All nice cities lay declare to at the least one golden second. Whereas we would quibble over what’s required to earn that label, one factor appears clear: Fabled future usually coexists with searing contradictions.
Vienna in 1900 was an ideal instance.
At the start of the twentieth century, Vienna was the imperial metropolis of the ruling Hapsburgs and Europe’s cosmopolitan middle of music and pleasure. It was house to Sigmund Freud and the 2 Gustavs of music and artwork (Mahler and Klimt ), a pantheon of poets, composers, literati, and theater notables; a yeasty mixture of immigrants from all through the sprawling Austro-Hungarian empire; the sixth largest Jewish inhabitants on this planet; and plentiful parks, palaces, espresso homes, and heart-stopping pastries.
But as Stefan Zweig (1881–1942) — Vienna’s native son, member of town’s Jewish bourgeoisie, and famed writer — understood effectively, Vienna’s underbelly was in ferment. Suicide was rampant. So, too, have been syphilis, cholera, tuberculosis, and typhoid. Toddler mortality was excessive and life expectancy low at a mere 38 years. Anti-Semitism was additionally on the rise as was the disaffection of youth, shackled by guidelines and norms governing each facet of life.
With the assistance of Zweig’s 1942, 450-page autobiography, aptly titled The World of Yesterday, listed below are some eager observations of this…
