Vienna, the capital of the Hapsburg Empire - a thriving commercial, banking and cultural centre - constituted the most attracting Austrian centre for the orthodox merchants of the Ottoman Empire, particularly from the 17th century onward. The economic policy and the aim of the Hapsburg monarchy to penetrate in the eastern markets, as well as the acheivement of various Austrian-Turkish treaties in the beginning of the 18th century led to the creation of the optimum conditions for the commercial activation of the Balkan orthodox merchants in Vienna. The Austrian government granted privileges and prizes to the best merchants to attract the Greek merchants. The presence of the Greeks in Vienna is witnessed since approximately 1600 while the number of Greeks increased systematically and their presence became more dynamic during the 18th century.

The communities

Privileges - Community Organization - Church

In 1690 the Emperor Leopold I conferred to the orthodox Serbs that came to settle in Vienna the privilege to practice their religion and consented to the operation of an orthodox church. Thus, the Serbs were the first orthodox people of the Hapsburg monarchy to have been given privileges from which the Greeks tried to benefit. A little later, in 1717, the emperor Charles VI issued a patent, that is a "provision on trade in the benefit of the dealers", which concerned the orthodox Ottoman subjects that traded in Vienna. This patent established the development of trade by determining the conditions of commercial transactions. This decree was renewed by the empress Maria Teresa in 1763 who also founded a tribunal that dealt with commercial and financial matters of the orthodox merchants. The privilege of Maria Teresa was acknowledged and ratified by her successors, Joseph II (1783), Leopold II (1791) and Francis II (1794).

These privileges referred to the Greek dealers and Ottoman subjects of the Greek and anti-unionist dogma and to "the Greeks and Vlachs of the eastern religion living in Vienna ...". Therefore, it is evident that the term Greeks implies that the privileges are also meant for the Vlachs, the orthodox Albanians and the Serbs. These are peoples that lived in Macedonia or northern Epirus, they were orthodox and they spoke the Greek language as well as their own dialects. They had come to the Hapsburg Empire as merchants and performed their profession coexisting with the rest of the Greek Ottoman subjects. As a result, the associations of the orthodox merchants of Vienna include not only Greeks but also Vlach merchants.

The privileges granted by the emperors offered the Greeks and Vlachs the possibility to associate by creating commercial unions, the so-called Companies, which constituted the base for their later political associations that were developed into Communities.

The fact that two Greek Communities were formed in Vienna is noteworthy. The first was the Community of Saint Georgios which gathered the Greek Ottoman subjects, while the second, the Community of the Holy Trinity, was the community of the Greeks and Vlachs that had obtained the Austrian citizenship. This differentiation is due to the fact that many Greeks and Vlachs which had settled in Vienna obtained the Austrian citizenship so that they could marry Austrian women or to expand their commercial activities while others remained Ottoman subjects enjoying reduced taxes but obliged to trade only eastern products in wholesale.

Community organization

The fundamental principles for the organization of the two communities of Vienna, as defined by the imperial privileges, consisted in the subjection of the Communities to the Austrian government, the right of autonomy and self-administration of their internal affaires and the practice of their religious duties. Nevertheless, the imperial privileges did not acknowledge the right to render justice to their members.

The two Communities of Vienna were independent from one another. The general assembly of their members was the electoral body of each Community. It held meetings on an annual basis and elected the administration organs of the Community. The Community as a body was the supreme authority while a representative bouleuterion was the basic administration organ. Initially, the representative bouleuterion was composed of 18 members and later (from 1777) it was 12 membered; it was elected by the assembly of the members of an annual term and administrative competencies. This bouleuterion constituted the representative authority of the Community. It was responsible for all matters and it was also the legal person of the Community for the Austrian authorities. Nevertheless, despite their right of arbitration intervention in trivial disputes, the Communities of Vienna did not have juridicial jurisdiction over their members.

The foundation of a church in the Greek communities of Vienna

As soon as the orthodox Ottoman subjects of Vienna gained economic strength their first concern was the foundation of an orthodox temple. The first to obtain the right to build a church were the Greek Ottoman subjects who managed in 1723 to obtain the permission to erect an orthodox church in the name of Saint Georgios via an imperial document that resulted from the favourable intervention of the prince Eugene of Savoy toward the emperor Charles VI. In the beginning this church was lodged in the residence of Alexandros Maurokordatos, the privy counsellor, whereas the first orthodox liturgy took place in 1726. The Community of the Greek Ottoman subjects was named after Saint Georgios.

Nevertheless, the foundation of an othodox church for the Greeks provoked the anger of the Serb metropolite Karlowitz, who claimed the religious and administrative surveillance of the temple for himself. From 1723 up to 1776 the Serb metropolites, particularly after Leopold I had granted different privileges to them in 1690, claimed the ownership of the Greek church Saint Georgios while in 1761 they succeded in obtaining a document from Maria Teresa which brought the temple and its possessions under the ownership of the Serb metropolite Karlowitz. As a result of this event the Greeks of the Saint Georgios Community closed the temple from 1761 to 1776. This matter was definitevely solved with the conferment of the high imperial privilege of Maria Teresa in March 2, 1776 which adjudicated the ownership of the temple and brought it under the Greek Community while it also ordered the Serb metropolite to return to the temple whatever the previous metropolites had taken from it. This privilege was ratified by the successors of Maria Teresa. The Community of Saint Georgios acquired a private owned temple the construction of which began in 1803 and was completed in 1806.

In 1787 Joseph II granted the privilege for the foundation of a temple to the Greek and Vlach Austrian citizens. After the rejection of their proposition to erect one church for both Communities, the Greek and Vlach Austrian citizens advanced in the erection of their own temple, the Holy Trinity church in the region Fleischmarkt of Vienna. The construction expenses were covered by the wholesale merchant Sinas. This church was also open to the orthodox Serbs who had to bring their own priest to officiate the liturgy and confess them. As the Community of the Greek Ottoman subjects, the Community of the Greeks of Austrian citizenship was named after its church, that is Community of the Holy Trinity.

The administrative authority of each Community was made up of two or three churchwardens, who were elected by the bouleuterion and were responsible for dispatching all matters involving the church and were obliged to account to the Community for their management. The 12 membered bouleuterion elected, mainly the priests and vicars of each church. These had to be Greek orthodox priest-monks of a great monastery of the Turkish ruled Greek region. The duties of the vicars were exclusively religious and they were obliged to account to the Community. In addition, they had to respect the Serb metropolite Karlowitz who may ratified their election but could not be actively involved in the ecclesiastic matters of both Greek Communities. The verger and chanters of the churches, employees of the community administration, were under the supervision of the vicars. The vicar and the sub-vicars obtained a salary from the Community which also provided for their shelter. Neophytos Doukas, Anthimos Gazis and Theoklitos Pharmakidis were some of the vicars that served in the Saint Georgios temple.

Demographic trends

Vienna offered hospitality to Greeks and other orthodox Ottoman subjects (Vlachs, Serbs and others) that came mainly from today's northern Greek regions, Epirus and mostly western Macedonia. Specifically, the came mainly from Kozani, Siatista, Serres, Selitsa, Vogatsiko, Kastoria, Kleisoura, Vlasti, Serbia, Naoussa, Veroia, Melenoiko, Moschopolis, Monastiri, etc. as well as towns of Asia Minor, Thessaly, Thrace and the Aegean islands.

As for the number of the Greeks and Vlachs of Vienna we know that in 1767, 79 Greek and Vlach Ottoman subjects were registered in the Austrian capital. If we add their women and children, in 1767 they must have been around 300 while in 1814, the period of prosperity of the Greek colony, they were 4000 (see. Plφchl, Die Wiener Orthodoxen Griechen..., 24-25).

The relations between the members of the colony but also those with the native habitants present great interest. The administrative and ecclesiastic division of the Greeks in two communities according to their citizenship resulted in the independent action of the two communities and the psychological divergence between the members of the communities. The action and the life of each community was independent but the property in the Greek part of the Saint Marx graveyard in Vienna, where the orthodox were buried belonged to both communities. Moreover, it is true that the Greeks managed to prevail very soon in the local society and stand out by contributing considerably in the economy of Vienna and by offering significant social work. Noble titles and important offices were attributed to many Greeks.

Education

Until the early 19th century there was no official organized school in Vienna. Therefore, education was offered by hired teachers who gave private lessons to the offsprings of the most wealthy Greek families in their homes. But as the demand for the foundation of a Greek school became more intense and the need more pressing, the Hapsburg court issued a decree in 1804 that allowed the Community of the Greek Austrian citizens of the Holy Trinity to found a Greek school that would be lodged in the second floor of the Holy Trinity church building. The school was brought under the public Austrian control while the Community of the Holy Trinity supervised the financial matters and suggested the teachers and school books. The school would had four classes and the students - boys and girls in separate classes - were taught Religion, Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, literary extracts and Greek Grammar.

The fact that the Saint Georgios Community was excluded from the school direction provoked disputes between the two communities and the refusal of the Greek Ottoman subjects to support the school financially. At the same time they demanded the privilege to found their own school but this demand was never satisfied. Offering Greek education to the Vlachs of the Greek communities of Vienna was also a reason of conflict. Consequently, the Greek school of Vienna confronted financial and operational difficulties due to the lack of students - especially after the unsuccesful attempt of Carl Elmauer in 1807 to add to his private educational institute "a special class for the Greek, those that come from Walachia and Moldavia and, in general, students that come from western Europe" - but started from 1815 to operate more regularly for the children of both Greek communities by attracting many Greek Austrian citizens. The school had two classes which were divided in four groups each, and had two teachers. The studies in each class would last three years and included lessons of modern and ancient Greek language, arithmetic, geography but also German. This education aimed at providing Greek, orthodox and mercantile education according to the model of most schools in the Greek colonies.

Apart from the concern for the creation of a school and the provision of organized education for their children, the Greeks of Vienna have significant and extensive intellectual activities to present, particularly in typography and the publication of Greek books, newspapers and periodicals. The printing offices related to the publishing activity of the Greeks of Vienna are separated in the ones that belonged to the Viennese who published Greek books too and in those that were founded by Greek typographers of that period. The main Viennese that published Greek books and periodicals were: a) Thomas Tratner who started printing Greek books from the mid 18th century and cooperated with personalities such as Iosipos Moisiodakas who published in this printing office the Apologia in 1780 and the Theoria tis Geographias in 1781 and Rigas Pheraios who published the Physikis Apanthisma in 1790 and b) Joseph Vaumaister, with whom the later great Greek typographers, Georgios Ventotis and the brothers Markides Pouliou worked.

The main Greek typographers are: a) Georgios Ventotis, who founded his printing house in 1785 and made magnificent new Greek Enlightenment publications in cooperation with the publisher Polyzois Lampaniziotis while he also cooperated with Rigas Pheraios and b) the brothers Georgios and Poublios Markides Pouliou from Siatista, who took over the printing office of Joseph Vaumaister when the latter was invited as a teacher for the Austrian princes. The Pouliou brothers proceeded in the printing of the "Ephimerida", a significant Greek newspaper the distribution of which began in 1790 and stopped suddenly in 1797 when the printing office closed after the arrest of Rigas Pheraios, as the two brothers were the main cooperators of Rigas. In addition, in 1784 Georgios Ventotis published in Greek another "Ephimerida" which had a very short life and limited distribution.

In Vienna, apart from the two above-mentioned attempts for a journalistic medium in Greek, there were other important newspapers, such as the "Eidiseis dia ta Anatolika meri" of the publishers Joseph Frangisco Hull and Eufronio Rafael Popowitz. The distribution of this newspaper began in 1811 and had a limited duration and distribution while in 1812 it was replaced by the "Ellinikos Tilegraphos" which was published by Dimitrios Alexandridis, a nephew of Anthimos Gazis. The Ellinikos Tilegraphos was proved to be the newspaper which lasted the most since it was distributed until 1836 informing its readers on economic and political issues, while in 1817 the "Philologikos Tilegraphos" was the complement of the main newspaper with literary and cultural issues.

At the same time there were more Greek literary periodicals distributed in the Austrian capital. The most important were the following. a) "Hermis o Logios" was the literary periodical which was first published in 1811 by Anthimos Gazis and stopped being published on the outbreak of the War of Greek Independence in 1821. However, its distribution was not unhindered during all this time; "Hermis o Logios" confronted financial problems. Thus, in 1814 and 1815 the number of issues distributed decreases while from 1812 until 1815 the publishers of the periodical often change in an attempt to find financial ressources in order to preserve the periodical which reached its best moment during the five-year period 1816-1821. The material of "Hermis o Logios" always combined Greek and European literary and cultural news which contributed to the dissemination of the ideas of the western thought and education to the Greek world, while the language of the periodical propagandized the use of the common modern Greek language. b) The literary periodical "Kalliope" was published as a competitor of the "Hermis o Logios" from Athanasios Stageiriti and was distributed from 1819 to 1821 with the objective of becoming the medium of the partisans of the linguistic archaism of that time.

Moreover, Vienna was selected by many Greek scholars as the place of publication of their books in an attempt to contribute to the spiritual awakening of the subjected Greeks. Iosipos Moisiodakas, Rigas Pheraios, Polyzois Kontos, Anthimos Gazis, Neophytos Doukas were some of the scholars that came to the Austrian capital to publish their books or to translate into Greek significant works. Thus, the printing offices of Vienna published religious, school-books, textbooks, calendars, translated works, ancient writers, theatrical plays - original text or translations - and poetic collections. This publishing activity made Vienna the most important intellectual centre of the Hellenism of that time. According to Adamantios Korais, Vienna was the "workshop of the new literature of the Greeks".

Charity

The Greeks of Vienna developed notable charity action. As fabulously rich, many of them devoted a large part of their property and possessions for the foundation of hospitals, poor-houses and hospices to lodge the poor Greeks that came to Vienna to study in the Austrian universities. Many of them left considerable legacies for the maintenance of these institutes or for dowereies of poor girls. They also cared greatly for the foundation of charitable institutes, schools and churches in the unredeemed country, particurarly in their cities of origin. At the same time, families of economic and social power, as the family Sina, finance the construction of public works in Vienna (e.g. the water reservoir) and support financially the maintenance of university buildings (e.g. the Technical University ).

Apart from the charitable activities of remote cases of Greeks, the Greek Communities of Vienna were also involved in charitable activities; they offered money to relieve the poor of the city and both Greek churches created a fund for the relief of widows, orphans and for all those in need, Greek or Austrian.

Economy

Trade and Merchants

Vienna proved to be a remarkable commercial centre, particularly during the 18th and 19th century, as Vienna gained considerable advantage from its strategic position between central Europe and the Ottoman Empire and on the Danube. The merchandise that came from the Ottoman Empire were stored in Vienna and were dispatched to the rest of Austria, Germany, northern Italy and France. What is more, two trade fairs took place in Vienna each year. These trade fairs attracted a great number of merchants and lend a live commercial atmosphere to the city. In addition, Vienna had a Stock Market and a bank already from the early years of the 18th century, which facilitated the merchants in their transactions. These advantages of Vienna in combination with the privileges that the Hapsburg government conferred to the Balkan merchants, led a great number of Greek merchants to Vienna from the late 17th century.

Routes

The main land routes that the Greek merchants used from the Turkish ruled Greek territory to the Austrian territories were the following: a) the imperial route of Constantinople which started from Constantinople, passed through the valley of Evros, reached Sofia and continued to the southwest, passed from Pirot and Belgrade and reached Semlin via the river Sava. After Semlin, Vienna was the last trading stop. Most merchants that came from western Macedonia followed a road branch that started from Nis and continued southward by the Morava vale. b) The route of Macedonia or Bosnia which started from Thessaloniki and connected Macedonia with Bosnia, with intermediate stops in Scopje and Sarajevo, and Vienna as final destination. c) The route that started from Thessaloniki and followed the Struma valley forming the line Serres-Sidirokastro-Meleniko-Sofia-Nis-Belgrade-Semlin. d) The route of Serres that started from Serres and followed the Struma valley passing from Strumica and then Scopje to finally reach the capital of the Hapsburg Empire.

Many times these routes were rough, they would close because of bad weather conditions and were often overrun by bandits and criminals. In order to confront these bad conditions and dangers, the Greek merchants travelled in groups. These are the so-called caravans: many merchants from different regions would meet in a large commercial centre and start all together the transportation of their goods with beasts of burden - mainly horses, camels and mules. These merchants were as a rule armed while during their long trip which lasted months they would stop at the caravansaries and khans (inns) that were on the road. They would pass the night there, feed the animals, take supplies of food and water; they also proceeded in commercial transactions.

The Greek merchants also travelled on the river routes, mainly the Danube on which big ships with cargo travelled from Vienna southward. The Greek merchants received the merchandise and transported the goods via land routes to the ports of the Adriatic.

Merchandise

The main eastern products that Greek dealers exported from the Turkish ruled regions to Vienna were: furs from Kastoria, red and white yarn, carpets from Moschopolis, animal hides from Macedonia and Anatolia, cotton from Serres, alaca fabric and saffron crocus from Kozani, wine from Siatista and Naousa, knifes from Smyrna, tobacco, salt, pepper, and other spices, silk yarn, rice, legumes, etc. Returning to their countries they transported manufactured products from central Europe: clothes, luxury products, silk fabrics, crystal vases and porcelaine, women's jewlery, mirrors with silver covered frames, etc.

Trading techniques

Initially the Greek merchants themselves travelled to transport and sell their merchandise in the Austrian capital. Gradually, most of them settled in Vienna and created commercial companies. They associated with other merchants and in this way some of them undertook the buying and others the promotion of the goods while both parties contributed to the expenses and shared profit. Other merchants founded great commercial houses in Vienna with branches in other European and Balkan cities (e.g. the family Sina).

The principle methods that the Greek merchants used to facilitate trading transactions was insurance (sicurita), that is the deposit of a certain amount to an insurance company so that the merchant obtains the money from the company in case of loss or damage, provision (commission), that is the intervention of a merchant's friend so that a product will be bought or sold, the bill of exchange (politza or cambiala), which means that a merchant places his money in one place so that his partner could take it from another place and the bonds (obligazione), that is the letter that certifies that the merchant has borrowed money from someone when he did not have the needed capital. Finally, the merchants maintained registers for all their commercial activities for their own convenience. At the same time, there were important merchant scholars that took over the publishing of special commercial manuals including instructions for carrying out commercial transactions and proper training and mercantile behaviour (e.g. Scrittura Doppia and Experienced Guide for trading activities... by Thomas Dimitriou and a commercial treatise by Athanasios Psalidas).

Apart from the commercial transactions, the Greeks - in particular the eminent Sina family - took action also in banking and Stock Exchange activities, but also in typography and publication activities aiming at the maximization of their profit. In the period of the European Enlightenment and spiritual awakening, Greek books were greatly demanded and yielded big profit. Thus, the Greek merchants invested considerable capital in the foundation and equipment of printing offices, they financed the translation of foreign books and the publication of Greek books, newspapers and periodicals and supported their distribution as subscribers.

Mentality

The Greek merchants of Vienna constituted the members of the new bourgeois class which appeared and gained power in this period in the European societies. The Greek merchants accumulate riches and in this way are promoted socially. They become eminent members of the local society, obtain noble titles (e.g. Konstantinos Belios, Stergios Doubas, Georgios Sinas and others obtain the baron title) while many Greeks had ascended to the administrative hierarchy of the country (e.g. Theodoros Karagiannis and Nikolaos Doubas became deputies of the imperial parliament) or occupied high offices in universitary institutes of the city (e.g. the philologist Th. Karagiannis was appointed director of the Austrian Academy of Vienna and the imperial Library).

These bourgeois adopted the new liberal and revolutionary ideas of that time and observed the political events in the world. The literary, economic and political conversations in the various cafes of Vienna, gathering in houses and gambling games seemed to be the most common forms of entertainment for these Greeks abroad. But those who had obtained the Austrian citizenship or had married Austrian women seemed to be gradually assimilated in the native environment.

However many of these Greeks lived with the dream to return to their country when it is liberated and fought for this purpose by supporting financially the erection of schools and churches and the dispatch of books for the spiritual awakening and revolutionary preparation of their co-patriotes. In fact, many of them returned to their place of origin and built beautiful aristocratic houses based on the European model, which they equiped with furniture and other decorative objects of western fashion and manufacture. Many of these houses are still preserved until today in cities mainly of western Macedonia.

Political activity

The colony in the international condition (15th-19th centuries)

The ideas of the French Revolution were easily diffused among the Greeks of Vienna. The Greek intellectuals of the Austrian capital adopted the French declarations of equality, democracy and freedom, they read and translated the works of the French representatives of the Enlightenment - Montesquieu, Rousseau, Voltaire - and published the French declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen in the Greek newspapers of Vienna. At the same time the hope of a redeeming intervention from Napoleon in the East made the revolutionary thinking of the Greeks pass from the theoretical phase to the real phase and incited patriots like Rigas Pheraios pursue personal contact with Bonaparte. Finally, the democratic newspapers with their programmatic character and codification of the revolutionary principles provided the model for the constitution of the democratic regimes that some scholars of the diaspora such as Rigas Pheraios dreamt of.

The Greeks of Vienna and the War of Greek Independence of 1821

The contribution of the Greeks of Vienna in the War of Greek Independence was definitive, particularly during the phase of the ideological and practical preparation. The Greek books, newspapers, the foreign translations that were published by the Greek printing houses of Vienna were also distributed in the Turkished ruled Greek region. All these contributed to the spiritual awakening and the ideological familiarization of the unredeemed Greeks with the revolutionary ideas of that period. Moreover, Rigas Pheraios selected the Austrian capital to publish his revolutionary material while planning the uprising of the Greeks. The printing house of the Markides Pouliou printed the revolutionary manifest of Rigas Pheraios in 3000 copies, his magnificent maps and the copperplate engraving of Alexander the Great, which were all bound for the unredeemed country. In addition, Rigas Pheraios recruited his first partners from the Greeks of Vienna, many of which had a tormenting death along with him (Th. Touroutzias, Panagiotis and Ioannis Emmanouil and others), while very soon Greeks of other colonies became his partisans for the continuation of his work.

Many Greeks of Vienna were initiated in the Philiki Etaireia from the beginning of its constitution and many of them (e.g. Georgios Lassanis) were enlisted in the Sacred Battalion of Alexander Ypsilantis which was defeated in the battle of Dragasani. Others went to the revolted Greece to fight there. The Greek communities of Vienna supported financially the War of Greek Independence by sending money and munitions, but also by offering moral support as they received and provided for the women and chidren of the revolted Greece and fighters from other countries that used Vienna as an intermediate station to reach the Greek revolted region.