, Vienna
There is no documentation to evince when Schönberg initially concerned himself with Einstein’s achievements or his personality prior to his correspondence with him (begun in early 1925) or his wish, expressed in October 1924, to contact him (letter to Emil Hertzka, 2 October 1924). Except for one mention in a letter from spring 1923, there is no known evidence yet which could shed light on his appreciation of Einstein. His scientific research brought him great media attention, as well as his engagement for the rights of Jews, which earned him acclaim – and also antisemitic resentment from inside and outside academic circles.
Mentions of Einstein were legion in the Austrian media at that time. Reports of his scientific core competence were offset by those recounting his involvement in Jewish interests: in the Society for Founding and Maintaining an Academy for Judaism’s Science, in the Committee to set up a university library in Palestine, in promoting a medical faculty at a future university in Jerusalem. By summer 1921 at the latest, Schönberg, the executor of progress in music, must have had to recognize a parallel phenomenon uniting genius and Judaism in Einstein, who enjoyed cult status in the global public since proclaiming the general theory of relativity. Max Graf, chronicler of cultural Vienna, took up that constellation later on, asserting that in the appreciation of the contemporaries, Einstein, Schönberg and Freud were among “the most powerful energies in this world,” due to their achievements (Max Graf, Die Ehrung Sigmund Freuds, in Der Morgen. Wiener Montagblatt 21/35, 1 September 1930, p. 7).
Cf. Therese Muxeneder: Arnold Schönbergs Konfrontationen mit Antisemitismus (III), in: Journal of the Arnold Schönberg Center 16/2019. Edited by Eike Feß and Therese Muxeneder. Wien 2019, p. 165–254
Introduction
This year’s tourist season in Mattsee
Object #1
Heinrich Schönberg with his wife Berta and his daughter Margit
Object #2
Come visit me
Object #3
Villa Nora
Object #4
It’s lovely here
Object #5
Harmonielehre
Object #6
A popular vacation destination
Object #7
Arrogance and Oriental Allures
Object #8
Row-boating
Object #9
Summer retreat free of Jews
Object #10
He is in good humor
Object #11
Heil Salzburg! Salzburg wants the Anschluss!
Object #12
How are you and yours in Mattsee?
Object #13
You will be pleased with me
Object #14
Kaiser-Elisabeth-Bahn
Object #15
Convivial gatherings
Object #16
Antisemitic scandals
Object #17
For rent to Aryans
Object #18
Disharmony
Object #19
Away with the Jews!
Object #20
They are doing well there
Object #21
Arnold Schönberg: Felix Greissle
Object #22
Arnold Schönberg: Harmonielehre
Object #23
Arnold Schönberg: the theory of coherence
Object #24
It must be splendid there
Object #25
I am not staying a day longer
Object #26
Threat in his own house
Object #27
Anti-Jewish proclamations
Object #28
The composer’s baptismal certificate
Object #29
Arnold Schönberg: on Zemlinsky
Object #30
The Jewish colony in Mattsee
Object #31
That outrageous, incredible thing
Object #32
The community physician
Object #33
An Aryan summer vacationer
Object #34
A summer retreat free of Jews
Object #35
Einstein’s propaganda speech
Object #36
The revolting press notice
Object #37
Sedition
Object #38
Antisemitic racial attitude
Object #39
All is calm within me
Object #40
Imaginary and material damage
Object #41
Guests of Max Ott
Object #42a
Guests of Max Ott
Object #42b
Arrival in Traunkirchen
Object #43
Departure
Object #44
Very ugly at the end
Object #45
Domestic and foreign newspapers
Object #46
Villa Josef
Object #47
Arnold and Mathilde Schönberg
Object #48
Shaken awake
Object #49
Such circumstances
Object #50
Arnold Schönberg: Baroness Löwenthal
Object #51
Traunkirchen
Object #52
Arnold Schönberg: Prelude
Object #53
A ridiculous matter
Object #54
Hegemony in the sphere of music
Object #55