The Jews of Stühlingen

11-1

Ralph

December 28, 2016

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 Only a narrow facade is visible of the house (5) in the apex of Jews’ Corner. According to popular belief, it was once the rabbi’s house. The substantial building (4) on its northeastern side once displayed a prominent barn door, still visible on Rosenthal’s snapshot.2 It is the reputed site of the original Stühlingen synagogue. Jews resided in houses on either flank of this corner. I have been told that a mezuzah was found during the renovation of one of these buildings, but I was unable to discover any details.

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 The Stühlingen records cast some light on the seventeeth- and eighteenth-century house owners, but the nature of the records hinders proceeding in chronological order. Jewish homeownership all hinges on a record of May 29, 1723:

Marum Weyl changes his house in the Jews’ Lane, between Mayr Bloch and the Adler Inn, for the Krone Inn with barn, stable,forecourt [Baulege], an orchard, and a vegetable garden, a washhouse, and the inn equipment, and pays 400 fl. compensation. [R3055]

¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0 Right away we see that Marum Sandel’s son moved from house 1 to F, a much more substantial abode. Mayr Bloch lived to the north of Marum’s original home. The expression “Baulege” proves difficult to interpret, as it is not listed in any modern German dictionary, not even in the authoritative 1854 Deutsches Wörterbuch by the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm.3 Given that Stühlingen is close to the Swiss border, the term Baulege may have Alemannic origins, and indeed, the online version of the Swiss Idiotikon contains the word “Bulegi” (the forecourt of a house to park cart and horses),4 the most likely modern equivalent for “Baulege”.

¶ 5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 0 Marum Weyl’s old home did not go to waste, for on July 24, 1724 the following was recorded:“Jonas Gugenheimb buys a house next to Meyer Bloch” [R755]. Jonas ben Judah Gugenheimb, therefore, now lived in the house (1) previously occupied by Marum. Two years later, on March 6, 1726, there was notice of the neighbouring house 3:

Kehla Gugenhaimb, widow of Mausche Bloch, assisted by her son-in-law Jesaias Schach of Dornach, sells her half house, above the house of the buyer´s father and between the houses of Jonas Gugenheimb and Joseph Gugenheimb, called Alt Jossel, to Mencke Bloch, who is assisted by his father Mayer Bloch, and in the presence of Marum Weyl. The seller owes some money to the children of her late son-in-law Salomon in Hagenthal/Alsace. [R804]

¶ 7 Leave a comment on paragraph 7 0 The registered owner of house 3 in 1726 was Joseph ben Meir Gugenheimb (G1.3.3). What happened next to house 3? On February 23, 1730 we read:

Meyer Bloch, here representing his stepson Raphael Gugenheimb in Endingen, sells Faistel Gugenheimb, as a representative of his son Meyer Gugenheimb, a house between the house of Meyer Bloch and the barn of Sir Steward [Burgvogt] Megglin, with a forecourt [Baulege] in front and a vegetable garden behind the house, for 280 fl. cash, besides a man´s and a woman´s seat in the synagogue [It is uncertain whether these seats formed part of the sale or part of the payment]. [R4971]

¶ 9 Leave a comment on paragraph 9 0  

2Rosenthal, “Heimatgeschichte der badischen Juden,” p. 167.

3span>Grimm et al., “Deutsches Wörterbuch.”

4Schweizerisches Idiotikon, s.v. Bulegi.