Volume 28, Issue 1

Gershom Scholems Kritik, die Wissenschaft des Judentums sei immer nur daran interessiert, was im »Salon« vorgehe, nicht aber im »Keller«, ist inzwischen von der neueren jüdischen Geschichtsschreibung Rechnung getragen worden. Dennoch gibt es immer noch zu wenige Studien zur jüdischen »Unterwelt«, vor allem in Hinblick auf die Geschichte der Juden vor der Emanzipation. Zu dieser »Unterwelt« gehörten auch Juden, die sich in betrügerischer Absicht mehrfach taufen ließen und nach ihrer Konversion auf die schiefe Bahn gerieten, weil sie mit den neuen Lebensumständen nicht zurechtkamen. Zu ihnen zählt im ausgehenden 15. Jahrhundert Hans von Straßburg, der sich in Straßburg zum Christentum bekehren ließ, durch das Land zog und immer wieder mit unterschiedlichen Delikten (Diebstahl, Ehebruch, Bettelei, Betrug, Erpressung) auf- und straffällig wurde, bevor er 1487 in die Mühlen der Nördlinger Justiz geriet, aber dennoch mit dem Leben davonkam. Seine zahlreichen Betrugsmaschen erlangten dadurch Nachruhm, dass frühneuzeitliche Schriften, die vor betrügerischen Bettlern und Gauner eindringlich warnten, sie erwähnen und mit seinem Namen verbinden. Seine spannende Lebensgeschichte wieder hier noch einmal aufgerollt und vor dem Hintergrund der neuen Forschungen zu Judentaufen in dieser Zeit beleuchtet.

The expulsion of the Jewish Community from Regensburg (Ratisbon) in 1519 was one of the last and well-known expulsions of Jews from an Imperial City on the brink of the modern era. Little attention has been paid to a lawsuit between the Regensburg City Council and the Jewish Community which was initiated three years before 1519. Both the City Council and the Jewish Community sent specially authorised delegates as attorneys to attend the trial held in front of the Regiment in Innsbruck/Austria. Hans Hirsdorfer, Hansgraf of Regensburg, was usually dispatched to Innsbruck as the Christian representative while Isaak Walch made the journey in order to represent the Jewish Community. Their powers of attorney, along with other sources such as account books, give us deep insights into their scope of action regarding personal as well as juridical matters.

This article casts light on the situation of the 18th century Jewish underclass by using the example of maid servants. Serving as a maid was the most widespread occupation for Jewish women in the early modern era. Forced to migrate and to live unmarried in the house of a Schutzjude (Jew living under the protection of the authorities), maids were subjected to two rigid legal systems: the local Jewish law and the general law for menials that also applied to Christian servants. Because their families were often too poor to give them a dowry or to acquire authority protection, their chances of marriage were limited. And yet, Jewish maids had the highest number of illegitimate children, often fathered by middle-class Jews. Maids who became pregnant out of wedlock were branded as whores and dismissed. The councils of Jewish parishes were constantly involved in conflicts between parish members and migrant servants. Many maid servants tried to improve their difficult social situation by leaving Judaism.

Es gibt widersprüchliche Berichte in der Literatur in Bezug auf die Immunität der Juden gegen Infektionskrankheiten wie Pocken, Tuberkulose und Cholera. Diese Forschung bezieht sich auf die Choleraepidemien in den Jahren 1832 und 1849. Es lässt sich feststellen, dass die jüdische Bevölkerungsgruppe nicht resistenter gegen die Cholera war als die nicht-jüdische. Die Sterblichkeit war sogar signifikant höher bei Juden. Die Autoren zeigen, dass Unterschiede in der Sterblichkeit nicht auf die Religion, sondern auf die sozialen Umstände, vor allem die Qualität des Trinkwassers, zurückzuführen sind.

Magnus Hirschfeld was the trailblazer of modern sexology and he defined homosexuality as a variation in western sexual life - and no longer as a perversion or vice. Moreover, he campaigned for sexual liberation with petitions to the parliament, leaflets and even movies. He popularized terms that are still in use, such as »transsexualism« or »homosexuality«. But he also became an admirer of sexual eugenics. Lastly, he never achieved the decriminalization of homosexual desire and he also died without any successors. Throughout his life he saw himself as a German citizen. His Jewish background was more relevant to his enemies than to himself.

The German-Jewish legal historian, Guido Kisch, born into the former Bohemian Jewish community of Prague, was a very famous scientist during the Weimar Republic and the first decades after the Second World War. Persecuted by the Nazis, he had to leave Germany for the United States of America. His research on matters relating to medieval German law, social and economic problems of medieval society, especially of the Jewish communities, became famous inside the scientific community. But less is known as to his Jewishness and the influence of his traditional Jewish views on his scientific ideas and discoveries, or of his personal reasons for his actions and decisions. The reasons for this lack of clarity are evidently, in his opinion, that one must separate legal analyses and research from personal influences and interests - apparently an opinion gained under the influence of Max Weber’s positivism. But we can find some indications in the biography of Guido Kisch and his family. The following reflections demonstrate that there definitely are connections between his (private) faith and his scientific findings.

The knowledge and tradition manifested especially in objects salvaged by refugees fleeing Germany after 1933 are not only reminders of the former homeland in exile, they also reflect it one-to-one (this is particularly apparent in the living and eating culture). These objects therefore become bearers of the old world’s cultural traditions.