Austria first became a center of Jewish learning during the 13th century. However, increasing antisemitism led to the expulsion of the Jews in 1669. Following formal readmission in 1848, a sizable Jewish community developed once again, contributing strongly to Austrian culture. By the 1930s, 300,000 Jews lived in Austria, most of them in Vienna. Following the Anschluss with Nazi Germany, most of the community emigrated or were killed in the Holocaust. The current Austrian Jewish population is 9,000. The following is a list of some prominent Austrian Jews. Here German-speaking Jews from the whole Habsburg monarchy are listed.
Athletes Margarete "Grete" Adler (1896–1990), swimmer, Olympic bronze (4x100-m freestyle relay) Richard Bergmann (1919–1970), Austria/Britain table tennis player, seven-time world champion, ITTF Hall of Fame Hedy Bienenfeld (1907–1976), Austrian-American Olympic swimmer Albert Bogen (Albert Bógathy) (1882–1961), fencer (saber), Olympic silver Fritzi Burger (1910–1999), figure skater, two-time Olympic silver, two-time World Championship silver Robert Fein (1907–1975), Olympic Champion weightlifter Siegfried "Fritz" Flesch (1872–1939), fencer (sabre), Olympic bronze Alfred Guth (1908–1996), Austrian-born American water polo player, swimmer, and Olympic modern pentathlete Hans Haas (1906–1973), weightlifter, Olympic champion (lightweight), silver Judith Haspel (born "Judith Deutsch") (1918–2004), Austrian-born Israeli swimmer, held every Austrian women's middle and long-distance freestyle record in 1935, refused to represent Austria in 1936 Summer Olympics along with Ruth Langer and Lucie Goldner, protesting Hitler, stating, "I refuse to enter a contest in a land which so shamefully persecutes my people.""Diving into troubled waters" , Paul Kalina, The Age, November 24, 2005, Retrieved January 1, 2011 Dr. Otto Herschmann (1877–1942), fencer (saber), 2-time Olympic silver winner (in fencing/team sabre and 100-m freestyle); arrested by Nazis, and died in Izbica concentration camp Nickolaus "Mickey" Hirschl (1906–1991), wrestler, two-time Olympic bronze (heavyweight freestyle and Greco-Roman), shot put and discus junior champion, weightlifting junior champion, and pentathlon champion Felix Kasper (1915–2003), figure skater, Olympic bronze Alfred König (1913–1987), Austrian-Turkish Olympic sprinter Ruth Langer (1921–1999), Austrian national champion swimmer who refused to attend the 1936 Summer Olympics, along with Judith Haspel and Lucie Goldner Fritzi Löwy (1910–1994), Austrian Olympic swimmer Klara Milch (1891–1970), swimmer, Olympic bronze (4x100-m freestyle relay) Paul Neumann (1875–1932), swimmer, Olympic champion (500-m freestyle) Fred Oberlander (1911–1996), Austrian, British, and Canadian wrestler; world champion (freestyle heavyweight); Maccabiah champion Felix Pipes (1887–1983), tennis player, Olympic silver (doubles) Maxim Podoprigora (born 1978), Olympic swimmer Ellen Preis (1912–2007), fencer (foil), three-time world champion (1947, 1949, and 1950), Olympic champion, 17-time Austrian champion Otto Scheff (born "Otto Sochaczewsky") (1889–1956), swimmer, Olympic champion (400-m freestyle) and two-time bronze (400-m freestyle, 1,500-m freestyle) Josephine Sticker (1894–1963), swimmer, Olympic bronze (4x100-m freestyle relay) Otto Wahle (1879–1963), Austrian/US swimmer, two-time Olympic silver (1,000-m freestyle, 200-m obstacle race) and bronze (400-m freestyle); International Swimming Hall of Fame
Historical figures
Politicians Bruno Kreisky (1911–1990), Chancellor of Austria 1970–1983, agnostic Ignaz Kuranda (1812–1884), politician (1857–1943), politician, Minister of Finance in the early 1930s Otto Bauer (1881–1938), Foreign Minister 1918–1919 Franz Klein (1854–1926), Minister of Justice 1906–1908, and in 1916
Revolutionaries Simon Deutsch (1822–1877), revolutionary
Academic figures
Lawyers Fred F. Herzog (1907–2008), only Jewish judge in Austria between the World Wars; fled to the United States and became the dean of two law schools
Scientists Carl Djerassi (1923–2015), chemist, inventor of the pill Sir Otto Frankel (1900–1998), geneticist Jakob Erdheim (1874–1937), pathologist (Erdheim–Chester disease). Eric Kandel (born 1929), neuroscientist, winner of 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Karl Koller (1857–1944), ophthalmologist; first to use cocaine as an anaesthetic Hans Kronberger (1920–1970), nuclear physicistConcise Dictionary of National Biography: "born in Linz, Austria, of Jewish parents" Robert von Lieben (1878–1913), physicist (Jewish father) Victor Frederick Weisskopf (1908–2002), physicist; during World War II, worked at Los Alamos on the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb; later campaigned against the proliferation of nuclear weapons "Growing up in Vienna in a well-to-do Jewish family..." "One of the most brilliant Jewish scientists to be driven from Germany by Nazi persecution..." Max Perutz (1914–2002), molecular biologist, winner of 1962 Nobel Prize for Chemistry Lise Meitner (1878–1968), physicist, discovered nuclear fission of uranium with * Otto Hahn, namegiver of element 109 * meitnerium
Psychologists, psychotherapists and psychiatrists Alfred Adler (1870–1937), founding member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society and founder of the school of individual psychology Anna Freud (1895–1982), Vienna-born child psychologist and daughter of Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), Moravian-born founder of psychoanalysis and neurologist[Gresser, Moshe. Dual Allegiance: Freud As a Modern Jew. SUNY Press, 1994, p. 225] Marie Jahoda (1907–2001), psychologist Helen Singer Kaplan (1929–1995), sex therapist Melanie Klein (1882–1960), psychotherapyConcise Dictionary of National Biography: "born in Vienna of Jewish parentage" Heinz Kohut (1913–1981), psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957), psychiatry and psychoanalysis Viktor Frankl (1905–1997), psychiatrist and psychologist
Social and political scientists Guido Adler (1855–1941), Moravian musicologist Hugo Bergmann (1883–1975), philosopherJewish Agency for Israel ; The Hugo Bergmann family Papers ; both accessed 11 March 2007 Hugo Botstiber (1875–1941), musicologist Paul Edwards (1923–2004), philosopher Heinrich Friedjung (1851–1920), Moravian historian and politician ; Encyclopaedia Judaica, article "Historians", list of "Prominent Jewish General Historians". Norbert Jokl (1877–1942), founder of AlbanologyBiography of Ernest Koliqi, Shkoder.net Authors from Shkodra : "Norbert Jokl (1877-1942), the renowned Austrian Albanologist of Jewish origin" Accessed 8 Dec 2006. Otto Kurz (1908–1975), historian Jewish Year Book 1975, p.214 Emil Lederer (1882–1939), economistJInfo list of economists accessed 17 May 2007 Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973), economist Otto Neurath (1882–1945), economist, sociologist, philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951), philosopherJewish Chronicle, April 27, 2001 p.34: "he believed that, as a Jew, he was capable of only derivative thought."Evening Standard (London), 24/5/2004, p15: "Born less than a week apart, Adolf Hitler and the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein attended the institution together. There is a haunting school photograph of the young, complex, Jewish philosopher just one row away from the most evil tyrant of the 20th century." (of largely Jewish descent but given a Catholic burial)
Cultural figures
Film and stage Gabrielle Anwar, actress John Banner, actor, well known for the character of sgt. Schultz Rudolf Bing (1902–1997), opera impresario, General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York from 1950 to 1972Bing - Rudolf Bing... had been born a Jew in Vienna" Fritz Grünbaum (1880–1941), cabaret artist, operetta and pop songwriter, director, actor and master of ceremonies Alber Misak, actor Kurt Kren (1929–1998), experimental filmmaker, director of the avant garde films 8/64: Ana – Aktion Brus, 10/65: Selbstverstümmelung, 10b/65: Silber – Aktion Brus, 16/67: 20. September, and 10c/65: Brus wünscht euch seine Weihnachten (Jewish father) Reggie Nalder (1907–1991), cabaret dancer, stage, film and television actor Joseph Schildkraut (1896–1964), stage and film actor Frederick Schrecker (1892–1976), actor of film, stage and TV Harry Schein (1924–2006), founder of the Swedish Film Institute, writer, chemical engineer Elisabeth Freundlich (1906–2001), playwright and journalist who reported on the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials - Holocaust survivor
Musicians Kurt Adler (1907–1977), Bohemian born Austrian chorus master, conductor, pianist, author, Metropolitan Opera New York City, United StatesEvelyne Adler-daughter Fanny Basch-Mahler (1854–1942), pianist and music teacher Ignaz Brüll (1846–1907), composer and pianistJewish: "Contemporary Review, June, 1999 by Anthony Paterson" "the Nazi ban on his compositions - he was Jewish" Accessed 6 Nov 2006.born Moravia: "Composers of Classical Music" "Brull, Ignaz 1846-1907 Moravia, Prossnitz - Austria, Vienna" Accessed 6 November 2006. Hanns Eisler (1898–1962), composer and co-author (with Theodor W. Adorno) of Komposition für den Film (Jewish father) Joseph Joachim (1831–1907), violinist (born in Kittsee, Austria, at that time Hungary) Hans Keller (1919–1985), musicologistOxford Dictionary of National Biography: "he described himself as an 'unpious Jew'" Fritz Kreisler (1875–1962), violinist and composer, one of the most famous of his dayKreisler - "Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler, Mischa Elman... were all Jews, too" Erica Morini (1919–1995), violinist Erwin Schulhoff (1894–1942), composer and pianistSchool of Oriental and African Studies, Newsletter of the Jewish Music Institute "Erwin Schulhoff, a Czech Jew executed by the Nazis..." Accessed 8 Dec 2006. Julius Schulhoff (1825–1898), pianist and composerEncyclopædia Britannica, 2nd ed., art. "Schulhoff, Julius": "Born in Prague" Rudolf Schwarz (1905–1994), conductorJewish Chronicle, February 16, 2007, p.14: "he carried on as the sole Jewidh conductor of the Kulturbund" Walter Susskind (1913–1980), conductorBach cantatas site "The distinguished Czech-born English conductor" Lake Placid Film Forum "Walter Susskind, a German Jew" Both accessed 4 Jan 2007 Richard Tauber (1891–1948), singer and composer"The Penguin Dictionary of Musical Performers", Arthur Jacobs, , "Under threat as a Jew from Nazi persecution, settled in Britain, 1938." Egon Wellesz (1885–1974), composer
Composers Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897–1957), composer (born in Bohemia)Korngold Society : "he got thrown out of Vienna because he was Jewish". Jessica Duchen, author of E. Korngold's biography; Korngold Society : "BRNO, where the composer was born"; accessed 6 Feb 2007. Fritz Kreisler (1875–1962), violinist and composer, one of the most famous of his day Gustav Mahler (1860–1911), Bohemian-born composer, conductor and pianist["Gustav Mahler Dies in Vienna". The New York Times. 18 May 1911. http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/arts/105027769.pdf . Retrieved 1 July 2011. PDF format] Arnold Schoenberg (1871–1954), composer (born in Vienna); founder of Second Viennese School; music theorist
Writers Peter Altenberg (1859–1919), writer and poet Ludwig Basch (1851–1940), editor and journalist Raphael Basch (1813–1907), journalist and politicianJewish Encyclopedia , "born at Prague"; accessed 3 Dec 2006. Abraham Benisch (1814–1878), Hebraist and journalist; born BohemiaBritish Concise Dictionary of National Biography Henri Blowitz (1825–1903), journalistEncyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed., art. "Blowitz, Henri Boris Brainin (Sepp Österreicher) (1905–1996), poet and translator Fritz Brainin (1913–1992), poet Rudolf Flesch (1911–1986), naturalized American writer noted for his book Why Johnny Can't Read Bernard Friedberg (1876–1961), Hebraist, scholar and bibliographer Elfriede Jelinek (born 1946), Nobel Prize-winning (2004) novelist (Jewish father).