CHAPTER 1:
CHILDHOOD IN VIENNA
The Vienna that Milo Kleinberg was born into was still reeling from Austria’s stunning defeat in World War I, and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire of which the city had been the center of power. It was the late 1920s. It remained the country’s cultural center, despite wartime losses and destruction. The intellectual core somehow held, albeit in a somewhat less vibrant form than before 1914 and the declaration of war. At the time of Kleinberg’s birth in June of 1926, Vienna’s cafés were again the bustling centers of city life, where the literati, artists and power brokers of the day, less and less chastened by war and defeat, would convene over thick coffee, sometimes with a dollop of whipped cream. At marble-topped tables in Café Pucher, Café Central and Café Rebhuhn, sharply dressed patrons read the free newspapers, and met with their friends to discuss the ever-evolving political scene or Arthur Schnitzler’s latest play. The Wiener Werkstätte held sway over trends in the decorative arts, and the Vienna State Opera staged elaborate productions in its grand,
1869 Neo-Renaissance palace. Demel’s, the legendary pastry and chocolate shop, continued to thrive, but the famed Hotel Sacher had begun a slow decline. Unable to accept the fall of the monarchy, management would serve only aristocrats, many by this time living a life of genteel poverty and dining on credit. The Kleinbergs lived quite a different life away from the prosperity of that most urbane of stages, in an area known as Vienna’s First District. As a fur salesman, Kleinberg’s father, Max, came into contact with the bourgeoisie on a regular basis, but the young Kleinberg’s memories are the simple ones of a small child, of candy shops, green spaces, lots of friends and riding his treasured wooden scooter with red wheels. The cleanliness and order of every part of the city still stands out in his mind. “You never saw a piece of paper on the street,” he says. Kleinberg sang in his synagogue’s boys’ choir, an experience that contributed to a lifelong love of music. 7
