Regular Guests (eBook)

Ludwig Hirschfeld (1882–1942), the Viennese feuilletonist and cultural journalist for the Neue Freie Presse, repeatedly and excellently analyzed the Semmering and its regular guests as one of the keenest observers, as the title of this article, taken from one of the most popular travel guides of the 1920s, shows.1 What exactly is the Semmering region, where does one define its borders, and what makes the area so attractive? The so-called gateway to the Alps, which was and still is comfortably accessible from Vienna thanks to the construction of the Semmering Railway, extends far beyond the pass at an altitude of around one thousand meters. It is an equally appealing and dramatic landscape that stretches from places in Lower Austria such as Payerbach, Reichenau, Edlach, Gloggnitz, Küb, the town of Semmering itself via Spital to Mürzzuschlag and became a center of attraction for Viennese society in its various forms and eras.

«The Semmering is not a health resort in the strictest sense of the word, but it is a sort of fashionable mountain suburb of Vienna, a place of refuge for all who feel they cannot stand the metropolis any longer. If a Viennese (it is the well-to-do class I am speaking of) has a nervous breakdown, or a troublesome cough, or worries at home or at his office, he rushes off to the Semmering.»2 Ludwig Hirschfeld not only described Semmering as a mountain suburb, he praised its advantages in various feature articles and editorials, especially the «genuine, undiluted air,» as he writes in his Semmeringschwärmerei (Semmering Rapture).3

Hirschfeld stands pars pro toto for the clientele of the Semmering region, as his fate and that of his family are representative of many of the Semmering’s regular Jewish guests. His parents Alexander and Henriette Hirschfeld immigrated from Hungary to the imperial capital Vienna in the middle of the nineteenth century. His father established a successful pearl barley company in Vienna. The Hirschfelds soon became one of Vienna’s well-to-do, bourgeois Jewish industrial families. Ludwig abandoned his studies in chemistry in favor of a career as an artist and journalist, and became an important and respected chronicler of the everyday life of his time. After his release from Gestapo custody shortly after the National Socialists came to power, he fled to France with his family in 1938, where he was interned and ultimately murdered in Auschwitz.

Wolfgang Kos coined the term «eccentric landscape» for the Semmering. Südbahnhotel, 2022

Ludwig Hirschfeld, ca. 1921

Thalhof in Reichenau an der Rax, 2022

For a long time, leaving the city as often as possible was a prerogative of the aristocracy. With the construction of the railway, it was also possible for the less-privileged to enjoy a trip to the now not-so-distant countryside. A journey to the Semmering had been an unaffordable and difficult-to-reach luxury before the railway was built, but from 1842 onwards it was possible to take the train from Vienna to Gloggnitz. In 1854, the construction of the world’s first Alpine railway was finalized. The opening of the Payerbach train station, with a separate waiting salon for the imperial family, also made the town of Reichenau more accessible. «Pack the suitcase for Reichenau, take the ticket, head out of the gloomy hall, pleasantly smelling of coal, […] closer, closer, always closer, the air getting fresher, more mountainous, finally Payerbach. In the horse-drawn carriage to Reichenau, ‘Thalhof,’» writes Peter Altenberg, one of the Semmering regulars.4

The construction of the Semmering Railway was considered a technical masterpiece, a one-of-a-kind infrastructure project. Never before had a mountain region been made so accessible. Thus, the plan was conceived to develop the town of Semmering into a health and holiday resort. Friedrich Julius Schüler (1823–1894), the general director of the Southern Railway at the time, implemented the idea of building hotels along the railway line. In 1882, the Semmeringhotel was the first to be erected. Planned by railway engineers, it was soberly designed on the outside, but was intended to offer guests every comfort. Today it would be described as an all-inclusive resort. In addition to the sixty rooms, there was a gambling parlor, a smoking lounge, a ladies’ salon, a «post and telegraph office,» a large dining room and utility spaces, an administration building, stables for the horses, coach houses for the carriages and the first automobiles, as well as a laundry. At the turn of the century, the hotel was expanded to became the legendary Südbahnhotel, with more than 350 rooms. The sports facilities of the Südbahnhotel, temporarily made Semmering the most important winter sports resort in Austria. In the interwar period, the architectural team of Emil Hoppe and Otto Schönthal designed the garage and workshop, gas station, and chauffeur’s rooms, as well as the Südbahnhotel’s indoor swimming pool.

As the first restaurant tenant, Vinzenz Panhans later became the Südbahnhotel’s fiercest competitor with his own hotel, Hotel Panhans, built in 1888. After several expansions by the architects Helmer and Fellner, Hotel Panhans grew into one of the largest hotels in Europe, with 400 rooms.

There, and in the newly erected hotels and health resorts, a new, wealthy clientele found the appropriate backdrop for self-expression. Those who had rank and name in the Austro-Hungarian Empire were there to see—but above all to be seen. The guests belonged to the highest circles of Viennese society, including archdukes and ministers; even the imperial couple was present. Later came the Jewish intellectuals, artists, writers, philosophers, doctors, and athletes who were inspired by the region. The glamorous salons served as meeting places for personalities from Peter Altenberg to Berta Zuckerkandl.

Many authors were stimulated by the unique aura and left behind literary testimonies. The posh health resort of Vienna’s fin de siècle was shaped by the regular Jewish guests. Stefan Zweig, Arthur Schnitzler, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Gustav Mahler, Franz Werfel, Sigmund Freud, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Eugenie Schwarzwald, and many others made the Semmering a popular destination. However, they not only frequented the hotels and health resorts, but also, from the moment when Jews were allowed to acquire property, they had the finest architects of the time build country houses and villas for them. In Vienna, many of them had already made their mark on the city's history with their mansions—now this opportunity was also available in the summer holidays. And if possible, everything was to be arranged the same as in Vienna, as people spent a long time here in the summer, furnished their residences lavishly, and surrounded themselves with the same people as in the city. In the various periods since the Semmering was discovered as a travel area, people moved here in the summer with suitcases full of clothing, often also with staff. While the female family members stayed at the summer resort the whole time, the working gentlemen of the family came on weekends, often with suitcases full of fresh apparel. The summer retreat accelerated the transfer of the Viennese lifestyle to various corners of the monarchy.5

The Hotel Panhans terrace, 1920s

The Südbahnhotel ballroom, 2023

Rothschild Castle in Hinterleiten, 2023

«Many writers, publishers, and newspaper people came to work and network. The Viennese coffee house discussions, the bridge rounds […] were able to continue seamlessly here,» writes Wolfgang Kos.6 People largely kept to themselves and didn’t seek contact with the local population; that hadn’t changed over the decades either. Arthur Schnitzler’s romantic relationship with the landlady of the Thalhof, Olga Waissnix, was an exception (see Georg Markus’s contribution).

The fin de siècle, the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, marked a period of prosperity for the entire region. Jewish entrepreneurs and artists had villas and country houses built for them by prominent architects. In this way, the Jewish grande bourgeoisie also ensured that the Semmering area experienced an enormous boost in investment and development.

The banker Nathaniel Rothschild, for instance, commissioned the French architecture firm Bauquè to build a castle-like country estate on his property in the Hinterleiten district of Reichenau. The gas lighting fixtures were to be state-of-the-art. But in 1889, before the work on the interior even began, Rothschild lost interest in the luxurious building. This sat enthroned on a hill and towered over Archduke Carl Ludwig’s Villa Wartholz, which led to dissatisfaction on the part of the imperial family.7 Rothschild decided to dedicate the castle as a convalescent home for patients with lung diseases. This, in turn, provoked protests within the local community, as there were fears that the presence of tuberculosis patients could damage the town’s reputation. As a result, the banker changed his mind, dedicating the castle to treat wounded and disabled officers of...