Timeline: History of Jews In Austria

  • 1194: Duke Leopold V installs Shlom as mint master. Shlom is the first Jew whose settlement in Vienna can be documented.

  • 1204: First mention of a synagogue in Vienna (excavations on Judenplatz).

  • 1238: Emperor Friedrich II takes the Jews of Vienna under his protection as “Chamber Vassals”.

  • 1244: First Jewish Privilege of Duke Friedrich the “Pugnacious”.

  • 1267: The church forbids social intercourse between Christians and Jews and ordains a dress code for Jews.

  • 1420-21: The Jews, impoverished by a large fire in the “Jewish City” and subsequent plundering, have become dispensable. Albrecht V permits the expulsion of Jews from Vienna and Lower Austria. The more affluent among them are blackmailed and imprisoned, then burned at Erdberger Lände. Some prisoners commit suicide beforehand. The synagogue is destroyed (excavated remnants can be viewed today at Judenplatz).

  • From 1584: Individual “court-freed” Jews settle in Vienna. “Court Freedom” notably means the exemption from tolls, custom duties and community taxes.

  • 1624-25: Jews are restricted to a ghetto in “Unterer Werd” consisting of 15 dwelling houses. In the decades that follow, the Jewish community grows to 132 houses.

  • 1670: Emperor Leopold I decrees, mainly for religious reasons, a second expulsion of Jews from the city and country. The former Jewish area is renamed Leopoldstadt (Leopold’s City).

  • Circa 1680: Samuel Oppenheimer (and his household) and later Samson Wertheimer are granted the privilege of returning to Vienna as “Court Jews”. They are active mainly as military suppliers and mediators of international loans for the emperor. By 1700, there are ten privileged Jewish families living in Vienna.

  • 1722: Diego D’Aguilar, a Marrano (forcibly baptized Spanish Jew), is called to Vienna to reorganize the tobacco monopoly. He helps finance the building of Schönbrunn Palace with 300,000 florins.

  • 1718 – 1736: Due to peace treaties with the Ottoman Empire, Sephardic Jews who are subjects of the sultan are granted certain freedoms within the Habsburg Empire. They are permitted to form a legally recognized community in Vienna.

  • 1763: Founding of the Vienna Chevra Kaddisha (Burial Fraternity).

  • 1764: Restrictive laws governing Jews are established by Empress Maria Theresa, including severe restrictions on residence permits and privileges.

  • 1781: A court decree by Joseph II forbids the charging of the Leibmaut poll tax which had been paid by Jews to enter certain cities since the Middle Ages.

  • 1782: Joseph II passes the Toleranzpatent (Edict of Tolerance), which lifts numerous discriminating laws. However, the Jews gain no rights as a community.

  • 1812: Convinced of the anti-Napoleonic loyalties of the Viennese Jews and their readiness to contribute financially, Franz I permits the opening of a temple and school at Dempfingerhof in Seitenstettengasse. Individual Jews are knighted. Salons, such as those of Fanny von Arnsteins and Cäcilie von Eskeles, become cultural centers.

  • 1826: Consecration of the so-called City Temple, built by Joseph Kornhäusel.

  • 1848: Jews are strongly represented among the activists of the Bourgeois Revolution.

  • 1852: The Israelitische Cultus-Gemeinde (Jewish Community) is constituted with temporary status. Jewish immigration to Vienna from the provinces of the monarchy increases.

  • 1858: Consecration of the Leopoldstadt Temple. The orthodox community moves from a small temple to the (later famous) Schiff Shul, the second most important synagogue in Vienna.

  • 1867: Constitutional law: Complete equality of all citizens of Austria, including Jews. At the same time, anti-Semitism increases.

  • 1890: Israelitengesetz (Jewish Law) to regulate the “external legal relationships of the Jewish religious community.”

  • 1896: Theodor Herzl founds political Zionism with the publication of his brochure “The Jewish State.”

  • From 1897: Mayor Karl Lueger attracts petit bourgeois voters with economically motivated anti-Semitism.

  • 1909: Founding of the “Hakoah” sports club.

  • 1906 – 1911: Adolf Hitler lives in Vienna.

  • 1914: Outbreak of the First World War. Jewish refugees from the Eastern war regions arrive in Vienna in large numbers.

  • March 12, 1938: German troops march into Austria. The same night, the SA raids Jewish apartments and businesses.

  • March through June 1938: Widespread anti-Jewish acts of violence. Jews are removed from public service. First deportations to Dachau concentration camp. Introduction of the Nuremberg racial laws. The Jewish Community is permitted to take up its official duties again, allowing official emigration.

  • Summer - Fall 1938: Numerous discriminatory decrees and edicts, such as the requirement that Jews take the first name “Sara” or “Israel” and the ban of Jews from public parks. Closing or “Aryanization” of many Jewish shops.

  • November 9 and 10, 1938: November Pogrom: Devastation and arson of all Viennese synagogues and temples. 6,547 Jews are arrested.

  • By May 1939: About 100,000 Jews have left the territory of former Austria.

  • October 1941: Start of mass deportations from Vienna. By the end of 1942, only 8,102 Jews remain in the city. By the end of the War, 65,459 Austrian Jews have been murdered in the concentration camps. Only 5,816 live to see the liberation of Austria.

  • April 1945: Re-establishment of the Vienna Jewish Community.

  • September 1945: Provisional re-opening of the City Temple, the only Jewish synagogue in Vienna that was not completely destroyed in 1938.

  • After the War: Much of Vienna becomes a camp for Displaced Persons from the East. Most are Jews who want to emigrate to Palestine.

  • From 1970: Vienna becomes a “bridge” for Soviet Jews, who cannot emigrate directly to Israel from the USSR. Many remain in Vienna.

  • 1978: Talmud Torah School becomes a public school.

  • 1980: Foundation of the Jewish Welcome Service Vienna.

  • August 1981: Bomb attack by Palestinian terrorists at Seitenstettengasse 2.

  • 1984: Re-opening of the Zwi Perez Chajes School, a high school founded before the Second World War by Chief Rabbi Chajes.

  • 1988: Jewish Institute for Adult Education is founded.

  • 1989: Establishment of the Jewish Museum of the City of Vienna.

  • 1990-91: “Vienna Yeshiva”, a vocational school for Jewish social work, becomes a public school.

  • November 18, 1993: Opening of the Jewish Museum of the City of Vienna at Dorotheergasse 11.

  • 1994: Official institutionalization of ESRA, a project aimed at psychosocial and sociocultural integration of traumatized Holocaust victims and their descendents.

  • 1999: Opening of the Lauder Chabad Campus at Rabbiner Schneerson Platz close to Augarten.

  • October 25, 2000: Unveiling of the Shoah Memorial and opening of the Judenplatz Museum.

  • 2001: Establishment of the Department for Restitution Matters within the Municipal Administration of the City of Vienna.

  • 2004: Official opening of Theodor-Herzl-Platz on Vienna’s Gartenbaupromenade in the 1st district.

  • 2005: The City of Vienna launches the Information Platform for Restitution in April. In May agreement is reached by the General Compensation Fund of the Republic of Austria and the Vienna Jewish Community (IKG) concerning outstanding restitution claims.

  • 2008: Opening of the “S.C. HAKOAH Karl Haber Sport- und Freizeitzentrums” in the Prater.

  • 2009: Opening of the Maimonides Center at the IKG campus (Simon Wiesenthal-Gasse, 1020 Wien).

  • 2009: Agreement between the Federal Government and Austrian Provinces regarding the restoration and maintenance of Jewish cemeteries in accordance with the 2001 Washington Agreement.

  • July 2011: 13th European Maccabi Games in Vienna.

  • January 2017: Opening of the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (Rabensteig 3, 1010 Vienna).

  • November 2017: Opening of the memorial in Mattersburg to Jews who had been killed there.

  • December 2018: Adoption of a declaration of the Council under the Austrian EU Council Presidency on combating antisemitism and protecting Jewish communities in Europe.

  • January 2021: Adoption of the Austrian National Strategy against antisemitism (NAS).

  • February 2021: Adoption of the Austrian-Jewish Cultural Heritage Act (ÖJKG).

  • November 2021: Inauguration of the Shoah Wall of Names Memorial in Ostarrichipark in the 9th district of Vienna.

  • May 2022: Signing of the Vienna Declaration on enhancing cooperation in fighting antisemitism and encouraging reporting of antisemitic incidents (Vienna Declaration) during the first European Conference on Antisemitism (ECA) in Vienna.

  • June 2022: First meeting of the National Forum against Antisemitism (NFA).

  • March 2024: Presentation of the Package of Measures against Antisemitism and Antisemitic Disinformation in the Digital Sphere (MAO) as part of the national strategy against antisemitism.