Jewish Migraton and Integration in Vienna and Berlin

This project is aimed at expanding the social structural approach of historical migration studies through the introduction of a cultural historical dimension. It examines the immigration and integration processes of Jewish migrants in a Europe-wide comparison and on a transnational basis. It examines the interpretative patterns and practices impacting the social and cultural integration of Jewish immigrants from East Central Europe. In this way, the study expands the classic subject of social historical migration studies, which traditionally has been focused on the successive waves of Jewish "migrants" and questions of social mobility, with a comparative analysis and an examination of the "cultural meaning" of these immigration and integration processes for urban societies. The research in this project centers on Vienna as a comparative study. The project departs from the general consensus within migration studies that Jewish immigration and integration in 19th century Berlin and Vienna was an unmitigated failure. Instead, it proceeds from the assumption that a bourgeois civil society existed in these metropolises which, despite the rise of nationalism, did what it could to further the integration of Jewish immigrants from East Central Europe. The study examines how the intensive cultural transfers between Jews and non-Jews promoted the partially successful social integration of Jewish immigrants from East Central Europe in urban societies. At the same time, it pays close attention to the strong anti- Semitic tendencies in German and Austro-Hungarian culture. The immigrant Jews are regarded as actors within different milieus, thus replacing the old paradigm of historical migration studies, which has long viewed immigrant Jews as mere victims of social structural processes. The study specifically examines social charities, transnational aid organizations, Jewish self-organization, the participation of immigrants in cultural life, the ways in which they were perceived by representatives of the state, the municipalities, and the local Jewish congregations, their representatives` participation opportunities within the Reichsrat or Reichstag, and a comparison of the ways in which this participation was symbolized in the political cultures of Austria-Hungary and the German Empire.