Innovations in the Arts, Sciences, and Literature
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Vienna’s famous coffeehouses, its theaters and cabarets were the focal point of an emerging modernist culture at the end of the 19th century, gaining significance well beyond the borders of Austria. Many of the rising stars of the intellectual scene were Jews, emerging from obscurity as anti-Jewish restrictions diminished. Jewish writers such as Hugo von Hofmansthal, Richard Beer-Hofmann, Peter Altenberg, and Arthur Schnitzler, among others, dealt with the moral and existential issues arising from a disintegrating social order. Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schönberg brought about innovative changes in music.