Documents on Jewish History in Eastern Austria 1387-1404

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 previous FWF-sponsored projects, the relevant sources from the territory of today`s Republic of Austria were processed up to the year 1386. In the course of the project "Documents on Jewish History in Eastern Austria 1387-1404", this work will be continued for today`s federal provinces of Vienna, Lower and Upper Austria and Burgenland up to the year 1404. Charters as well as historiographic and literary sources containing references to Jews will be 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 commentaries that will be added to the respective documents 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 still safe from open persecution between 1387 and 1404, but they were facing financial reprisals from the authorities which were mostly aiming at increasing economic exploitation of the Jews by the dukes. The sources that will be processed in the course of the project, among which business charters form by far the largest percentage, 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, Wilhelm and Albrecht IV; 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 series "Regesten zur Geschichte der Juden in Österreich im Mittelalter" (Summaries on the History of Jews in Medieval Austria) aims at providing a comprehensive collection of the vast source material on Jewish history in Austria. Charters as well as historiographic and literary sources containing references to both Jews and Austria are being collected and processed. The publication consists of a chronological series of document summaries. Additionally, an extensive index as well as commentaries are added to the documents in order to make the source texts more readily accessible to the reader. Volumes 1-3 (published by Eveline Brugger and Birgit Wiedl) are the results of earlier FWF-sponsored projects; they cover the time period from the first appearance of Jews in Austrian sources up to the year 1386. In the course of the project "Documents on Jewish History in Eastern Austria 1387-1404", this work was continued for todays federal provinces of Vienna, Lower and Upper Austria and Burgenland up to the year 1404. Research was conducted in archives both in Austria and abroad; additionally, material contained in earlier publications was collected as well. The sources that were collected and 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. During that timeframe, Jews in the medieval duchy of Austria were mostly free from open persecution or violent extortion of Jewish property (like it had been carried out by the Austrian dukes during the 1370s and 1380s), but financial reprisals from the authorities were still common. The dukes upheld the longstanding Habsburg policy of protecting the ducal Jews against physical attacks but employed other means of making economic and political use of their Jewish subjects. Business charters resulting from Jewish-Christian interaction remain the most common type of sources. The majority of these charters record moderate loans, while the number of important moneylenders with extensively documented business transactions is decreasing in comparison to the material from earlier decades, which might be a result of the longstanding financial pressure on the Jewish economic elite. However, the sources indicate that in spite of this constant pressure, Jews kept being active in business, and that important Jewish communities such as Vienna or Wiener Neustadt were still thriving. The collection allows for insights into the legal, social and economic situation of the Jews in Eastern Austria and their interactions with Christians. It provides an indispensable basis for detailed research on Austrian Jewish history during the time period covered by the project, particularly in combination with the results gained in the course of the project P 24405-G18 ("Documents on Jewish History in Southern and Western Austria"), which will be published jointly in volume 4 of the "Regesten zur Geschichte der Juden in Österreich im Mittelalter".