A table is a table is a table
Dr. Martin Karplus (March 15, 1930, in Vienna, Austria - December 28, 2024, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA) was an Austrian-American theoretical chemist. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2013 for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems.
On the occasion of the exhibition "The Ringstrasse. A Jewish Boulevard," Dr. Martin Karplus and his wife Marci visited the Jewish Museum Vienna on May 21, 2015. His grandfather Johann Paul Karplus lived with his wife Valerie and their four sons on the second floor of the Palais Lieben-Auspitz, Universitätsring 4, 1010 Vienna. The eldest son, Hans, Martin Karplus's father, was the only family member in Vienna at the time of the "Anschluss." He organized four furniture containers and sent them to his brothers in Palestine and the USA, where he later fled himself.
© Sonja Bachmayer
The Karplus couple visited us in 2015 accompanied by Bib. Bib is neither a guide dog nor an assistance dog. Why was he allowed into the museum anyway? Perhaps exceptions are made for Nobel laureates?
© Sonja Bachmayer
A special arrangement had been made for Bib. In this arrangement, the then Mayor of Vienna, Dr. Michael Häupl, signed a document allowing Bib to visit all Viennese museums.
© Sonja Bachmayer
The exhibition that the Karplus couple – accompanied by Bib – saw also addressed the confiscation of property that had affected his family. The donation of the table and a rocking chair to the Jewish Museum Vienna shows the trust that the Karplus couple places in the work of our museum. For this, we are very grateful.
© JMW
We do not know the details behind the permission card for Bib. However, for a Nobel laureate, it should not be too difficult to obtain such a document. Martin Karplus received the honorary citizenship certificate of the federal capital at the Vienna City Hall in 2015. As easy as it is to invite Nobel laureates and allow Bib to visit all Viennese museums, it is impossible to invite all the grandchildren of those who were expelled from "Our City!"
Perhaps Martin and Marci Karplus would have liked to know that students often choose the table when it comes to finding a favorite object for famous fictional guests of the museum. That Johann Paul Karplus, the neurophysiologist and psychiatrist as well as head of the Vienna Polyclinic, played cards at this very table with Sigmund Freud is part of the history. One must talk about history, and when Dr. Freud, as a fictional museum visitor, chooses this table, the conversation has arrived in the present.
© Sonja Bachmayer
