Die Stadt ohne Juden

“It’s the Jews who are taking away our jobs,” so protesters in the film. As part of the “Jewish Weekends”, the silent film “Die Stadt ohne Juden” (“The City Without Jews”) by Hans Karl Breslauer will be screened with music by Olga Neuwirth. Shot 1924 in Vienna, the film is based on the novel by the Jewish writer and journalist Hugo Bettauer (1872–1925) with the subtitle “Ein Roman von übermorgen” (novel of the day after tomorrow). Irritatingly prophetic, it shows the escalating anti-Semitism of its time and the impoverishment of a city in all areas of life after the expulsion of the Jewish population.

The work, long preserved only in a fragmentary version, was rediscovered at a Paris flea market in 2015 and subsequently restored. In 2017, Olga Neuwirth was commissioned by the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Barbican Centre and the Basel Symphony Orchestra to set the film to music. Since then, the film has toured with great success internationally with the music perfor­med live by PHACE.

Olga Neuwirth is one of the most internationally successful Austrian composers of our time. In 2022 she was awarded the prestigous Ernst von Siemens Music Prize. The eleven soloists of PHACE and their artistic director Reinhard Fuchs have been interpreting and experimenting with dance, theatre, performance, electronics, video, turntables and installations in special concert formats, music theatre productions and interdisciplinary projects for many years. More than 200 works have been commissioned, premiered and released on numerous recordings.