Vienna’s Lost World: On the Trail of The Hare with the Amber Eyes

Vienna’s Belle Époque: On the Trail of The Hare with the Amber Eyes

Vienna’s Ringstrasse is more than a magnificent boulevard; it is a monument to an era, a circle of stone and ambition that encloses the city’s historic heart. Its grand palaces and museums tell a story of imperial power, but for those who know where to look, they also guard quieter histories. One of the most poignant is the story of the Ephrussi family, a narrative masterfully unlocked by Edmund de Waal in his celebrated family memoir, *The Hare with the Amber Eyes*. Tracing the journey of The Hare with the Amber Eyes is to walk through the very soul of Vienna’s golden age and its devastating collapse.

The book is not just a family history; it is a biography of an object—the famous netsuke collection of 264 miniature Japanese sculptures. These tiny figures serve as silent witnesses to the epic rise and fall of a great European Jewish dynasty. Following their path from Paris to a grand Viennese palace, and through the darkness of the Nazi era, offers a unique lens through which to understand Central European history. Our journey, a real-life Hare with the Amber Eyes tour, begins where the Ephrussi family’s Viennese dream was made manifest: the Palais Ephrussi on the Ringstrasse.

Palais Ephrussi: Tracing the Journey of The Hare with the Amber Eyes

Standing at the corner of the Schottenring, the Palais Ephrussi is an imposing testament to its creators’ aspirations. Designed by Theophil Hansen, one of the Ringstrasse’s master architects, the palace was a bold statement from a family that had risen from Odessa to become a formidable banking power. For Viktor and Emmy Ephrussi, this palace was their stage, a declaration of their full participation in the cultural and economic life of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

It was here that the collection of Japanese miniature sculptures found its Viennese home, a wedding gift from Charles Ephrussi in Paris. Displayed in a vitrine in Emmy’s dressing room, the tiny carvings witnessed the life that swirled around them: intellectual debates, the strains of a Brahms piano trio, and the shifts in political winds. The palace was a universe, and the netsuke were its silent observers, cataloging every moment. Exploring the world of The Hare with the Amber Eyes means starting here, imagining that lost world, even as the building today houses a casino and offices.

Fin-de-siècle Vienna and the Ephrussi Art Patronage

The Ephrussi family journey is inextricably linked to the cultural explosion that defined Fin-de-siècle Vienna. This was the city of Klimt, Mahler, and Freud, a time of radical innovation in art, music, and thought, much of it championed by an assimilated Jewish bourgeoisie.

The Ephrussi were at the center of this world, embodying the spirit of art patronage. They were more than bankers; they were connoisseurs and intellectuals. Their salons were crucibles of creativity where artists and thinkers mingled. Their story demonstrates a crucial truth: Jewish history in Vienna is not a separate narrative but the central thread in the city’s modern cultural fabric. Families like the Ephrussi helped fund the Vienna Secession movement and were among its most ardent supporters. To understand their contribution is to understand why Vienna became the cradle of modernism. Retracing the steps in The Hare with the Amber Eyes is therefore also a journey into the city’s artistic soul.

The Anschluss: WWII Dispossession and a Miraculous Survival

The vibrant world the Ephrussi had built was shattered in March 1938. The *Anschluss*—the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany—unleashed a torrent of antisemitic violence. For Vienna’s Jewish population, this was a cataclysm, and the Ephrussi family’s story becomes a microcosm of this city-wide trauma and the horror of WWII dispossession.

Edmund de Waal’s account is devastating. The Gestapo requisitioned the magnificent Palais Ephrussi. The family was stripped of their citizenship, dignity, and possessions. Everything was inventoried and stolen—the paintings, the library, the family silver. In this maelstrom, one small, miraculous act of loyalty saved the netsuke collection. Anna, a faithful maid, understood their significance. Day by day, she smuggled the tiny figures out, hiding them in her mattress. This quiet courage is a core part of the netsuke collection’s story. Its survival is a testament to how human loyalty can preserve a fragment of a lost world.

Legacy in Memory: In the Footsteps of the Ephrussi Family

After the war, a returning Elisabeth de Waal reclaimed the netsuke from Anna—the only part of the family’s vast fortune ever recovered. The collection traveled with her to England and eventually to her brother Iggie in Tokyo, bringing its story full circle before being inherited by her son, Edmund.

Today, uncovering the story of The Hare with the Amber Eyes in Vienna is an exercise in reading the city’s memory. It involves more than just visiting the Palais. It means a visit to the Jewish Museum, where a portion of the family’s archive is now housed. It means walking through the Servitenviertel, where the family took refuge after being evicted. It means understanding the void left by the destruction of a community that gave the city so much of its vitality.

Following the path of The Hare with the Amber Eyes engages with Vienna on a far deeper level. It looks past imperial splendor to see the intricate, often painful, human stories woven into its fabric. This intellectual and emotional pilgrimage connects the grandeur of the past with the sober lessons of history, all through the gaze of a small, perfectly carved wooden creature. It is a way of travel that seeks not just to see, but to understand.