[ebooks] Good Living Street: Portrait of a Patron Family; Vienna 1900 by Tim Bonyhady at Arts-Photography

Review

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. A World of YesterdayBy Greg PolanskyI must admit this first. I absolutely love Habsburg history. I have read lots of it and it always interests me. So when I saw this book at the bookstore. I quickly rushed to buy it from the Kindle store. If you love Habsburg history. Fin-de-siegrave;cle Vienna/Europe. Art History. or just a beautifully written book. then please do yourself the favor of purchasing it.This book captures the life of three generations of a family. the Gallas. who lived on Wohlenstrasse. the Good Living Street of the title. In focusing on these generations. the author captures the life and times of a certain section of upper class Jewish life. the bildungsbuuml;rgertum(educated. cultured bourgeoisie whose ideals the Galla family embody). Primarily the author focuses on the women of the family across the generations. There is Hermine. the autocratic matriarch of the family who cements her position in the world through her patronage of the arts. her daughters Gretl and Kathe. whose sibling rivalry is hard to observe. and her grandaughter. Annelore. whose identity is shaped by her poor treatment from her grandmother and her traumatic departure from Austria. Because this is the authors family that he is writing about. there is a certain amount of emotional connectedness in the writing.Because this family was rich and was cultured. the story focuses on how this family used its wealth to support the arts and their own position in the world. This family gained its wealth and moved to Vienna during the nineteenth century. It then used its wealth from the Fin-de-Siecle period where we meet a host of Secession artists and architects(Gustav Klimt plays a huge part in the early part of the book) to the Anschluss. when the family had to flee Austria because of their Jewish origins. but managed to escape with a trove of their belongings that then become important later on in the books. But the story does not stop there. It then focuses on the lives of Gretl. Kathe. and Annelore in Australia. where they fled. Showing how each of the three women adapted to life in Australia. especially how they either kept or discarded their Jewish identities in favor of a Christian identity).this part of the book was an interesting departure from other books that usually end with the departure of Jews from German speaking Europe. It also was interesting to me on a personal level since my own parents defected from a later tyranny (USSR) and they too ended up in Australia.My title to this review is a reference to Stefen Zweigs The World of Yesterday. There was much sadness and melancholy in that book. Similarly. there is sadness in this book too. This is a book about worlds destroyed and lost and only seen through glimpses of the past. But oh how beautiful that past was.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Alive HistoryBy GartyIt portrays the history of Vienna. through a family. from before the Great War. practically to the present and how the Nazi tragedy (enthusiastically applauded. and here Im speaking from personal memory) developed. It even mentions the street where I lived as a small child (Schwindgasse) but apart from intersecting with personal history. it is an easy history lesson of an era for anybody who has an interest and a MUST read for descendants of Austrians. Jews and non-jerws alike0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. If you liked "The Hare with the Aber Eyes"...By Kindle CustomerA good view into fin de sicle Vienna and a Jewish family. I bought this after reading "The Hare with Amber Eyes" - in the same vein.The account of the furnishings and art and operas and people was fascinating. I already owned a good print of Hermine Gallia and now I know who she really was...thanks to the book. ( I like Klimts portraits ).