Jewish Traces and Hitler's Vienna

Introduction to the tour: due to the murders and expulsions, we are today discussing four Jewish communities in Vienna. Desider Friedmann was one of the tragic victims of Nazi rule.

Due to fierce fighting towards the end of the Second World War, virtually all the buildings here were destroyed. Miraculously, Vienna’s oldest church survived the destruction. This stop also focuses on the formative years of the young Adolf Hitler in Vienna.

The founder of political Zionism completed his education in Vienna. It was here, and above all whilst working as a correspondent in Paris, that he realised that the assimilation of the Jews could not contribute to the survival of his people. He therefore proposed an alternative to assimilation; the establishment of the State of Israel was based on Theodor Herzl’s ideas.

One of the largest medieval Jewish communities in Europe developed here, only to be brutally murdered and driven out at the beginning of the 15th century. What were the exact circumstances? There is also a memorial here to the Austrian Jews murdered by the Nazis. And there is also a Jewish museum on this square.

The first part on A. Hitler focused on his youth and his years in Vienna until he moved on to Munich at the age of 24. What was his life like there during the First World War, and what followed – his rise to become the Führer? What steps did he take to ultimately annex Austria to the German Reich? And how did the Austrians react to this? What was life like after the war?

It was from this balcony that A. Hitler announced the Anschluss on 15 March 1938. And it was here that more than 250,000 people cheered in celebration … only to remember nothing of it after the war …