Since the path-breaking work of the cultural historian Carl Schorske in 1979, much attention has been given to the culture of Vienna around 1900, and how it was one of the main sources of modernism in all the arts and culture. Though Schorske did discuss the rise of antisemitism and the founding of the modern Zionist movement by the Viennese Theodor Herzl, he viewed the culture as one shaped by the political and social upheavals of the time, rather than by religion or ethnicity. In the years since, several historians, notably Steven Beller, have given greater emphasis to the Jewish element, some even claiming that the culture was fundamentally Jewish. This lecture will examine various aspects of the culture and discuss the issue of “Jewishness” and how it is defined in the light of this culture.
