The City Without Jews (Stadt ohne Juden) by Hugo Bettauer is a book which tells the story about an antisemitic populist becoming chancellor in post-World War One Austria. Despite the serious topic, it is a very entertaining story.
There is a movie from 1924 based on this book, which is one of the most famous and well-researched Expressionist Austrian movies.
Here's the audio book version.
There are two translations into English, a recent one subtitled "The Day After Tomorrow" by Petar Skunca, and one from 1927 translated by Salomea Neumark Brainin and subtitled "A Novel of Our Time".
- Adaptation Decay: Hugo Bettauer thought this about the movie, that's why he and director Breslauer broke with each other.
- Adaptation Dye Job: Lotte had Hair of Gold in the novel, but became dark-haired in the movie.
- Adaptational Heroism: Played Straight. In the book, Krötzl is a Complete Monster. In the movie, his equivalent is still an antisemite and a drunkard, but comes along more as a doddering fool.
- Adaptational Villainy: Inverted. In the book, Krötzl is a Complete Monster. In the movie, his equivalent is still an antisemite and a drunkard, but comes along more as a doddering fool.
- And Starring: Hans Moser gets it in the movie. It was only his second movie role, but he became one of Austria's most popular actors afterwards.
- Banned in China: Believe it or not, in New York for some time at least. The movie was considered too "racially sensitive" or so.
- Beta Couple: In the movie, the commissionaire Isidor who has to go to Zion and the cook Kathi get more than just one scene. But since the end of the movie is lost, it seems like they were Put on a Bus.
- Big Eater: Isidor, a minor character from the book, in the movie. Of the fat kind.
- Camera Effects: In the scenes where Rat Bernart is drunk, the whole room is shaking.
- Composite Character: Lotte's father and the unnamed leader of the Liberal party are merged into the new character, Rat Linder.
- Creator Backlash: Although the movie was a success, author Hugo Bettauer and director Breslauer disagreed and broke with each other.
- Crowning Moment of Funny: In the movie, when Hans Moser tries to open his door with a cigar. "Seems I managed to smoke up my keys!"
- Expressionism: When the radical antisemite (in the movie called Bernard) is sent to an asylum, he hallucinates being attacked by Stars of David.
- The Film of the Book: Turned the whole story into All Just a Dream of an antisemitic MP who comes to the conclusion that the Jews are necessary and hate is bad. Also, the setting was changed from Vienna to Utopia. (Not an Utopia, it's just a name.)
- The Flapper: Some young women in The Film of the Book.
- Food Fight: At the beginning of the movie, at a market. People are angry because food has become even more expensive. Yeah, that'll help with the scarcity of food.
- Hatedom: When The Film of the Book came to the cinemas, Those Wacky Nazis attacked screenings with stink bombs. One year after the movie was made, Bettauer was assassinated by a nazi. (His punishment: Two years in a Bedlam House.)
- Heel–Face Turn: The rabid antisemite Bernard (Hans Moser) in the movie decides after the whole plot turns out to be All Just a Dream that we are all human after all, don't want hate, just want to live.
- Lost Forever: The ending of The Film of the Book, where Hans Moser's character wakes up and notices that the expulsion of the Jews, the cancelled law and him being sent to Bedlam House was All Just a Dream.
- The whole movie almost would have been this, until it was rediscovered in the Amsterdam film museum in 1991.
- Next Sunday A.D.: Officially it's set in 1976 (not like in the book), but it looks exactly like 1924.
- Nightmare Dreams: Rat Bernart regularly seems to dream of eeevil Jews.
- No Communities Were Harmed: The movie was made in Vienna, but it's named Utopia instead.
- Pass the Popcorn: In the movie, when the parliament decides about the antisemitic law, one character is eating bonbons.
- President Focus Group: In the book, chancellor Schwertfeger is behind the antisemitic law and only makes token "Some of my best friends are Jews" excuses. In the movie, the chancellor seems more like he's driven by the demonstrating antisemites.
- Self Censorship: The wife of Rat[1] Volbert in the movie, when she learns that her son-in-law has to leave the country, being a baptized Jew. "You..." -- In the book, her equivalent isn't mincing words so much, calling him a "Falott" (crook) and "alter Tepp" (old fool).
- Silent Movie
- A Tankard of Moose Urine: One barkeeper recycles beer from returned non-empty glasses so he can sell it again. Times are tough.
- Typecasting: Hans Moser had his second role in the movie, as an antisemitic alcoholic. He would mostly play drinkers in his career.
- Unfortunate Implications: The movie comes along less as "cutting off your economy from the rest of the world, Juche-style, doesn't work well" and more as "antisemitism doesn't pay because the Jews have too much power anyway".
- While Rome Burns: At the beginning of the movie. While the Austrian people are starving, some speculators make big parties. Which look quite harmless today.
- WTH Casting Agency: In The Film of the Book, Leo was played by Johannes Riemann, who was not only not Jewish, but later became a member of the nazi party.
- OTOH, the radical antisemite is played by Hans Moser, who was married to a Jewish woman.
- Absolute Cleavage: Lona the hooker, since she only wears a dressing gown.
- Acceptable Targets: In-story, the government. Leo (in disguise) holds a speech, stating that if there are differences between Jews and "Aryans", a smart government would consider the Jewish abilities to get the most out of it. One Viennese guy shouts: "A smart government, yeah, but ours is stupid!" Everyone laughs.
- The Alcoholic: Krötzl. He himself claims however: "If anyone shays I'm drunk, he'sh a Jewish crook!"
- As You Know Bob: To Holborn, the journalist from London. He nods, despite having no clue.
- Author Avatar: Leo, very probably. He's an artist (a graphical artist though, not an author), fought for Austria in World War One like the author, is pretty smart, helps toppling the antisemitic government and gets the girl at the end.
- Beard of Evil: So to speak. After the antisemites take over and the Jews get kicked out, most Austrian men grow full beards like Andreas Hofer -- making them the Austrian equivalent of racist rednecks.
- Beardness Protection Program: Leo Strakosch grows a Napoleon beard to look like his French friend Dufresne, so he can return to Vienna and meet his LoveInterest Lotte Spineder.
- Blatant Lies: Flannel and fustian are praised as the latest fashion from Paris.
- Book Ends: (or so) The last chapter of the first book is titled "My dear Christians!" That of the second and last book? "My beloved Jew!"
- Briar Patching: One Austrian guy has to idea to convert to Judaism so he'll get evicted too and can go to Paris or so.
- But Liquor Is Quicker: Leo does this to Krötzl.
- Celibate Villain: Doktor Schwertfeger is unmarried and even doesn't like it if a young beautiful girl (mind: one of his followers!) hugs and kisses him. Probably to remind of Ignaz Seipel, who was a prelate.
- The Chessmaster: Leo Strakosch certainly knows how to make his landlord, the mayor of Vienna and pretty much everyone else do what they need.
- Circumcision Angst: Pepi (the boyfriend of a prostitute) wants to convert to Judaism (because he wants to be evicted from Austria) and go somewhere better, like Paris -- but hopes he won't have to do "the operation".
- Clock Tampering: Leo does it with Krötzl's clocks, so it seems like they'll have enough time for drinking.
- Complete Monster: Krötzl comes closest. He's not only a rabid antisemite and The Alcoholic, he's also an outspoken pedosexual, and a pusher of houses which the evicted Jews had to sell. And a big hypocrite to boot.
- Crazy Prepared: After the new elections, the pro-semitic parties are just one vote short of the necessary two-thirds majority to repeal the antisemitic law. To make sure that none of their parliamentarians will have an accident on the way to Vienna, or get sick, the antisemites prepare special trains going the day before the vote, each of which has a doctor on board. spoiler:It still doesn't work, thanks to Leo.
- Cursed with Awesome: The only Zionist in Austria's parliament thinks that the law evicting the Jews will become a blessing for them, even if the antisemites think it was a curse.
- Decided by One Vote: The antisemitic law is cancelled at the end, with exactly the necessary two-thirds majority -- 106 vs. 53. Thanks to Leo, one antisemite missed the important vote.
- Didn't Think This Through: The antisemitic law has many consequences they didn't think about. Thousands of families are ripped apart, the banks are in the hands of inexperienced people who make the financial / economical crisis even worse...
- Discreet Drink Disposal: Leo does this with his wine (repeatedly) to make sure only Krötzl will get drunk.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Jews who dare to return to Austria get the capital punishment. Yeah, Leo is risking a lot when he returns to be with Lotte (even in a good disguise).
- Driven to Suicide: Schwertfeger, after the antisemites have lost
- Evil Pedo: The MP Krötzl of the antisemitic Großdeutsche party. When he gets drunk he tells his new "friend" (Leo in disguise) that any woman older than fourteen was an old hag.
- Eye Scream: One of the hookers says: "If I meet any [antisemitic MP], I'd scratch out his squinting eyes!"
- Fainting: Krötzl does this when he learns that the antisemitic law has fallen, and it was his fault.
- Fallen on Hard Times Job: One older prostitute says that they'll either have to starve or take jobs as lavatory attendants when the Jews will get evicted.
- False Teeth Tomfoolery: The minister of finances Trumm has them, which helps making him ridiculous.
- Fauxreigner: Leo Strakosch is an Austrian Jew but pretends to be his friend Henri Dufresne from Paris, even faking the accent.
- Follow the Leader: In 1925, Artur Landsberger wrote Berlin ohne Juden. Same premise, except it's set in Germany instead of Austria, with a few twists.
- Food as Bribe: Or rather, Booze as bribe. Leo does this with his antisemitic neighbor who happens to be in the parliament.
- Foreshadowing: On the day the last Jews have left Austria, there's a big festivity in Vienna. First the chancellor makes a big speech, but when grand mayor Laberl wants to start his, a sudden thunderstorm makes him stop, and all the people leave quickly.
- Also, when the situation starts getting worse and the first antisemitic MPs abstain from voting, the chancellor already predicts that they will vote against him next.
- Funny Aneurysm Moment: Only about fifteen years after the book was published, Austria got a head of government who hated the Jews like nothing else in the world. Except that he was a dictator who couldn't be voted out, and didn't just want to kick out the Jews.
- Especially this quote: "We can't join Germany anymore -- or do you think that the Germans are as foolish as us and will kick out their Jews too?"
- George Bernard Shaw: Has a cameo (so to speak), stating that Vienna has become "TakeThat a museum of stupidity".
- Shaw also stated that he preferred one smart Jew to ten dumb Christians.
- German Dialects: Lots of Viennese, of course. Some characters (most Jews, but also Doktor Schwertfeger) use none or almost none, some speak more or less strong dialect, depending on where they come from and their social standing.
- The Ghost: In the first part, Leo is pretty much this.
- Glad I Thought of It: That's what Vienna's mayor Laberl usually does, with his Hypercompetent Sidekick Kallop.
"My dear Kallop, what you say is true and exactly what I have been thinking for some time." |
- Gray Eyes: Schwertfeger has them, FWIW.
- Grievous Bottley Harm: Antonius Schneuzel does this to a bunch of antisemites, but gets beaten up by them.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Lotte.
- Halfway Plot Switch: Leo becomes the protagonist only in the second part -- in the first part, he doesn't appear at all.
- Have a Gay Old Time: "most intimate friend".
- The English translation mentions "The sweet, gay young things", but means straight girls.
- Heartwarming Moments: When Lotte and Leo can finally reveal their secret, and marry.
- When Laberl welcomes Leo, who's now officially allowed to stay in Austria, with the words: "My dear Jew!"
- High Class Glass: Leo wears one when he's in disguise as Henry Dufresne. Thanks to the fact that the Austrian crown has suffered RidiculousInflation, he can afford anything.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: The hookers of Vienna, of all people, are against the antisemitic law. If only because the Jewish customers are more generous than the Christians.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Kallop (his grandfather was a Jew named Pollak), of the Viennese mayor. When they "work out a speech together", this means that Kallop writes it and Laberl memorizes it.
- Hypocrite: Jonathan Huxtable claims to be a DryCrusader, but secretly drinks medicine with high alcohol content and eau de Cologne, if he can't find anything else.
- Inherently Funny Words: The mayor of Vienna is named "Laberl" (roll, as in the rolls you eat for breakfast), the minister of finances is named "Trumm" (big lug)
- In Vino Veritas
- Irony as She Is Cast: In-story, theatre actor Armin Horch who is praised by the right-wing press as being the ideal of the handsome Christian young man -- but is Jewish too. His ancestor came from Brody, Poland and was named Storch.
- Italians Talk with Hands: And Jews as well, as stated several times in the text.
- Large and In Charge: Schwertfeger is a pretty tall guy.
- The Last of These Is Not Like the Others: "In the salon, it smelled strongly of Houbigant, Ambre, Coty, Rouge and cigarettes."
- Like a Weasel: Leo aka Henri makes his landlord write a letter to the papers arguing against laws for protecting tenants. The paper comments in a way that offends neither the landlords nor the tenants too much.
- Landslide Election: At the beginning, Schwertfeger wins one. Only detail we hear is that the formerly strongest Socialists are reduced to eleven (of 160) seats. Presumably, the antisemites have a two-thirds majority.
- At the end, there's another one, reducing the antisemites to exactly 54 of 160 seats. Enough to block important laws, but if a single one of them was missing...
- Loophole Abuse: Schwertfeger allowed all the Jews who own firms to take a sum equal to twenty times the profit they made last year, according to their tax declarations. He hopes to punish all the Jews who declared less profit than they really made. -- They find ways around it, though.
- Matzo Fever: The American billionaire Jonathan Huxtable is an antisemite who supports the Austrian government when we learn from him (his wife eloped with a Jewish boxer), but later falls in love with a Jewish woman and breaks with the antisemites.
- Meaningful Name: The leader of the Social Democrats is named "Weitherz" -- "wide heart".
- Mr. Exposition: When an English journalist arrives in the parliament, an antisemitic Austrian journalist informs him about the background of the new law that will force the Jews out of Austria. Complete with AsYouKnowBob.
- At the beginning of the second part, Lotte is this, writing a letter about the situation in Vienna to Leo in Paris.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The antisemite billionaire Huxtable may be Henry Ford. And the Jewish boxer who stole his girl might be Max Baer.
- Schwertfeger reminds of Dr. Karl Lueger (a former mayor of Vienna, very antisemitic, influenced Hitler) and Austrian chancellor Ignaz Seipel.
- No Except Yes: Antonius Schneuzel asks his miffed wife what is going on (it's the day after they decided to kick out the Jews).
Frau Schneuzel: "Nothing's going on, except that you old fool helped to throw your daughter and the grandkids out of the country!" |
- No Name Given: The president of the parliament is only referred to as "the Tyrolean with the red beard".
- Not That Kind of Doctor: The chancellor Doktor Schwertfeger. We never learn what he did before he went into politics.
- N-Word Privileges: Leo calls his own plan an example of "Jewish audacity" (meaning chutzpah).
- Older Than They Think: Antisemitic parties praising the "Aryans" and antisemites measuring the degree of Jewishness existed before Hitler.
- Offending the Creator's Own: Early in the book, one Jew states he doesn't want to go to Zion -- there are only Jews there, that would be nothing for him.
- Phenotype Stereotype: At the beginning of the book, the antisemites will beat up anyone who has too dark hair or a hooked nose. Ironically, later we meet the publisher Anselm Pinkus who looks like a stereotypical Jew, but officially counts as Aryan because he has only one Jewish grandparent who converted.
- Ridiculous Exchange Rates: At the end, the Austrian crown has fallen to the thirty-thousandth part of a centime. (100 centimes = 1 French franc)
- The Roaring Twenties
- Sarcasm Mode: Holborn the British journalist about the antisemite billionaire Huxtable. "Huxtable is a pious guy!"
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: Krötzl's "housekeeper" who is disappointed that Leo doesn't fall for her.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Leo in his disguise wears a nice suit, grey tie and lacquered boots.
- Also Pepi, friend of Yvonne, who decides to join Judaism and leave the country together with the Jews.
- Shiksa Goddess: Before the Jews were kicked out, many Viennese girls had Jewish boyfriends and liked it. If only for the reason that they spent more money on them than the natives.
- Lotte also qualifies, with her golden-blonde hair and her madonna (not that one) face.
- Sinister Minister: The priest Zweibacher who is an MP for the Christian-Social party and praises Schwertfeger as an apostle who deserves to be sanctified.
- Some Anvils Have to be Dropped
- Some of My Best Friends Are X: Schwertfeger claims that he had Jewish professors at the university which he admired. -- The British journalist Holborn misunderstands him however and asks whether he's speaking for the Jews.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Leo and Lotte, in case we didn't mention it yet.
- Strange Bedfellows: The only Zionist MP supports the law, since he hopes that the Austrian Jews will go to (not-yet-founded) Israel. He even voted for the law. -- If there are some who do so, we don't see them in the story.
- Time Skip: The first part ends when the last Jews have been evicted from Austria, six months after the law was made. The plot resumes one year later.
- Unintentional Period Piece: The fact alone that the story is set post-World War I, but Austria still uses Kronen/crowns instead of the Schilling as currency, which tells us the story was written before 1925.
- The Unpronounceable: A Dr. Njedestjenski, a one-gag character.
- The Un-Smile: Even when Schwertfeger wins the election and is praised as the saviour of Austria, he only manages a sour smile.
- Villain has a Point: The lawyer Dr. Haberfeld manages to say this about himself: "Vienna goes to the dogs [that is, without Jews], I'm telling you, and if an old graduated antisemite like me is saying so, it has to be true, I'm telling you!"
- Walk Among Mad People: Krötzl is mistaken for a runaway madman when he rings the bell of the mental asylum in Steinhof. (Explanation: Leo made him drunk, had the chaffeur drive him to this place, left before that, and ordered the chaffeur to pretend the motor was broken. So Krötzl couldn't participate in the vote about the anti-Jewish law, and it was Decided by One Vote.)
- What Were You Thinking?: One supporter of the antisemites is promptly reminded after the law passed that the husband of his only daughter (and father of his grandkids) is a converted Jew (who have to leave as well, just as their children).
- Would Not Shoot a Girl: When the women in Vienna attack the saleswomen on the market, the government wants to use the army to strike them down, but...
- Writers Cannot Do Math: In the fall, one year after the Jews got kicked out, one kilogram of butter is said to cost 50,000 crowns. But a few months later, at Christmas, a carp costs the same amount, despite inflation getting worse. Shouldn't it be more expensive?
- Yiddish as a Second Language: Some of it, and not only by Jewish characters. Before Hitler, Vienna had more than 100000 Jews living there.
"I didn't call you because I wanted to schmooze with you!" |
- You Have to Have Jews: Even the antisemites admit after some time that everything goes worse without the Jews.
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