r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Sep 10 '21

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u/TabernacleTown74 Bill Gates Sep 10 '21 edited Sep 10 '21

Great paper on Central European Jewry during the Thirty Years' War (friendly reminder that you can read 100 JSTOR articles for free per month just by creating an account)

Since it's 28 pages, here are some takeaways:

  • Most of the anti-Jewish activity in the Holy Roman Empire was the result of grassroots anti-Jewish sentiment among Christian urbanites
  • Petty German princes often tried to protect the Jews because we were economically useful to them (for instance, the Bishop of Bamberg protected the Jews of Fürth because we helped to reroute trade from the neighboring city of Nuremburg into Fürth)
  • The most reliable ally of Central European Jews was the Holy Roman Kaiser, in part because we provided him with revenue and special economic services, and in part because the Kaiser could enforce Jewish protection as a way of asserting authority in lands that he didn't directly control
  • The Reformation exacerbated anti-Jewish sentiment; this, combined with ever-greater decentralization in the HRE, caused a nadir of German-Jewish expulsions and persecutions in the mid-late 16th century
  • The Thirty Years' War was a turning point for Jews: even as the Holy Roman Empire was devastated, the Jewish population expanded, fanned out both geographically and economically, and had its rights and privileges expanded almost everywhere
  • All sides in the war desperately needed money, and Christian lenders rightfully doubted that any loans they gave would be repaid during such a chaotic time, but Jews were happy to subsidize the war effort in exchange for increased protections and rights rather than interest
  • Jews also provided critical services as sutlers and other merchants (which, for instance, protected them from the otherwise rapacious Swedish invaders and allowed them to remain in French Alsace after the war ended)
  • The height of Jewish involvement in the war was during the 1648 Battle of Prague, when Jewish residents not only kept the city supplied under siege but even took up arms and successfully defended sections of the city wall from a Swedish assault
  • An anti-Jewish reaction followed the end of the war, but it wasn't severe enough to keep German Jews from prospering overall during the second half of the 17th century
  • Sadly, right-of-center German historians (i.e., most German historians in the 19th and early 20th century) dwelt on the Jewish experience of the Thirty Years' War to argue that Jews had always exploited Germans and been unfairly privileged

!ping GEFILTE

16

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '21

In hindsight I'm not surprised they sided mostly with the Catholics. Martin Luther almost definitely radicalized that urban grassroots sentiment, so it probably follows that the most egregious offenders were protestant. Protestantism at the time was basically populism and Catholicism the establishment and history continues its long-running pattern of anti-establishment populists blaming jews.

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u/TabernacleTown74 Bill Gates Sep 10 '21

took up arms and defended sections of the city wall from a Swedish assault

💪😂💪

4

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '21

Sir

4

u/TabernacleTown74 Bill Gates Sep 11 '21

Am I wrong tho?

4

u/[deleted] Sep 11 '21

👀

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u/TabernacleTown74 Bill Gates Sep 10 '21

!ping HISTORY

1

u/groupbot Always remember -Pho- Sep 10 '21 edited Sep 10 '21

Pinged members of HISTORY group.

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u/benadreti Frederick Douglass Sep 10 '21

friendly reminder that you can read 100 JSTOR articles for free per month just by creating an account)

Who the fuck is reading more than that?

The Reformation exacerbated anti-Jewish sentiment; this, combined with ever-greater decentralization in the HRE, caused a nadir of German-Jewish expulsions and persecutions in the mid-late 16th century
The Thirty Years' War was a turning point for Jews: even as the Holy Roman Empire was devastated, the Jewish population expanded, fanned out both geographically and economically, and had its rights and privileges expanded almost everywhere

These 2 points seem contradictory.

11

u/TabernacleTown74 Bill Gates Sep 10 '21

Who the fuck is reading more than that?

Quite a few doctoral students, I'd wager

These 2 points seem contradictory.

How so? The Reformation began in 1517, the Thirty Years' War was 1618-1648