13 July 2023

The Jewish Museum Vienna presents the living history of football in European top clubs in the exhibition 'Super Jews - Jewish Identity in the Football Stadium'

The opening of the exhibition 'Super Jews - Jewish Identity in the Football Stadium' at the Jewish Museum at the Dorotheergasse 11 in Vienna was attended by prominent guests from football including Kurt Svoboda, President of 'First Vienna FC 1894', Robert Zadrazil, Chairman of the Board of Directors of 'Austria Wien', or ÖFB (Austrian Football Association) President Klaus Mitterdorfer. The exhibition explores the Jewish history of five prominent football clubs - two Austrian, three European: First Vienna FC 1894, FK Austria Vienna, FC Bayern Munich, Ajax Amsterdam, and Tottenham Hotspur FC - and examines the Jewish influence within these clubs and their Jewish identity.

At the opening of the exhibition on July 11, First Vienna FC 1894 President Kurt Svoboda recalled that the Jewish officials of First Vienna FC 1894 played a significant role in the development of the club and Austrian football. He noted that awareness of the Jewish history of First Vienna FC 1894 has been cultivated over the past decade thanks to the dedicated efforts of club members and fans.

One of the exhibited objects is a t-shirt with the writing 'Partisan*Rothschild' by fans of the football club 'First Vienna FC 1894'. On the occasion of a meeting between a descendant of the Rothschild family and the 'Partisan Rothschild' fan collective in 2020, the club published a report with more details about the beginnings of the club in the garden of Nathaniel Mayer Baron von Rothschild, who later supported the club financially. The First Vienna Football-Club 1894 is the oldest football club in Austria.

The exhibition features three European clubs; one of them is FC Bayern Munich, which was founded in a Schwabing café in 1900 and quickly grew from a small Bavarian team into a professionally organized club. The successful club also received support through the commitment of Munich Jews – prior to 1933, about ten percent of its members were Jewish. Club president Kurt Landauer, who had to resign from office in 1933 and resumed it in the postwar period, is the linchpin of the Jewish identity of the German record-holding champions, who also maintain a large fan base in Israel. In Munich, the group 'Schickeria München' has raised public awareness about Landauer. For example, in an article on schickeria-muenchen.org, his nephew remembered Kurt Landauer on the occasion of his 125th birthday.

Images, from left. The 'Partisan*Rothschild' t-shirt of the First Vienna FC 1894; 2018. Photo: © JMW / Tobias de St. Julien. The colors of the club - blue and yellow - are derived from the colors of the Rothschild coat of arms. The fan collective 'Partisan*Rothschild' refers to the club's Jewish heritage in its name and symbolism. Right: View of one of the rooms in the exhibition 'Super Jews. Jewish Identity in the Football Stadium' at the Jewish Museum at the Dorotheergasse 11 in Vienna; on show from 12 July 2023 to 14 January 2024. Photo: © David Bohmann.