1852: The Jewish Community of Vienna

For many years, the Jews of Lower Austria were forbidden from establishing an official Jewish community organisation. It was not until 1792 that the Viennese Jewry was allowed to choose a so-called “representative body”. In 1852, a provisional statute was issued for the “religious community” (“Kultusgemeinde,” IKG) that had been in the gradual process of establishing itself. With the adoption of the “Israelitengesetz” in 1890, the community was finally recognised as a public entity.  

The IKG was a unique phenomenon in Europe at that time; it was a unitary organisation of all Jews living in the judicial district of the city of Vienna that had not officially left the community. After the “Anschluss” (“Annexation”) in 1938, the Nazis systematically exploited the IKG's comprehensive records in order to identify, rob, force into emigration or deport and murder Jews in accordance with the Nuremberg Race Laws.

The IKG was re-established after 1945 and to this day is the only state-recognised representative organisation of the Jewish population in Vienna. In view of the expulsion and murder of the majority of Austria’s Jewish population in the Holocaust, it is also the most important Jewish entity in Austria.