Artibus et Historiae no. 17 (IX)

1988, ISSN 0391-9064

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PHILIPP P. FEHL - The Stadttempel of the Jews of Vienna: Childhood Recollections and History - Statuten für das Bethhaus der Israeliten in Wien (1829) - Appendix: Isaac Noah Mannheimer's Preface to His Collected Chancel Orations (delivered at the Stadttempel)

This essay attempts to bring to life the architecture of Vienna's oldest
synagogue, the classicistic Stadttempel by Joseph Kornhäusel, in terms of the
tradition of the worship and spiritual hopes for the sake of which it was
founded. The author's childhood was lived, to some extent, under the shelter of
this tradition. He draws on his memories to find access to his interpretation of
historical data connected with the foundation of the Tempel and to explore the
interconnection of the style of the Tempel's architecture and the religious
function of the building. The duties and problems of an author's personal
involvement in the writing of history, and especially the history of art, are a
major concern.

Added to the essay are a transcription of the first by-laws of the
Stadttempel and Isaac Noah Mannheimer's (the Tempel's first spiritual leader's)
preface to the collection of his chancel orations in which he expounds the
Tempel's founders' purposes and hopes in an appropriately lofty style, which
may be compared to the elevated language of the Tempel's architecture.