An Overview of the History of the Jews in Brandenburg – from the First Jewish Settlements to the Foundation of the German Empire in 1871 The Mark Brandenburg under Hohenzollern Rule There are few historical sources on the beginnings of Jewish settlement in the Mark Brandenburg, with the earliest evidence dating to the first half of the thirteenth century. The oldest testament to the presence of Jews in the region is a tombstone from the year 1244 found in the Jewish cemetery in Spandau. While there are more sources available for subsequent years, they indicate that there were only a few identifiable Jews in the region at this time. Jews were subordinated to various local powers and there was no single rule regulating their legal and social status. On 30 April 1415 the German Emperor Sigismund conferred the Hohenzollern Friedrich, the Burgrave of Nuremberg, with the Electorate as his inheritance. For the Jews in Brandenburg this meant that they were now once again answerable to a single ruler, as opposed to the many local powers at whose mercy they had previously been. On 17 November 1420 the Margrave extended the so-called Jewish privilege to all Jews in the Mark, granting them settlement rights and the right to engage in commercial activities. In the years thereafter frequent Jewish settlements were recorded in the Mark. In 1440 the new Elector, Friedrich II, affirmed the general privilege for all Jews in the Mark. However, the following years witnessed successive expulsions, but also new settlements.

The Expulsion of Jews from the Mark Brandenburg in 1571 In 1553 Joachim II took office. In 1556 he appointed Lippold, a Jew who had come to Brandenburg around 1550 and won the confidence of the Elector in just a few years, the inspector of all Jews in the Mark. Among other duties, Lippold was responsible for collecting the taxes levied on the Jews, and in 1656 Joachim appointed him master of the mint. When Joachim II

died suddenly in 1571, Lippold, feared and despised by both Christians and Jews alike, was held responsible for his death. The trial of the Elector's former confidante dragged on for over two years. Lippold, who was probably innocent, was eventually found guilty and executed at Berlin's New Market on 28 January 1573. Not content to leave well enough alone, the Elector Johann Georg, Joachim II's successor, then decreed that Jews were to be expelled from the Electorate “for eternity”. As so often in history, Jews were held collectively responsible for the alleged or actual crimes of an individual in Lippold's case. Thus from 1573 Jews were prohibited from settling in the Mark Brandenburg and almost a century would pass before they could come again in greater numbers to the Electorate.

Jewish Resettlement under the Great Elector On 21 May 1671 Friedrich Wilhelm, the Great Elector, passed an edict on the admission of fifty Jewish families with a writ of protection (Schutzjuden) with the proviso that they could not establish a synagogue. At this time the effects of the Thirty Years War were keenly felt throughout the Mark. Brandenburg was a region in decline. Several towns and villages were in rack and ruin and entire branches of industry had died out. The region's population had been decimated, with losses of around 60 percent in the Prignitz, Ruppin, and Barnim, 46 percent in the Mittelmark, and 50 percent in the Havelland. Farmland that had lain fallow for years was overgrown with weeds or scrub. Frankfurt an der Oder, the Electorate's most important foreign trade centre before the war, had fallen into insignificance. The region lacked people, money, and the pioneering spirit and initiative required to reconstruct it. In order to stimulate the Mark's stagnant economy settlement was actively encouraged in the knowledge that the greater the population, the more tax-payers, and the more money to fill the ruler's coffers. From around 1660 a systematic politics of settlement or “Peuplierungspolitik” was pursued

under the Great Elector. It was in this context that he offered refuge to fifty Jewish families from Vienna. The Austrian Emperor had expelled 3,000 Jews from Vienna, but Friedrich Wilhelm was only prepared to admit fifty families to the Mark, insisting that they be wealthy. On 20 February 1672 the Great Elector appointed Rabbi Chain, previously Rabbi to the Jews of the Neumark, Rabbi to Jews throughout the Mark Brandenburg and expressly forbade the appointment of any other Rabbis. The Jewish resettlement of the Mark prompted by the 1671 edict was a watershed for Brandenburg's Jews for two reasons. Firstly, almost all Jewish communities in the Mark would later trace their origins back to this date. Secondly, and perhaps more significantly, the year 1671 marks a turning point in terms of the historical perception of the Jews and their status. From this time onwards we no longer speak of a history of Brandenburg's Jews, but increasingly refer to the history of the Prussian Jews, or to the history of Jews in specific cities or provinces. In German-Jewish history the name Brandenburg-Prussia became synonymous with the concepts of “tolerance” and “emancipation” at the end of the seventeenth century, symbolizing the beginning of the age in which a German Jewry first emerged. By 1700 Berlin's Jewish community comprised 117 families: 70 “escorted” (with a writ of protection), and 47 “unescorted” (without such a writ). The latter families could be denied settlement rights at any time. In the following years, successive restrictive clauses were added to the 1671 edict. On three occasions before the reign of Friedrich II – in 1700, 1714, and 1730 – so-called privileges or Reglements were introduced to determine and restrict the rights, duties, and freedoms of Jews. The Generalreglement of 1700 raised the amount of money Jews had to pay for their “protection” and reintroduced the Leibzoll that required Jews to pay duties on their physical persons when moving from one territory into another. This Generalreglement also limited the number of

families a community was permitted to accommodate to fifty. Under the 1714 Generalreglement Jews were allowed to “propagate” no more than three children and had to prove that they had sufficient wealth for the second and third child. Friedrich Wilhelm I, the “soldier king”, also restricted Jews' freedom to engage in trade. For example, they were not permitted to open any new shops. In 1730 he issued a Generalreglement with the aim of sinking the birthrate of his Jewish subjects even further. Under this Generalreglement only the first-born children of protected Jews were granted settlement rights. These rights could be purchased for the second child. The others were faced with two options: remaining unmarried (and thus childless), or emigrating. Thus in 1731 almost 600 Jews without settlement rights were expelled from Brandenburg-Prussia. Ten years after coming into office, on 17 April 1750 Friedrich II issued the Revised General-Privilege and Reglement for the Jewry of the Kingdom of Prussia. This new law was introduced in the context of a fear of Jewish dominance among the Christian population and merchants. At this time, Berlin's Jewish population numbered around 2,190 Jews. In a total population of 113,000, this accounted for just under two percent. The Reglement divided Jews into various categories with different conditions of protection. The first group comprised regular Schutzjuden who were entitled to settle in designated areas and could bequeath their privilege to one child only. Settlement rights could be obtained for a second and third child on condition that such Schutzjuden disposed of 1,000 or 10,000 taler respectively. The second group comprised so-called extraordinary Schutzjuden. Their rights could not be passed on and their children were granted rights of residence only in exceptional cases. The third group included Rabbis employed by Jewish communities and their attendants. Their residency rights were only valid for their period of office. The fourth group comprised so-called tolerated Jews, including the children of Jews from the second, third, and fourth groups, for whom no

residency rights could be procured. This group also included servants and employees of the Schutzjuden for the duration of their employment. “Generally privileged” Jews were a special case. They enjoyed personal privilege and were on an equal footing with Christians in business affairs. This elite group, which represented just a tiny fraction of the Jewish population, included court Jews who served their ruler as court bankers or jewellers, and highly successful businessmen. Jewish resettlement was an important factor in the development of the Mark Brandenburg. Yet it should be emphasized that Jews were only tolerated because of the advantages they brought and their struggle for emancipation suffered repeated set-backs. David Hirsch was a key Jewish figure in the Mark's economic upturn. In 1731 he founded a silk factory in Potsdam and later established a woollen fleece factory. The renowned wallpaper factory founded by Isaac Levin Joel began operating from the Glienicke Hunting Lodge in the 1760s. The Jew Levi Ulff was the first to introduce ribbon weaving mills in the central provinces of Brandenburg-Prussia to the vociferous protestations of the trimming guild. And the first railway line between Potsdam and Berlin, which was opened on 29 October 1838, was financed by the Jewish banker Lewin Arons. The name Moses Mendelssohn is inextricably linked with the struggle for Jewish equality in Prussia. Born on 6 September 1729 in Dessau, Mendelssohn came to Berlin when he was fourteen. At the age of 21 he began to work as a tutor in the household of the wealthy silk manufacturer Isaak Bernhard. Four years later he became an accountant in Bernhard's company. Following Bernhard's death Mendelssohn managed the company successfully and it expanded continually. Under Friedrich II's classification, Mendelssohn, a successful businessman, and, next to the publisher Friedrich Nicolai, Berlin's second most prominent enlightenment figure, belonged officially to the sixth group of tolerated Jews. It was

only in 1673 that he was granted the status of an extraordinary Schutzjuden, and was able to start a family. Mendelssohn, the most important representative of the Jewish enlightenment and a champion of Jewish equality, gave the discussion on the emancipation of Prussian Jews a major impetus. He acknowledged that Jews could only achieve equality and full acceptance as citizens if they overcame the visible and less visible walls of the ghetto. He and other Jews believed that the key to this lay in integration and acculturation, and, in particular, in learning the German language. This explains why his translation of the Bible into German used Hebrew characters, thus making access to the German language and culture easier for marginalized Jews. Mendelssohn was convinced that Jews should receive both a secular and a religious education. Berlin became a centre of the enlightenment and the struggle for Jewish emancipation. In 1781 Christian Wilhelm Dohm published his treatise Über die bürgerliche Verbesserung der Juden (On the Improvement of the Status of Jewish Citizens), which prompted a public discussion on the legal position of Jews. The debate on Jewish equality gained momentum. In spite of the efforts of Mendelssohn and Dohm, by 1806, the year of Prussia's double defeat at Jena and Auerstedt, the legal status of Prussian Jews was much the same as it had been in 1750. This situation would change when Karl August von Hardenberg became Prussian State Chancellor in 1810. Hardenberg, an ardent supporter of Jewish equality, was in regular contact with David Friedländer and Israel Jacobson. With the city charter of 1808, Prussian Jews had already been granted citizenship of their respective cities. Yet they were still forbidden from operating their own businesses or buying land. On 11 March 1812 Friedrich Wilhelm III issued the “Edict on the Conditions of the Jews in the Prussian State”. Prussia was thus the first German state in which Jewish emancipation while by no means complete and unconditional – was realized. The scope of the edict extended to the Prussian provinces

Brandenburg, Pomerania, East Prussia, and Silesia. Paragraph 1 declared privileged Jews, ie. “Jews holding general privileges, naturalization patents, writs of protection, and concessions, and their families”, citizens and Prussian subjects. The edict did not apply to some 3,000 non-privileged Jews. To attain citizenship, Jews had to assume permanent surnames, and keep their accounts and write contracts in German or another “living language”. They were also obliged to sign their names using German or Latin characters. The rights granted to them, including the right to engage in commerce, the right to settle in the town or the countryside, and the right to purchase land, were later subject to significant restrictions. These included a ban on Jews from higher state offices and the rank of officer. After victory over Napoleon, to which Jewish volunteers had contributed, and the restoration of the Prussian State in 1815, the edict continued to be in force in the five oldest Prussian provinces only. The new provinces made their own laws with regard to Jews, leading to some legal confusion. This state of affairs prompted Friedrich Wilhelm IV to commission two enquiries into the rights of Jewish citizens and the situation of Jewish communities shortly after coming into office in 1840. It was only with the “Law on the Conditions of Jews” of 1847 that Jews were invested with the same rights and duties as their Christian counterparts in all Prussian provinces with the exception of Posen. While restrictions on their entry into politics remained, economic hindrances were removed. Under this law Jewish communities were subordinated to public bodies and subject to state supervision. In 1869 the North German Confederation passed a law on the equality of the confessions which granted complete equality to Jewish citizens. Signed by King Wilhelm I in Babelsberg Palace, the law revoked all restrictions that had previously pertained to religious confession. After the proclamation of the German Empire in 1871, this law applied throughout Germany. Under these

circumstances Jewish participation in economic life increased greatly. Jews also made important contributions in art, science, and academia. On its foundation, the German Empire was home to 512,153 Jews, accounting for 1.25 percent of the total population of 41.06 million. By 1933 the proportion of Jews in the Empire's population had fallen to just 0.77 percent. In 1871 36,325 Jews lived in Berlin. By 1933 the city's Jewish population had grown to 160,564, 3.78 percent of the total population. By contrast, in the adjacent Mark Brandenburg Jews accounted for just 0.28 percent of the population. Expressed in sheer numbers, this meant that only 7,616 Jews lived in the province in 1933. Their communities were very small, often comprising just 100 members. Yet, in the second half of the nineteenth century strong resistance to the integration of Jews into non-Jewish society developed and an antisemitic agitation increased. Soon the term “antisemitism”, which first arose in Berlin in 1879, would rally all opponents of Jewish equality.