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First of all: I like Ludwig Hirschfeld, I am a fan of his fine feature articles. For a long time I had to look for them in the scans of historical newspapers in Anno. An effort that I was always happy to undertake. They couldn't be missing from any of my anthologies "Old Viennese Animal Stories", "Old Viennese Kitchen Stories" and "Old Viennese Love Stories". My favorite quote from Hirschfeld, "I know my hometown exactly, but I love it." from the features section "Vienna from Above - A Flight with Chamberlin" (Neue Freie Presse, June 12, 1927), can be found at the front and back of my "Vienna Natural Stories".
Hirschfeld's fine pen can become addictive. Like no other, he knows how to take unusual positions, show new perspectives and always surprise. He was sure to make readers smile in Vienna at the turn of the century and between the wars. Anyone who reads him today will notice that many of his lines in the daily newspapers of that time have no expiration date.
Apart from an entry in Wikipedia, there was little information about Hirschfeld himself; his works had long been out of print. But thanks to the tireless historian and urban researcher Peter Payer and Löcker Verlag, there has been not only a selection of Hirschfeld feature articles since 2020, but also a detailed, meticulously researched biography since spring 2025. This means that Hirschfeld, who was murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942, has been resurrected twice in literary terms.
“The number of his feature articles alone amounts to around a thousand,” says Peter Payer in the foreword. He acknowledges Hirschfeld as "part of the Jewish-influenced creative scene" on page 9 "together with Alfred Polgar & Co." a “place in the Olympus of Viennese feature writing”.
Ludwig Hirschfeld was born on May 21, 1882 in Vienna and grew up in the second district (Leopoldstadt). His upbringing was strict, as can be seen in Part 1 ("Until 1906") of the extensive (416 pages) biography, which Payer divides into five chronological sections. Here you can find out about his family, which belonged to the "good middle class" (page 22). The company Hirschfeld Brothers & Co. in Vienna-Atzgersdorf made money in the food industry with rolled barley and split peas. Little Ludwig attended elementary school at Untere Augartenstrasse 3, and the high school was at Glockengasse 2.
From autumn 1899 he enrolled in chemistry at the Technical University (now TU Vienna), but his interest in the natural sciences did not last long. He was much more drawn to writing. Between November 1902 and July 1903 he had already written his third novel, "Paukzeit" (page 31). In 1903 and 1904 it was necessary to complete military service. Although he didn't have much interest in the military, he passed all the exams with excellent results. The conclusion of the military period: "Medium size, healthy, suitable for all services in peace and war." (page 35).
Part 2, "1902-1914" is dedicated to writing, from his first literary works (see above) to his journalistic beginnings (from page 42) to early comedies (page 56ff). Hirschfeld, like many in this profession, began working as a freelancer for the “Neue Freie Presse” in the spring of 1906. His first article, "Heine as a feature writer", appeared on February 25, 1906. Hirschfeld, together with co-authors, had also tried his hand as a playwright, whose plays were performed in the Theater in der Josefstadt from 1910 onwards. In 1912 he moved into his own apartment in Vienna Alsergrund (Rotenhausgasse 8 /10) in a Wilhelminian style house - the entrance is shown in the color section. As interest in his texts grew, readings also followed from 1913 onwards (page 49f). During the First World War he was active as a war correspondent (Part 3, "1914-1918", from page 61) and was able to remain true to his genre.
Part 4, "1918-1938", covers the two most important decades in his work, in which he also married (April 13, 1919) and started a family: daughter Eva was born on July 3, 1920, son Herbert on August 7, 1921. The staccato of the sub-chapters, "A Metropolis in Transition", "Versatile Cultural Journalist", "Family Life", "Travel and Vacations", "Comedies and Operettas", "Revues and Hits" and "Film and Radio" demonstrate his broad cultural work, even beyond the features pages. Pages 187 to 205 are dedicated to his most famous work, "Vienna, What is not in the 'Baedeker'", a special kind of travel guide. Peter Payer says: "He was a multi-talented man. [...] Whether newspaper, book, stage, film or radio, Hirschfeld was successful in all professions." Part 5, "1938-1942" illuminates the years of Hirschfeld's persecution, his arrests, his escape to France, up to his deportation on Transport No. 42 in November 1942 to the Auschwitz concentration camp and his murder by the Nazi regime. Ludwig, his wife Ella, and their children Eva and Herbert were victims of the Holocaust.
The range of 43 feature articles that Peter Payer selected under the title "Vienna in Minor" (263 pages) spans from 1907 ("Concert for Eyes") to 1937 ("Death and Becoming - Two Viennese Views"). Their first publications were in the “Neue Freie Presse”. The first twelve feature pages are entitled “Imperial Vienna”. Hirschfeld proves to be a close observer, as his view of a Vienna Philharmonic concert shows. With the subtitle "Unmusical reflections" he finds well-chosen words for what is often hardly noticed ("The first production, which is not on the program, has already begun: the checking and tuning of the instruments, the brief fluttering of sound figures and runs, of hinted melodies.") as well as for the audience during the breaks ("During the breaks there is less spirit and humor, less smiling and flirting, than on other glamorous occasions") (March 10th 1907). Hirschfeld's empathy does not stop at animals, which can be seen during the "Visit with the Animals" at Schönbrunn Zoo. "Perhaps the monkey finds the human manner unpleasant, as an incomprehensible distortion of its nature. Maybe that's why they look at the visitors with such surprise and concern, almost horrified. And who knows what a terrible moment it would be for the monkey in which it would recognize its resemblance to humans." (May 9, 1909)
During the First World War we had to tone down. Vacations on the Adriatic had become a distant memory; it was time to (re)discover local bathing delights, true to the motto “Holiday on the Gänsehäufel”. Hirschfeld commented on this on August 20, 1916: "A few unexpected short days of vacation, and that's all you usually have at the moment, can be used most efficiently there." Of course, the bathing public also had to rethink: "Now they are doing it very seriously and many former Lido regulars and cabana owners realize that if necessary they can also relax on the sand island between Kagran and Kaisermühlen and that exactly the same sun shines here."
His view of the wave of inflation in the First Republic reveals parallels to today. Hirschfeld describes it under the title "Everything about a crown - a tramway, postage and nicotine commentary" on November 30, 1919. "And what is most valuable about these tariff increases: the overcoming of the misery of small change, the worries about hellers and kreuzers, the advancement of the crown into the smallest, paper coin, which is easy to part with because it is worth nothing anyway." Who doesn't think of the 1-euro shops of today, where things are offered that are hardly worth anything and that you often don't need?
Conclusion: "Ludwig Hirschfeld - Biography" not only describes the life of the literary all-rounder, but also lists all of his works in the appendix (pages 355 to 381), which comprehensively presents Hirschfeld's work. "Ludwig Hirschfeld: Vienna in Minor. Feuilletons 1907–1937" is a chronological best-of of his feature articles and can be seen as a reflection of Vienna in the first third of the 20th century. (Thomas Hofmann, June 27, 2025).