Arnold Schönberg and summer retreat antisemitism in the Salzkammergut
Online memorial exhibition
Threat in his own house
Object #27
Threat in his own house
Alban Berg to Arnold Schönberg
28/30 June 1921
The Library of Congress, Washington D.C.
The news of Mattsee turbulences arrived in a letter (not preserved) from Trudi Schönberg to Erwin Ratz around 27 June; it was communicated at once in the Schönberg circle via Anton Webern to Alban Berg, who analyzed the situation as follows:
“I do not want to write about this in a letter, which could be lost. But the parallelism of the events is simply stunning:
1911*
Start of summer
Intensive work on Harmonielehre
Begun with severe
Toothaches, tooth extraction!
Threat in his own
House (the lunatic engineer)
Polnauer arrives
1921
Start of summer
Intensive work on Har[-]
monielehre II [recte: III] edition
the same
the Mattsee threats
Polnauer arrives“
* In summer 1911, a neighborhood conflict tinted with antisemitic overtones with the engineer Philipp Josef van Wouwermanns at Hietzinger Hauptstraße 113 led to Schönberg’s flight from Vienna.
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