The Jews of Stühlingen

6-1

Ralph

December 23, 2016

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 But not only the Jews were persecuted by the army: Count Maximilian von Pappenheim fled with his whole household and most of his senior officials to Schaffhausen in Switzerland, where they spent the rest of the war. The count was in a difficult situation. As a Protestant, he had supported the side of the Protestant League of Heilbronn, and therefore was persona non grata with the imperial side. The imperial officer corps occupied the castle, and thirty thousand soldiers swarmed the town and surrounding villages. Since Jews were exempted from having to billet common soldiers because of the latters’ frequent misbehaviour,6 the mayor and council of Stühlingen demanded 800 fl. from the Jews, one quarter of the total cost, as their contribution. Instead, they offered 100 fl. [R568].

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 For the years 1633 to 1635 we have relatively few records concerning the Jews. There is some indication that David of Eberfingen had been killed by soldiers during the war [R3788], and his property had been disposed of. Between March and October 1633 Naphtali (Hürtzle) ben Raphael, a grandson of the legendary Isaak of Stühlingen, died at a relatively young age, leaving behind a widow and two underage sons. We are not told whether he had died of natural cause or as a victim of violence. By April 1636, a man named Jacob was described as Naphtali’s successor and received protection. By spring 1638, Jacob had married Naphtali’s widow. Joseph (Josephle) ben Jacob Gugenheimb seems to have moved to Lengnau around 1633 to escape the disorder. Unfortunately, it did not do him much good: he was killed in the disturbances of the first Villmergen War of 1656,7 and his widow returned with her children to Stühlingen [R2060]. Whereas Jews migrated from some other villages and small towns to midsize towns,8 this appears not to have been the case in Stühlingen.

¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 In June 1635 Jacob (Jeggle) ben Judah Weyl, a relatively young man (d. 1675), was given the significant sum of 157 fl. by the town and was charged with delivering the money to General Major Bernhard von Schaffalitzky zu Mukadel as an involuntary war contribution [R390]. Schaffalitzky, scion of a noble Moravian family but born in Brackenheim, Wurttemberg,9 acted as commissioner of war for the Swedish general Horn. Thus, the wind must have shifted, and Stühlingen was now under Swedish occupation. But that fact did not seem to have been sufficient for Maximilian von Pappenheim to return from Schaffhausen to Stühlingen.

¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0  

6Weinberg, “Geschichte der Juden”, 17 – 27; Israel, “Central European Jewry,” 3 – 30

7Dürrenmatt, “Schweizer Geschichte”, 279; Ulrichs, Sammlung jüdischer Geschichten, 268.

8Israel, “Central European Jewry,” 19.

9Assfahl, “Bernhard Schaffalitzki von Muckendell,” 66.

¶ 9 Leave a comment on paragraph 9 0