Together, Anika Reichwald and Monika Volaucnik look at the social and economic situation of Jewish peddlers and beggars in the 19th century.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the Jewish community of Hohenems consisted of many families who could not support themselves solely from their own income. In addition to the better-off families and individuals, the number of those who earned their living as peddlers or beggars or were supported by the community grew. Who were these "poor Jews"? How did they live and work - and how did they contribute to community life?
Curator Anika Reichwald talks with historian Minika Volaucnik about what the historical reality of the so-called "poor Jews" in Hohenems was like and about how social attributions, especially in the context of Jewish history, have to be questioned and broken open again and again.
Monika Volaucnik, born in 1967, studied Latin and history in Innsbruck and wrote her thesis on the poor and peddlers of the Jewish community in Hohenems in the 19th century. In 1991 she moved to Vorarlberg, where she has lived with her family ever since. She has been teaching since 1991 (first in Dornbirn, later in Feldkirch).
Book: Poor and Peddlers. In the Jewish Community of Hohenems, 1800-1860,
Forschungen zur Geschichte Vorarlbergs, vol. 12, Vorarlberger Verlagsgesellschaft 1993, softcover. ISBN: 9783854301905. The book is unfortunately out of print.
An event in the course of the exhibition
"Am Rand. Zusammen leben in der Untergass'
October 17, 2021 to April 18, 2022