Documents on Jewish History in Eastern Austria 1419-1437

Austria has a remarkably rich tradition of medieval charters that contain information on the history of Jews. The enterprise of publishing these sources, which form an indispensable basis for research on the conditions of Jewish life, in the form of summaries has been conducted at the Institute for Jewish History in Austria for several years. In the course of previous FWF-sponsored projects, sources on the territory of today`s Republic of Austria were processed up to the year 1418. In the course of the project "Documents on Jewish History in Eastern Austria 1419-1437", this work will be continued for todays federal provinces of Vienna, Lower and Upper Austria and Burgenland up to 1437. Charters as well as contemporary narrative sources containing references to Jews (persons, buildings like synagogues, legal provisions etc.) will be collected and edited for the use in academic research. This material includes a number of texts which so far have not been published at all or without regard to the Jewish aspect. Archival investigations will be conducted both in Austria and abroad; besides that, material contained in earlier publications will also be collected. The publication will consist of a chronological series of document summaries; Hebrew sources will be transcribed in full and translated into German. Additionally, an extensive index as well as commentaries added to the respective documents will make the source texts more easily accessible. The sources that will be processed cover a calamitous period for the Austrian Jews: in 1420/21, Duke Albrecht V had all Jews in the duchy killed, forcibly baptised or expelled in the course of a persecution known as the "Vienna Gesera". So far, there are no answers to many questions about the background of the Gesera, the persecution itself and its repercussions because the relevant source material is widely scattered and difficult to access. Even less is known about the fate of those Austrian Jews who were driven out of the duchy or forced to convert, because the laborious collection process of sources that mention Austrian Jewish refugees in neighbouring territories or "New Christians" (= baptised Jews) in the duchy of Austria has not been undertaken until now. The project aims at making these sources available together with the source material on Jews from those regions which were not directly affected by the persecution of 1420/21, i.e. today`s Burgenland as well as the region around Wiener Neustadt, whose flourishing Jewish community grew further in importance after the Gesera. Thus, the project will provide a basis for the comprehensive study of the reasons and ramifications of the greatest catastrophe to befall the Austrian Jewry during the Middle Ages.

The series "Regesten zur Geschichte der Juden in Österreich im Mittelalter" aims to provide a comprehensive collection of the extensive source material on medieval Jewish history in Austria. Charters as well as historiographic and literary sources with references to both Jews and Austria are collected and processed. The publication consists of a chronological series of document summaries. In addition, an extensive index and commentary make the source texts more accessible to the reader. Volumes 1-5 (published by Eveline Brugger and Birgit Wiedl) are the results of earlier FWF-funded projects and cover the period from the first mention of Jews in Austria to 1418. In the course of the project "Documents on Jewish History in Eastern Austria 1419-1437", this work was continued up to the year 1437 for the present-day federal provinces of Vienna, Lower and Upper Austria and Burgenland. Research was carried out in archives in Austria and abroad; in addition, material contained in earlier publications was collected as well. The collected sources cover a calamitous period for the Austrian Jews, as Duke Albrecht V had all Jews in his duchy killed, forcibly baptised or expelled in 1420/21 ("Vienna Gesera"). They provide new insights into the contentious question of Duke Albrecht's motives as well as into the treatment of (forced) Jewish converts and the handling of confiscated Jewish property. Further insights into the economic impact of the persecution can be gained from the financial demands made on Duke Albrecht by the new rulers of the Jewish refugees, as well as from the business contacts which the Austrian population maintained with Jews living outside the duchy after 1421. Most of these contacts were with the thriving Jewish community of Wiener Neustadt in the Pitten region, where many of the Austrian Jewish refugees settled down. Consequently, there is a marked increase in the number of sources on Jews from this area, documenting the economic activities of the growing Jewish communities of Wiener Neustadt and Neunkirchen as well as their interactions with their Christian surroundings. The fate of Jewish refugees from Austria can also be traced in other regions, particularly in the western part of the Hungarian kingdom. Thus, the collection offers new insights into an era marked by crises and persecution, but also into Jewish coping strategies and the forming of new social structures and networks, and allows for research on mobility and (re-)settlement patterns, family and business connections. It provides an indispensable basis for detailed research on Austrian Jewish history during the time period covered by the project, especially in combination with the results of the project P 32396-G28 ("Documents on Jewish History in Southern and Western Austria 1419-1437"), which will be published jointly in volume 6 of the series.