Documents on Jewish History in Eastern Austria

The enterprise of publishing the medieval source material on the history of Jews in Austria in the form of summaries has been conducted at the Institute for Jewish History in Austria for several years now. Austria possesses a remarkably high number of medieval sources on the history of Jews; these sources form an indispensable basis for detailed research on the conditions of Jewish life. In the course of the FWF-sponsored projects P 15638-G08 und P 18453-G08, the relevant sources from the territory of today`s Republic of Austria were processed up to the year 1365. In the course of the project "Documents on Jewish History in Eastern Austria", this work will be continued for today`s federal provinces of Vienna, Lower and Upper Austria and Burgenland up to the year 1386. Charters as well as historiographical and literary sources containing references to Jews are being collected and processed according to scientific criteria. This material includes a number of texts which have not been published at all or treated with regard to the Jewish aspect yet. Research will be conducted in archives both in Austria and abroad; besides, material contained in earlier publications will be collected as well. The publication will consist of a chronological series of document summaries. Additionally, an extensive index as well as detailed commentaries that will be added to each document will make the source texts accessible to the reader. The sources that will be evaluated in the course of the project cover a period in the history of Jews in Eastern Austria that has not been researched in detail yet. It is of crucial importance that any comprehensive study of this period is based on the entirety of the source material. The Jewish population was mostly safe from open persecution between 1366 and 1386, but they were facing more and more reprisals from the authorities which were mostly aiming at increasing financial exploitation of the Jews by the dukes. The sources that will be processed in the course of the project, among which business charters form the largest percentage by far, will allow for a detailed analysis of this development and its consequences for the Jewish population. Besides, these sources will provide more detailed information on the policies towards Jews of the dukes Albrecht III and Leopold III.; furthermore, they will allow for insights into the legal, social and economic situation of the Jews in Eastern Austria and their interactions with Christians during this period.

The enterprise of publishing the medieval source material on the history of Jews in Austria in the form of summaries has been conducted at the Institute for Jewish History in Austria for several years now. Austria possesses a remarkably high number of medieval sources on the history of Jews; these sources form an indispensable basis for detailed research on the conditions of Jewish life. In the course of the FWF-sponsored projects P 15638-G08 und P 18453-G08, the relevant sources from the territory of today`s Republic of Austria were processed up to the year 1365. In the course of the now finished project P 21236-G18, this work was continued for todays federal provinces of Vienna, Lower and Upper Austria and Burgenland up to the year 1386. Charters as well as historiographic and literary sources containing references to Jews were collected and processed according to scientific criteria. This material includes a number of texts which have not been published at all or treated with regard to the Jewish aspect yet. Research was conducted in archives both in Austria and abroad; besides, material contained in older publications was collected as well. The resulting collection consists of a chronological series of document summaries. Additionally, an extensive index was created, and scientific commentaries that were added to the relevant documents make the source texts accessible to the reader. The sources that were evaluated in the course of the project cover a period in the history of Jews in Eastern Austria that has not been researched in detail yet. It is of crucial importance that any comprehensive study of this period is based on the entirety of the source material. The Jewish population was mostly safe from open persecution between 1366 and 1386, but they were facing more and more reprisals from the authorities which were mostly aiming at increasing financial exploitation of the Jews. The sources that were processed, among which business charters form the largest percentage by far, allow for a detailed analysis of this development and its consequences for the Jewish population. Besides, these sources provide more detailed information on the policies towards Jews of the dukes Albrecht III and Leopold III; furthermore, they allow for insights into the legal, social and economic situation of the Jews in Eastern Austria and their interactions with Christians during this period. Therefore, the source collection that has been established during the course of the project provides an indispensable basis for a detailed research on Austrian Jewish history for the time period covered by the project, particularly in combination with the results gained in the course of the project P 21237-G18 ("Documents on Jewish History in Southern and Western Austria ").