My pick for best book of 2011 came to me late. Just published in November, Good Living Street tells the story of Moritz and Hermine Gallia and their family in the context of 20th century Vienna. Moritz Gallia was a wealthy industrialist who made his money in the manufacture of specialised fittings for the gas lamps that lit homes and businesses before the use of electricity became widespread. Like many other wealthy Jews, the Gallias, prompted by opportunity and greater political liberalization, settled in Vienna around 1900. They lived there in great luxury on Wohllebengasse, “Good Living Street”. The Gallias, friends in the Gustav Mahler circle, were leaders in patronage of the visual arts, and provided substantial support to the artists of the Secession movement. The Gallias owned a substantial collection of paintings by the major figures of the Secession, including a portrait of Hermine done by Gustave Klimt, and other Klimt works as well. The first part of the book largely focusses in the Viennese art scene, and the major role played by the Gallias.
The second half of the book chronicles the challenges facing the Gallia family after the death of Moritz as the political situation in Austria gradually gradually deteriorated, culminating in the rise of the Nazis and the Anschluss. Hermine’s daughter Kathe, a doctor of chemistry and a business owner, was among the first targets of the Austrian Nazis. Imprisoned and harassed, Kathe, her sister Gretl, and the rest of the Gallia family began plotting their escape. Having secured permission to leave the country and emigrate to Australia, they managed to secure and ship most of their belongings, including their magnificent art collection, one of the largest to leave Austria mostly intact.
This engagingly written book succeeds on so many levels, it is almost impossible to enumerate them all: cultural history, art history, Jewish history, and religious identity are all fully explored in the context of an absolutely gripping narrative. The book is invaluable not just for the light it sheds on the people, places, and things of fin de siecle Vienna, but also for how it describes the process and competitive nature of culture creation. The story is told, incidentally, by Tim Bonyhady, the great-grandson of Moritz and Hermine Gallia—making the book a most remarkable 20th century family chronicle.
Many thanks to the critic of early twentieth culture Gavin Plumley, on whose blog, Entartete Musik, I spotted this book, which I might otherwise have missed.
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