The Jews of Stühlingen

10-2

Ralph

December 26, 2016

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 We will first describe the four major families – Bikert, Weyl, Bloch, and Gugenheimb – followed by the two minor ones – Meyer and Bernheimb – and finally a few early families whose specific family name could not be attributed. Named individuals who could not be linked to specific families have been excluded. Jews from surrounding communities, many of whom had acquired the right to trade and pass through Stühlingen territories, will be discussed; and finally foreign Jews whose presence in Stühlingen was recorded are listed.

Bikert

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 “Isak of Stühlingen” (B1) is the first member of the Bikert family and the first documented Stühlingen Jew to be mentioned in local documents of 1584,6 although the family names “Bikert,” “Bickert,” “Bickhert,” “Biscardt,” “Pikardt,” or “Pickhert” do not occur until 1680 [R4763]. In Stühlingen records Isak is mentioned posthumously [R1442], but he also stars in a Purim satire in the early seventeenth century and the Heimatgeschichte.7 However, the family seems to have settled in the region earlier in the sixteenth century. We do not know where the Bikert family came from originally. Of Isak’s four sons, Mayer8 (B1.1) does not appear in Stühlingen documents proper; Manno (B1.4) appears twice [R1443], but he lived in Klingnau, Switzerland. Only Phol (B1.2) and Frohm (B1.3) have a documented presence in Stühlingen.

¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 Altogether we found twenty-two Bikert men over seven generations, and four wives and one daughter. Frohm lived in Ofteringen but was not under protection. His son Lehman (B1.3.1) was under protection in Schwerzen and died after 1676. Phol had two sons, Hirtzle (B1.2.1) and Isaac (B1.2.2); both brothers were successful businessmen. Hirtzel (or Hürtzli) was first mentioned in 1612 when he, together with others, was sentenced to pay a huge fine for some fighting between neighbours [R1463]. From 1618 on he was under protection but died in 1633, leaving behind a widow and two underage sons, Lehemann (B1.2.1.1) and Schmuli (B1.2.1.2).

¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0 Hürtzli’s widow carried on her husband’s business until 1636, relying on the assistance of her son Lehemann and an assistant named Seligman. But in 1636 she remarried a “Jacoff Nachfuhr” (successor) (Z7) and moved with him to Untereggingen. Hürtzli’s claims are mentioned until 1674 and managed by his sons. Hürtzli’s brother Isaaci ran his own business exclusively as a cattle dealer; after his brother’s death, he received protection in Stühlingen and died after 1645. Isaac did not seem to have had any descendants, although an entry from 1700 mentions a son Hirtzli in regard to an old debt of Isaac to Sir Hans Jerg Oschwaldt of Schaffhausen [R669].

6GLA, 61/7121, Court proceedings of Tiengen Dominion, 1583–6, March 19, 1584.

7Butzer, Hüttenmeister, and Treue, “Ich will euch sagen von einem bösen Stück …,”; Rosenthal, “Heimatgeschichte der badischen Juden.” 461, 75

8Rosenthal, “Heimatgeschichte der badischen Juden.” 461.