The Jews of Stühlingen

3. The Neighborhood

Ralph

December 21, 2016

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 The Upper Rhine and Lake Constance largely form the border between southern Germany and Switzerland. But near Basel and Schaffhausen, Switzerland extends north of the Rhine. The three Swiss exclaves of Rafz, Schaffhausen, and Ramsen create a very complex boundary pattern between the two countries (see fig. 4).

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 Figure 4. Map of Region from Black Forest to Lake Constance. Jewish Communities in Locations 1 – 12

¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 The town of Stühlingen is si­tu­ated bet­ween the eas­tern foot­hills of the Black Fo­rest and the nort­h­wes­tern bor­der of Schaff­hau­sen on the wes­tern bank of the litt­le Wu­tach Ri­ver. For most of the se­ven­teenth and eigh­teenth cen­tu­ries Stü­hlin­gen was ru­led by the counts of Für­sten­berg from their ca­pi­tal Do­nau­eschin­gen to its north. The litt­le town of Tien­gen – now Walds­hut-Tiengen – lies near the con­fluence of the Wu­tach and Rhine Ri­vers. Both Tien­gen and Do­nau­eschin­gen had in­ter­ac­ting Je­wish Com­mu­ni­ties.

¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0 Jewish life in Stühlingen was also impacted directly by the city of Schaffhausen, the capital of the Swiss canton with the same name. Schaffhausen, situated just above the Rhine Falls, was notorious for its less than hospitable treatment of Jews.1 Of the two neighbouring Benedictine monasteries, Rheinau on a small island in the Rhine and St. Blasien in the Black Forest, the latter affected the Jews of Stühlingen much more directly, since the early Jewish trade from Stühlingen was largely directed towards holdings of St. Blasien.2 But the little town of Zurzach with its important biannual fairs was probably the most important magnet for commercial Jewish life in the region.3

1Löwenstein, Geschichte der Juden.

2Kopialbuch des Klosters St. Blasien.

3Guggenheim-Grünberg, “Die Juden auf der Zurzacher Messe.”