The Jews of Stühlingen

5-8

Ralph

December 23, 2016

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 The Jewish population remained relatively stable for another twenty years, but then started to creep up again. The next letter of protection was issued in 1696 for thirteen households in the town, plus five households in surrounding villages (each with a married descendant). This time, the one-time payment amounted to 1500 fl. plus the assumption of another debt of 500 fl. to the count and a disbursement of 150 fl. as “interest.”22 This new protection was followed by another growth spurt, cut short by the expulsions of several Jews, some because they could not pay their taxes, some for transgressions, and some without explicit reason. This expulsion is referred to bashfully in the tax collection record Easter 1717:

Protection tax of the Jews, each 10 fl. On Easter 1717 in Stühlingen from Leib Jud, Marum Weyl Sandels son, Salomon Weyl, Meyer Menckin son Bloch, Mausche old, Joseph Marums son,  Lemble old, Schmule Seeligmann, Meyer Lehemann Bickert, Isac Abrahamben son, Joseph Sandels son-in-law, Jonas Models son (has moved away, therefore null), Hirtzel Isac Son (regular null), Faissel Leiben son, Mausche Models son (also gone and null), Josell Lang Schmule son, Marum Lemblin son (has left regularly, null), Menckin Bloch, Lehemann Bickert, Elias Jud, Israel Meyer, Jonas Leiben son, Daniel Bickert (has moved away, null), Jäckelle Hirtzels son von Eberfingen, von Horheim Davidt Jäggelin son (also null), Menckin Bernheimb, Meyer Bernheimb, Elias Boll (null), Jüdelle Weyl, Isac Bernheimb Beniamin son, Menckin Meyer, Meyer Weyl Jüdelin son. [R542]

¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 The issue of the final protection letter of 1717 did not proceed without some disagreement. The Stühlingen citizens demanded an end to the letters of protection.23 The underage prince Joseph Wilhelm Ernst von Fürstenberg-Stühlingen, having had a strict Jesuit upbringing, was fiercely opposed to another twenty years of Jewish presence in Stühlingen. But with the support of the abbot of St. Blasien, he was overruled by his legal guardians.24 It was argued that the local citizenry collectively owed the Jews as much as 30,000 fl., an amount that could not be repaid on short notice. When Wilhelm Ernst Joseph assumed the throne in 1723, he condescended to extend the protection once only for thirteen families under new conditions and another one-time payment of 4000 fl., plus another 50 fl. per household.25

¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0  

22 Ibid., 156.

23 Rosenthal, Heimatgeschichte der badischen Juden, 173.

24 Samuel Pletscher Collection 1610;

25    Häusler, Stühlingen: Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, 157.