Resumen de Statuten fur das Bethhaus der Israeliten in Wien (1829)

Philipp P. Fehl, Isaac Noah Mannheimer

• This essay attempts to bring to life the architecture of Vienna's oldest synagogue, the classicistic Stadttempel by Joseph Kornhäusel, in terms of the tradition of the worship and spiritual hopes for the sake of which it was founded. The author's childhood was lived, to some extent, under the shelter of this tradition. He draws on his memories to find access to his interpretation of historical data connected with the foundation of the Tempel and to explore the interconnection of the style of the Tempel's architecture and the religious function of the building. The duties and problems of an author's personal involvement in the writing of history, and especially the history of art, are a major concern.

  Added to the essay are a transcription of the first by-laws of the Stadttempel and Isaac Noah Mannheimer's (the Tempel's first spiritual leader's) preface to the collection of his chancel orations in which he expounds the Tempel's founders' purposes and hopes in an appropriately lofty style, which may be compared to the elevated language of the Tempel's architecture.