Joseph Schmidt and Czernowitz: A Story of Ethnic Fluidity

Joseph Schmidt saw Europe transformed in his short life. As a child who moved into the city of Czernowitz, he had to readapt to new political and social boundaries. At the conclusion of the First World War Czernowitz would no longer belong to the Austro-Hungarian empire but instead to the Kingdom of Romania. He worked in Germany before the rise of Nazism but never identified as a German. In 1933 Schmidt fled to Vienna, which he referred to as a homecoming, despite having no previous connection to the city. His life illustrates the ethnic diversity of Czernowitz and the many changes the city underwent in the twentieth century. Much like his adopted home, he had to continuously update himself in order to succeed in new contexts.