Tours Wien

Highlights :
Begin the tour outside the Jewish City Temple before winding through the second district to the memorial site of the destroyed Leopoldstädter Temple.
Visit the Nestroyhof Theater with its stunning art nouveau exterior, once home to Yiddish-speaking ensembles.
Reflect on brilliant leaders of Vienna’s intellectual, political, and economic spheres from the Jewish community: Sigmund Freud, Theodor Herzl, Karl Krauss, Franz Werfel, and Gustav Mahler.
Learn of the victims and survivors of Nazi genocide and the phenomenon of antisemitism in Europe while visiting the destroyed synagogues of both Ashkenazi and Sephardic congregations.
Discover aspects of the present-day renewal of Vienna’s Jewish community.


Short Description
From the Middle Ages until 1938, the Jewish community in Vienna was one of the largest in Europe, reaching 185,000 individuals at its peak. This 3-hour Jewish Vienna tour will explore the tumultuous experiences of Vienna’s Jewish citizens through expulsion, genocide and revival. Your historian guide will help you to explore the influential contributions of past intellectual and cultural icons and the fragile revitalization of Vienna’s Jewish community taking place today.




Long Description

Few European cities have been so closely intertwined with Jewish history as Vienna. As early as the Middle Ages, the Viennese Jewish community was relatively large. Despite two dramatic expulsions, Jews continued to settle in the city on the Danube. Nazism caused a devastating rupture in the evolution of the city in general and for its Jewish community in particular. Before 1938, the Jewish community was one of the largest in Europe numbering some 185,000 including many brilliant leaders of Vienna’s intellectual, political, and economic spheres. On this tour, we speak of the vibrant cultural contributions of Sigmund Freud, father of psychoanalysis, Theodor Herzl, father of Zionism, men of letters such as Karl Krauss and Franz Werfel, and Gustav Mahler, once director of the Vienna Opera, along with other charismatic Jewish members of Viennese society.

After 1945, a small but active Jewish community again reestablished itself in Vienna; of the 10,000 to 12,000 Jews who live in Vienna today, about 7,000 are members. During the past two decades, the city has stepped up efforts to confront the history of its Jewish population. In addition to the Jewish institutions that have sprung up over the last few years, the memorial on Albertinaplatz and the Shoah Memorial on Judenplatz bear witness to the genocide of Vienna’s Jewish citizens.

This 3-hour Jewish Vienna tour begins at the exterior of the Jewish City Temple. From here, we’ll wind through the second district, to visit the memorial site of the destroyed Leopoldstädter Temple. Today, it is symbolized by four imposing white columns reaching up into the sky, and we’ll continue to the art nouveau exterior of the Nestroyhof Theater, once home to Yiddish-speaking ensembles. Taking in the sites of the destroyed synagogues of both the Ashkenazi and Sephardic communities, we share key stories of both victims and survivors while considering the forces of fascism and antisemitism in Europe. On a more positive note, we also explore the fragile revitalization of the Viennese Jewish community taking place today.

Additional Information
City Temple Tour
We do not visit the interior of the City Temple on this tour but we recommend that you contact the synagogue to arrange a tour with their own guides, open April to October, Monday to Thursday. If you take the 11:30 AM Monday synagogue tour and then enjoy your lunch, you are in the perfect place to begin our 2:00 PM tour of Jewish Vienna. If you take the 2:00 PM synagogue tour on Tuesday and Thursdays, it will fit well after our 9:30 AM Tuesday and Thursday tour with a lunch break.

The scene is Vienna: Christmas 1857. The talk of the town and media is the announcement by the Austrian Emperor that he is going to tear down the outdated, medieval city walls to make way for a modern boulevard around the old city center. The ring­-shaped boulevard will symbolize the wealth and power of Vienna and its readiness for modern times, enabling the city to compete with the urban reconstructions that made 19th-century Paris and Berlin famous for grand avenues and sweeping vistas. This Ringstrasse Project tour takes you along this outstanding boulevard and gives you an in­-depth introduction to the political and philosophical motivations behind the massive renovation , the great architects who participated, the civic institutions and private residential palaces they built, and the new social elites and cafe society that the Ringstrasse enabled to rise in Vienna’s modern era.




*Consider why different historical styles were chosen for the Ringstrasse’s many public institutions – the Vienna Opera , Kunsthistorisches Museum , Rathaus (City Hall) , Vienna University , the Postal Savings Bank by Otto Wagner.



*Become familiar with the most influential architects of 19th-century Vienna.



*Taking in the Ring’s extraordinary residential palaces – Imperial Palace Neuberg , Palais Todesco , and Palais Coburg , we discuss the modern economic elite who consolidated their cultural and social influence by moving into the new district.



*Conclude with a visit to Cafe Schwarzenberg , established in 1861, to get an insight into the thriving Vienna café culture in the latter half of the 19th century, which made the Ring a place to see and be seen from the moment of its completion.

Highlights:
Begin the tour outside the Jewish City Temple before winding through the second district to the memorial site of the destroyed Leopoldstädter Temple.
Visit the Nestroyhof Theater with its stunning art nouveau exterior, once home to Yiddish-speaking ensembles.
Reflect on brilliant leaders of Vienna’s intellectual, political, and economic spheres from the Jewish community: Sigmund Freud, Theodor Herzl, Karl Krauss, Franz Werfel, and Gustav Mahler.
Learn of the victims and survivors of Nazi genocide and the phenomenon of antisemitism in Europe while visiting the destroyed synagogues of both Ashkenazi and Sephardic congregations.
Discover aspects of the present-day renewal of Vienna’s Jewish community.



Few European cities have been so closely intertwined with Jewish history as Vienna. As early as the Middle Ages, the Viennese Jewish community was relatively large. Despite two dramatic expulsions, Jews continued to settle in the city on the Danube. Nazism caused a devastating rupture in the evolution of the city in general and for its Jewish community in particular. Before 1938, the Jewish community was one of the largest in Europe numbering some 185,000 including many brilliant leaders of Vienna’s intellectual, political, and economic spheres. On this tour, we speak of the vibrant cultural contributions of Sigmund Freud, father of psychoanalysis, Theodor Herzl, father of Zionism, men of letters such as Karl Krauss and Franz Werfel, and Gustav Mahler, once director of the Vienna Opera, along with other charismatic Jewish members of Viennese society.

After 1945, a small but active Jewish community again reestablished itself in Vienna; of the 10,000 to 12,000 Jews who live in Vienna today, about 7,000 are members. During the past two decades, the city has stepped up efforts to confront the history of its Jewish population. In addition to the Jewish institutions that have sprung up over the last few years, the memorial on Albertinaplatz and the Shoah Memorial on Judenplatz bear witness to the genocide of Vienna’s Jewish citizens.

This 3-hour Jewish Vienna tour begins at the exterior of the Jewish City Temple. From here, we’ll wind through the second district, to visit the memorial site of the destroyed Leopoldstädter Temple. Today, it is symbolized by four imposing white columns reaching up into the sky, and we’ll continue to the art nouveau exterior of the Nestroyhof Theater, once home to Yiddish-speaking ensembles. Taking in the sites of the destroyed synagogues of both the Ashkenazi and Sephardic communities, we share key stories of both victims and survivors while considering the forces of fascism and antisemitism in Europe. On a more positive note, we also explore the fragile revitalization of the Viennese Jewish community taking place today.

Additional Information
City Temple Tour
We do not visit the interior of the City Temple on this tour but we recommend that you contact the synagogue to arrange a tour with their own guides, open April to October, Monday to Thursday. If you take the 11:30 AM Monday synagogue tour and then enjoy your lunch, you are in the perfect place to begin our 2:00 PM tour of Jewish Vienna. If you take the 2:00 PM synagogue tour on Tuesday and Thursdays, it will fit well after our 9:30 AM Tuesday and Thursday tour with a lunch break.