Description

The bombardment of Frankfurt am Main by Napoleonic forces in 1796 resulted in the almost total destruction of the so-called Judengasse, a narrow lane lined with wooden houses where the Frankfurt Jews lived. This ended nearly 350 years of oppressive living conditions that segregated more than 3,000 Jewish residents of Frankfurt and their guests from their Christian neighbors. For the most part, whatever might have existed in terms of archival records of the Jewish community was also a victim of the flames. It is mostly only through the survival of non-Jewish records of or about the Jewish community that we can begin to reconstruct the vibrant community life that appears to have existed.

The following document comes from one such archive. The Vienna imperial court’s archive holds the records of several thousand court-cases that involved Jewish communities and individuals from the early modern period. This particular document is part of a 119 page-long case file that includes statements from the claimant, the defendant, the court administration, and the notes of the judge in charge of the case from 1778 to 1784. The file tells the story of Wolf Isaac Arnstein, who came from a wealthy Viennese family. Through his marriage with Rifka, the daughter of a Frankfurt Jewish communal leader, he obtained residency in the Jewish lane in the early 1760s. After his wife died in 1771, Wolf Arnstein and their surviving child spent most of their time outside of Frankfurt. This was the basis of an attempt by the municipal authorities to deny him continued residency rights, using rental issues at Arnstein’s Jewish lane house as an excuse.

Start Date

16-8-2017 1:00 PM

End Date

16-8-2017 2:00 PM

Share

COinS
 
Aug 16th, 1:00 PM Aug 16th, 2:00 PM

Strategic Record Keeping and Striving for Autonomy: Was There a Jewish Community Archive in Early Modern Frankfurt?

The bombardment of Frankfurt am Main by Napoleonic forces in 1796 resulted in the almost total destruction of the so-called Judengasse, a narrow lane lined with wooden houses where the Frankfurt Jews lived. This ended nearly 350 years of oppressive living conditions that segregated more than 3,000 Jewish residents of Frankfurt and their guests from their Christian neighbors. For the most part, whatever might have existed in terms of archival records of the Jewish community was also a victim of the flames. It is mostly only through the survival of non-Jewish records of or about the Jewish community that we can begin to reconstruct the vibrant community life that appears to have existed.

The following document comes from one such archive. The Vienna imperial court’s archive holds the records of several thousand court-cases that involved Jewish communities and individuals from the early modern period. This particular document is part of a 119 page-long case file that includes statements from the claimant, the defendant, the court administration, and the notes of the judge in charge of the case from 1778 to 1784. The file tells the story of Wolf Isaac Arnstein, who came from a wealthy Viennese family. Through his marriage with Rifka, the daughter of a Frankfurt Jewish communal leader, he obtained residency in the Jewish lane in the early 1760s. After his wife died in 1771, Wolf Arnstein and their surviving child spent most of their time outside of Frankfurt. This was the basis of an attempt by the municipal authorities to deny him continued residency rights, using rental issues at Arnstein’s Jewish lane house as an excuse.