Austria-Hungary's Jewish Population: A Historical Perspective

Austria-Hungary, also known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was a military and diplomatic alliance consisting of two sovereign states with a single monarch, who was titled both Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary.

The Empire was one of Europe's major powers, geographically the second-largest country in Europe and the third most populous (after Russia and the German Empire), while being among the ten most populous countries worldwide. It was home to about 192,000 Jews in 1938, representing almost 4% of the total population. The overwhelming majority of Austrian Jews lived in Vienna, the capital, an important centre of Jewish culture, Zionism, and education.

The history of the Jews in Austria dates back to the 3rd century CE, while in Hungary, there is evidence of Jewish communities in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary, with some records even predating the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin in 895 CE by over 600 years.

During the First World War, the Ashkenazi of Hungary were fairly well-integrated into Hungarian society, and by the early 20th century, the community had grown to constitute 5% of Hungary's total population and 23% of the population of the capital, Budapest. Jews became prominent in science, the arts, and business.

However, anti-Jewish policies grew more repressive in the interwar period, and starting in 1938, Hungary under Miklós Horthy passed a series of anti-Jewish measures in emulation of Germany's Nuremberg Laws. Following the German occupation of Hungary on March 19, 1944, Jews from the provinces were deported to concentration camps, and thousands were killed during the Holocaust.

Today, Austria has a Jewish population of around 10,000–15,000, while Hungary's Jewish population is estimated to range from 54,000 to more than 130,000, mostly concentrated in Budapest.

The history of Jews in Austria-Hungary dates back to the Roman Empire

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the next record of Jews in Austria is found in the ninth century, when Bishop Arno of Salzburg (785-871) was treated by a Jewish doctor. In the 10th century, a document determining equal rights between Jewish and Christian merchants in the Danube implies a Jewish population in Vienna. The existence of a Jewish community in the area is known for sure after the start of the 12th century, with the existence of two synagogues. In the same century, the Jewish settlement in Vienna increased with the arrival of Jewish settlers from Bavaria and the Rhineland.

At the start of the 13th century, the Jewish community in Austria began to flourish. Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II declared Jews a separate ethnic and religious group, and published a bill of rights for them in 1244. During this time, Jews held important governmental positions, administered taxes and mints, and were involved in trade. However, they also faced growing hostility from the church, and massacres began to occur.

In the following centuries, the political status of the Jewish community in Austria rose and fell. During certain periods, they enjoyed religious freedom and political equality, while during others, they suffered pogroms, deportations, and mass murder. The Holocaust drastically reduced the Jewish community in Austria, and only 8,140 Jews remained according to the 2001 census. Today, Austria has a Jewish population of around 10,000.

Jews were prominent in science, the arts and business in Austria-Hungary

Jews have been in Austria since at least the 3rd century CE, and over the centuries, they have made significant contributions to various fields, including science, arts, and business.

During the reign of Franz Joseph I, Austria's Jewish community thrived and enjoyed a period of relative prosperity. This period also saw the establishment of the Jewish sports club Hakoah Vienna in 1909, which excelled in football, swimming, and athletics.

In the fields of science and academia, influential Austrian Jews include the world-renowned psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, and neurologist Eric Kandel, among others.

In the arts, notable Austrian Jews include composers Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schoenberg; authors Stefan Zweig, Arthur Schnitzler, and Joseph Roth; and filmmakers Max Reinhardt and Fritz Lang. Many other Jewish artists, writers, musicians, and actors contributed to the rich cultural life of Austria during this period.

In business, Jews were prominent in various sectors, including finance, banking, and industry. They held key positions in civic finance, tax collection, and money lending.

Overall, despite facing periods of persecution and antisemitism, Jews in Austria-Hungary have had a significant and lasting impact in science, the arts, and business, contributing to the cultural, intellectual, and economic life of the region.

Anti-Jewish policies grew more repressive in the interwar period

The interwar period, between the two World Wars, was a time of rapid and dramatic change in Europe. The collapse of the German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and Ottoman empires left new states feeling insecure and suspicious of ethnic and religious minorities, including Jews. This, along with economic crises, nationalist movements, and the erosion of liberalism, undermined Jewish hopes for stability and security.

In the 1920s, the United States passed restrictive immigration laws, ending its role as a refuge for European Jews fleeing poverty and persecution. With the rise of Nazism, Jews found that there were no longer any countries in the world that welcomed them as refugees.

In Austria, the First Republic denied citizenship to former Habsburg monarchy Jews during the interwar period. Antisemitism increased after the collapse of the Habsburg Empire, and violent attacks by German nationalists and National Socialists against Jewish and socialist classmates at the University of Vienna became more common in the 1920s. In 1921, there was a significant antisemitic mob parade in Vienna, and Jews were blamed for the downfall of Austria-Hungary and the Central Powers during World War I.

During the 1930s, anti-Jewish policies in Austria became more repressive. In 1933, Karl Lueger, the antisemitic mayor of Vienna, removed Jews from positions in the city administration and forbade them from working in the city's factories. After the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938, anti-Jewish measures were instituted throughout the country. Jews were expelled from all cultural, economic, and social life, and their businesses were seized or sold for a fraction of their value. Jewish citizens were humiliated and forced to perform menial tasks.

On "Kristallnacht" in November 1938, synagogues were looted and burned, Jewish shops were vandalised and looted, and some Jewish homes were destroyed. In Vienna, all synagogues except one were destroyed. During that night, at least 27 Jews were murdered in Austria, and many others were beaten.

By the end of 1941, only about 2,000 to 5,000 Jews remained in Austria. The rest had either emigrated or been murdered in the Holocaust.

The Austrian-Hungarian Empire was a multi-national constitutional monarchy

The Austrian-Hungarian Empire, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy, or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed through the Compromise of 1867, which transformed the Habsburg Monarchy into an alliance of two sovereign states: the Empire of Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary. The two halves of the empire were united by their common army and foreign policy, with the strongest linking factor being the monarch, who personified the unity of the empire.

The Austrian half of the empire, often referred to as Cisleithania, consisted of seventeen historical crown lands and had a total area of 300,004 km². It was characterised by its heterogeneity, with attempts to centralise these different lands failing due to their diverse nature. The 1867 constitution defined Cisleithania as a multinational state, granting numerous rights to the individual nationalities within it.

The Hungarian half of the empire, known as Transleithania, had a total area of 325,411 km². Its internal structure was somewhat clearer, with the Kingdom of Hungary being the dominant element, alongside the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia, which had been united with Hungary since the Middle Ages. While the Magyars were the dominant nation in Hungary, it was also a multi-ethnic structure, with the Magyars only making up a small majority (54.5%) compared to other language groups. The non-Magyar ethnic groups were considered minorities and were subject to an uncompromising Magyarization policy by the national feudal Hungarian elite, which increasingly alienated the other nationalities from the aims of the Hungarian state.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was a military and diplomatic alliance, consisting of two sovereign states with a single monarch. The two countries conducted unified diplomatic and defence policies, with common ministries of foreign affairs, defence, and finance maintained under the monarch's direct authority. While the Austrian and Hungarian states were co-equal in power, they were treated as foreigners in each other's halves of the empire.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was one of Europe's major powers, geographically the second-largest country in Europe, and the third-most populous. It built up the fourth-largest machine-building industry in the world and was among the ten most populous countries worldwide. However, the empire faced significant social and political problems, as well as dominant nationality conflicts that shook the empire to its foundations.

Jews constituted 5% of Hungary's total population and 23% of the population of Budapest

The Jewish population in Hungary has a long history, with some records even predating the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin in 895 CE by over 600 years. By the early 20th century, the community had grown to constitute 5% of Hungary's total population and 23% of the population of the capital, Budapest. This meant that almost a quarter of the Jews of Hungary lived in Budapest in 1910.

The Jews of Hungary were fairly well integrated into Hungarian society by the time of the First World War. They were prominent in science, the arts and business. In 1910, about 900,000 religious Jews made up approximately 5% of the population of Hungary and about 23% of Budapest's citizenry. Jews accounted for 54% of commercial business owners, 85% of financial institution directors and owners in banking, and 62% of all employees in commerce, 20% of all general grammar school students, and 37% of all commercial scientific grammar school students were Jewish. Religious Jews were accounted for 48.5% of all physicians, and 49.4% of all lawyers/jurists in Hungary.

The strong class divisions of Hungary were represented in the Jewish population. About 3.1% of the Jews belonged to the "large employer" and "agricultural landowner of more than 100 hold, i.e. 57 hectares" class, 3.2% to the "small (<100 hold) landholder" class, 34.4% to the "working", i.e. wage-earning employee class, while 59.3% belonged to the self-employed or salary-earning middle class.

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