Austria's Mona Lisa didn't live to see Kristallnacht

The beautiful golden painting with my face photoshopped onto it is the somewhat altered portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, a Jewish lady who ran an elegant salon in Vienna at the turn of the twentieth century. She and her husband Ferdinand were great art collectors, and they commissioned two very grand portraits of Adele by Gustav Klimt, the great Austrian painter (1862-1918). This painting, done in 1907 (54" by 54") is historic artistically for its lavish use of gold leaf, but both potraits of Adele are significant in that they bear historical witness to the significance of Jewish patronage during the Golden Era of fin-de-siecle Vienna.

My neighbor recently watched The Rape of Europa, the PBS documentary about the aryanization of Europe's greatest art collections, including those stolen out of Jewish homes. In some way that I do not quite understand, Adele reminded him of me "in spirit" and so he created this photoshopped version of the painting. I'm sharing it with you, along with the story around it, as we prepare to mark the 72nd anniversary of Kristallnacht.

As you already know if you have been reading my blog this week, my aunt just returned from a European "vacation" that included touring a number of European Jewish ghettoes and hearing stories and seeing pictures about all that happened there 1000, 100, and 72 years ago. My aunt was was quite shaken to see the elegant, even patrician lifestyle of many Jews in Vienna before their lives were suddenly shattered and violently destroyed.

In Adele's time, Jews had become predominant in all spheres of life and contributed greatly to Austria's cultural and scientific achievements; three out of four Austrian Nobel Prize winners were Jewish, as were more than half the physicians, lawyers, professors and dentists. Jewish merchants, traders, entrepreneurs and businessmen all contributed to the city's prosperity at the turn of the century.

Adele's Viennese salon was attended by the major personalities of the time, which included prominent Jewish physicians Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, Wilhelm Reich and Theodor Reik. Jewish luminaries of music and theatre included Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schonberg, Oscar Straus, Emmerich Kalman, Max Reinhardt, Fritz Kortner, Lily Darvas and Elisabeth Berner, and also, the writers: Arthur Schnitzler, Franz Kafka, Stefan Zweig and Felix Salten.

Because of the atmosphere of economic, religious and social freedom, the Jewish population grew from 6,200 in 1860 to 40,200 in 1870 and, by the turn of the century, it reached 147,000. By 1938, the Jewish population of Vienna would peak at 185,000 members.

By dying suddenly of meningitis in 1925, Adele was spared what happened next.

While Jews were making great strides in Viennese society, a backlash of anti-Semitism developed. One famous anti-Semite was Georg Schonerer, who portrayed Jews as evil incarnate and was responsible for ransacking the office of Neuss Wiener Tagblatt (a Jewish-owned newspaper) and for hitting its Jewish employees. Schonerer was jailed for his actions, but after his release, 21 members of the anti-Semitic nationalist party (Alldeutsch Parti) were elected into the Austrian Parliament.

A second anti-Semite, Karl Leuger, had even more influence over the racist atmosphere in Vienna. Leuger was elected mayor of Austria five times between 1897 and 1910. At first, Emperor Franz Joseph refused to support him, however, after Leuger’s fifth reelection he accepted Leuger’s power. Leuger blamed the Jews for Vienna’s financial problems and roused the crowds with anti-Semitic fervor, while in private he still had a number of Jewish friends and dined at their houses. Both Leuger and Schnorer influenced Adolf Hiter, then a young man from Bravau on Inn, Austria. In Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler claims he learned anti-Semitism from them.

In the 1930's increased anti-Semitism was directed at the Social Democrat party, which was mainly run by Jews.

In March 1938, Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany, the Anschluss. Following the annexation, Jews were chased through the streets, were forced to scrub the sidewalks and Jewish stores and apartments were pillaged. The Social Democratic party was crushed and thousands of Austrians who opposed Nazi rule were deported to concentration camps and murdered.

The Nazis enacted the Nuremberg Racial Laws in occupied Austria in May 1938. Within a short period, Jews had lost nearly all of their civil liberties, were unable to attend university, were excluded from most professions and forced to wear a yellow badge. All Jewish organizations and institutions were shut down. The Nazis encouraged emigration and nearly 130,000 Jews left Austria, including 30,000 who headed to the United States.

Many Jewish stores, factories and building were destroyed during Kristallnacht on November 9-10, 1938. Public displays of hatred commenced across the city and all of the city’s synagogues were ravaged. The only synagogue that remained untouched was the central synagogue, hidden because of a law that allowed only churches to be free standing - the building blended inconspicuously with its residential surroundings.
That night about 6,000 Jews were apprehended and sent to Dachau.

The situation further deteriorated after the Wanassee Conference in January 1942. The remaining Austrian Jews were killed or sent to concentration camps; more than 65,000 Viennese Jews were deported to concentration camps, and only 2,000 survived. About 800 Jews who managed to hide survived the war.

Here, from the Jewish Women's archives, is more information about Adele and her famous portrait.

In 1919, after the Bloch-Bauers moved to their new grand palace opposite the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Adele erected a shrine dedicated to Klimt in her chambers. His paintings decorated the walls, while his photo stood on a side table.

In 1918, after the fall of the Austrian-Hungary monarchy, Ferdinand and Adele requested Czech citizenship with the address of their castle “Schloß Jungfern” near Prague. But, their home base remained in Vienna, where Adele continued her role as a salon lady. Julius Tandler, a prominent guest, also became her physician. It was possibly due to his influence that she began to support Socialist causes. In her will, she bequeathed her money to many charities, among them The Society of Children’s Friends. She donated her library to the Viennese Public and Workers’ Library.

On January 24, 1925 Bloch-Bauer died suddenly of meningitis, in Vienna. After her death, the “Klimt Hall” was turned into a “memorial room” for her. In her will she asked her husband to donate Klimt’s paintings to the Austrian Gallery after his death. In 1938, following the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany, the paintings were aryanized. Ferdinand fled to Czechoslovakia and later continued to Zurich, where he died shortly after the end of the war. He is buried beside his wife in Vienna. His last request to recover the Klimt paintings and other artworks from their exquisite collection was not fulfilled in his lifetime. Maria Altmann, Adele’s California-based niece and the family heir, sued the Republic of Austria, demanding that the Klimt paintings be returned to her.

In May 2005 the Republic of Austria and Maria Altmann of Los Angeles agreed to end their litigation in U.S. District Court regarding five Gustav Klimt paintings and to submit the dispute to binding arbitration in Austria. In January 2006 the arbitration resulted in the award of the paintings to Maria Altmann. Soon afterwards, she had them displayed at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In June 2006 the portrait entitled Adele Bloch-Bauer I was purchased for the Neve Galerie in Manhattan, where it hangs today, by Ronald Lauder, for the record sum of 135 million dollars.

(thanks to the Jewish Women's archives and the Jewish Virtual Library for all the detailed information used in writing my blog post on Adele and early 20th Vienna)