Vier Schwestern. Fernes Wien, fremde Welt

Gerda, Friedl, Ilse and Susanne were the daughters of ‘Benedikt’s son’ and granddaughters of Moriz Benedikt, the famous publisher of the powerful ‘Neue Freie Presse’, against which Karl Kraus polemicised vehemently. Elias Canetti lived in the immediate neighbourhood of the Benedikts. The Benedikt daughters did not escape his notice and they invited him often to their salon. The Anschluss put an end to the daughters’ privileged existence but the four sisters managed to escape. Scattered in all directions, they remained connected through all travails – emigration, war and post-war circumstances. Ernst Strouhal tells the story of a piece of irretrievable history, giving his own mother and three aunts a voice.