Lederhosen, Dirndl, and a Sense of Belonging: Jews and Trachten in Pre-1938 Austria

Abstract In June 1938, only four months after the Anschluss [the Nazi annexation of Austria], the Nazi administration in Salzburg region announced a ban on Jews and other non-Aryans dressing in local Volkstrachten [folk costumes]. This “Trachtenverbot” highlighted specific forbidden garments and anyone in breach of the rules was subject to a fine of 133 marks or a period of two weeks imprisonment. Although at the time of the Anschluss the majority of Austrian Jews lived in Vienna and did not wear Trachten on a regular basis, the donning of these symbolically “German” garments played a central role in the lives of many. Countless surviving photographs from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries depict Austrian Jews attired in Volkstrachten while relaxing on holiday or else taken in urban photographic studios. With their multilayered, symbolic meanings, such forms of attire served as important tools of self-fashioning and identification among Austrian Jews—especially in the wider context of the question of “Austrian nationality” during the time of the multiethnic Dual Monarchy and post-1918 First Austrian Republic. Using visual and written sources, this article explores the function of folk styles in the process of self-fashioning and Jewish identification in the early twentieth century.