The revolution of 1848 ended the autocratic rule of the Habsburg dynasty, ushering in a new era of constitutionalism. The liberal government introduced sweeping reforms during these Gründerjahre, or foundation years. Austria experienced unprecedented economic growth, new technological developments, and new infrastructure, including a national railway system and an electric grid. The economic boom (financed largely by Jewish banks) created a newly affluent middle class and attracted an increasing number of immigrants from the Eastern provinces, particularly Jews who sought to overcome the restrictions of provincial life and were eager to embrace new opportunities. Nowhere was the uneasy interplay between the forces of tradition and those of change more clearly symbolized than in the ambitious Ring Strasse project, Vienna’s glamorous new boulevard within the city, where luxurious  residences for the emerging bourgeoisie  were built over the razed city walls. It would become home to the new moneyed class of entrepreneurs, the new aristocracy of capitalism, many of whom were Jewish.  

By 1873, when Vienna played host to the World Fair, Austria’s economic reconstruction was visible throughout the city. By the time Friedrich and Regina Goldscheider, two young Jewish entrepreneurs from Pilsen, Bohemia, arrived in Vienna in 1885, they found a metropolis alive with young and creative artists and designers. These artists and designers were trained at Vienna’s prestigious design school, Kunstgewerbeschule by such eminent teachers as Joseph Hofmann, Koloman Moser, Arthur Strasser and Michael Powolny, who defined the new arts and crafts movement. The Goldscheiders opened a ceramics manufactory and recruited the best talent to produce ornamental objects to satisfy the tastes of the grand bourgeoisie. The Goldscheider pieces soon became prized possessions.