25. August--Jewish Museum, St. Stephen's Crypt, Mozarthaus

In class today we reflected on our visit to Mauthausen and what it meant to each of us. Some people were profoundly affected, others not so much. I think as a class we came to the conclusion that we didn’t really know what to think, but maybe some years down the road we would know. Kathy talked about a previous time she had been to a concentration camp memorial and witnessed two kids running around, laughing, and generally being loud. I think everybody responds to things in their own way, and if running around and laughing is the way that one deals with their experiences at the memorial, then nobody should say they aren’t behaving the right way. At the very least they shouldn’t disturb others with shouting and the like, but I don’t think people have the right to dictate how one should feel at a given time.

After this discussion we went to the Jewish museum near the Hofburg. This museum contains two sections: one on educating the public about Jewish holidays and traditions, and the other describing the expulsion of Jews from various parts of Europe, particularly Spain, and the consequences of those actions. In 1492 the Jews from Spain, or the Sephardic Jews, were expelled from the Iberian Peninsula. Many of them found refuge in the Ottoman Empire, which at that time was at the height of its power. As the Ottomans expanded westward and took the Balkans, Jews could establish communities there. Later, peace treaties between the Ottomans and the Habsburgs allowed the Sephardic Jews to settle in Vienna. The Habsburgs generally had a negative attitude towards Jews, but were willing to make exceptions for individuals in exchange for benefits. One example is that of the Jews that handled court finances, the Oppenheimer family and later the Wertheimer family. They were given special privileges not given to other Jews, like the right to live inside the city walls.

After this museum we finally decided to go down into the crypt at St. Stephen’s cathedral. The catacombs underneath the church were built more than 700 years ago under Rudolf IV, the so-called “Stifter.” Our guide was probably the most cheerful Viennese person I had ever met, and he acted like showing us this underground crypt was the most exciting thing he had ever done. Weird? Maybe. The first room was lined with coffins containing the mummified remains of cardinals. The next hallway, lined with big metal jars, led to a small room where Rudolf IV, next to his wife and surrounded by his relatives, was buried. In these jars are contained the organs of all the Habsburg rulers. The bodies of the Habsburgs were buried in the imperial crypt, their hearts in the Augustinerkirche, and their organs and entrails in this crypt. Apparently not long ago one of the jars started leaking, spilling some Habsburg goo into the hallway. The city’s solution to these kinds of problems is to just put the old container in a bigger one. This has happened several times over the centuries. I wonder what will happen if it keeps happening and they run out of room? Anyways, back to the tour. We passed by rooms in which the floor was covered with bones of dead plague victims. Until it was closed by Joseph II in 1783, the catacomb was used as a public graveyard. Citizens would be placed in caskets, which would be stacked on top of each other in these small underground rooms. With the last outbreak of the plague in 1730, tunnels were made connecting the streets and the rooms we were seeing so the dead could be thrown underground into mass graves more efficiently. In another room, people had stacked bones and skulls to conserve space, creating a room lined with images of death. What I found the most interesting, however, was that we were only seeing a tiny portion of the catacombs. The majority of them were closed off. The rooms we saw, with the waves of bones frozen in time, were enough to fascinate and at the same time creep me out a little.

Our third and final museum for today was the Mozarthaus, the house where Mozart and his wife Constanze lived when Mozart arrived in Vienna in 1781. The ruler at this time, Joseph II, encouraged artists to come to Vienna and employed Mozart as imperial composer. Mozart received a large income over his career, but squandered much of it through gambling, something that would continue to plague the Mozart family. One year, for example, a friend lent Mozart 1,515 florins to help with his debts while Mozart himself earned around 9,100 florins a year, more than enough to live extravagantly. At that time, 1,000 florins would have been enough to live a comfortable life. During his lifetime, Mozart was increasingly invited by the aristocracy to perform in their homes and salons, rather than the Imperial palace. This marks a gradual change as these salons replaced the royal court as centers of the arts and social life. Mozart, along with Haydn (after his Esterhazy years), is a prime example of an independent musician.