Die Stadt ohne Juden (novel)

The City Without Jews (German: Die Stadt ohne Juden) is a 1922 novel by Hugo Bettauer.

This is arguably his best-known novel. It portrays a satire on the acutely topical subject of antisemitism: A fictional politician orders the expulsion of all Jews from Vienna. Alexander Moulton observes "in scenes that are frighteningly prophetic, Austria borrows thirty stock car trains from neighboring countries to help in the expulsion (to the east) of the Jews and their belongings."[1] In the book, the citizens of Vienna initially celebrated the expulsion, but sentiment changed as theaters went bankrupt and department stores, hotels and resorts suffered.[2] The economy declined to such an extent that a popular movement arose demanding the return of the Jews.[3] Without the Jews to blame, the ruling party collapsed; the expulsion law was repealed, and the Jews were welcomed back to Vienna.[2]

Hugo Bettauer succeeded in creating a relatively accurate allegorical vision of the near future, although the book was intended as entertainment and as a satirical response to the primitive antisemitism of the 1920s. It immediately became Bettauer's most commercially successful work: it was translated into several languages, and sold 250,000 copies in its first year.[2] It became one of Bettauer's most controversial works, gaining him both great admirers and bitter enemies. Nazi sympathizers attacked Bettauer and his work, denouncing him as the "Red poet" and a "corruptor of youth".[1] The novel was made into the 1924 feature film The City Without Jews, directed by Hans Karl Breslauer; shortly after the premiere of the film Hugo Bettauer was murdered by Otto Rothstock, a former member of the Nazi Party, who was lionized by the antisemitic Austrian masses and was released less than two years after having been committed to a psychiatric institution.[1]