Documents on Jewish History in S- and W-Austria 1419-1437

The Institute for Jewish History in Austria (St. Pölten) has been engaged in documenting the vast number of charters and narrative sources on medieval Jewish history for several years. These sources are being published in the form of summaries of the legal content; this series (four volumes so far) is an essential basis for any research on Austrian Jewish history. In the course of several FWF-projects, the source material that concerns Jews from today`s Republic of Austria has been collected and processed up to the year 1418. This project plans to continue this work for the federal provinces of Styria (including Lower Styria in today`s Slovenia), Carinthia, Salzburg, Tyrol and Vorarlberg up to 1437. The sources that contain references to Austrian Jews as well as those that mention edifices (e.g., synagogues, houses owned by Jews) or legal provisions concerning Jews will be collected and processed for academic use. The material includes many texts which have not been published at all, or have been treated with no regard to the Jewish aspect so far. Research will be conducted in archives in Austria and abroad; besides, material contained in earlier publications will be collected as well. The publication consists of a chronological series of document summaries. To facilitate the use of the collection for the reader, an extensive index as well as commentaries will be added to the respective documents. Most of the history of the Jews in Southern and Western Austria in the project`s timeframe has not been researched in detail until now. The time after the war-like struggles among the Habsburg family branches was characterised by the assertion of the rulers` power in the different territories; this project will examine to what extent the Jews of these territories were affected by the political and economic measures taken out by the respective dukes (Ernst and Friedrich V in Inner Austria, Friedrich IV in Tyrol and Further Austria). The project also aims at closing the considerable research gaps on the forced migration of Austrian Jews in the course of their expulsion in 1420/21 ("Vienna Gesera") and the effects the probable influx of Jewish refugees had on the Jewish communities in the other Habsburg territories, namely in Styria and Carinthia. In the archbishopric of Salzburg, a tentative resettlement had begun only a few years after the persecution of 1404; the sources collected in this project will show whether these were isolated cases or whether Jewish existence was re-established on a broader scale. Likewise, it is currently assumed that there is little material on Jews in Tyrol; the project`s results will either confirm or qualify this assumption.

The series "Regesten zur Geschichte der Juden in Österreich im Mittelalter" aims to provide a comprehensive collection of the vast source material on medieval Jewish history in Austria. Charters as well as contemporary historiographic and literary sources containing references to both Jews and Austria are collected and processed. The publication consists of a chronological series of document summaries. Additionally, an extensive index and commentaries are added to the documents in order to make the source texts more easily accessible to the reader. Volumes 1-5 (published by Eveline Brugger and Birgit Wiedl as results of earlier FWF-funded projects) cover the time period up to the year 1418. In the course of the project "Documents on Jewish History in Southern and Western Austria 1419-1437", this work was continued up to 1437 for the present-day federal provinces of Styria, Carinthia, Salzburg, Tyrol, and Vorarlberg. Research was carried out in archives in Austria and abroad; in addition, material contained in earlier publications was collected. In this period, the Habsburg lines secured the rule in their respective territories. When Austrian Jews fled to Styria during the "Vienna Gesera" in 1420/21, the Styrian Duke Ernst asserted his right to his new Jewish subjects by advocating their claims towards the Austrian duke. The following years show an increase in Jewish population in the main communities of Graz and Marburg/Maribor and in smaller settlements such as Voitsberg, Hartberg and Judenburg. The number of documents mentioning or issued by Jewish individuals increased, and community infrastructure such as the synagogue in Judenburg (1425) can be traced. In the archbishopric of Salzburg, Jewish resettlement was still slow after the pogrom of 1404, and sometimes happened on the initiative of the archbishop (e.g., the privilege granted to the Jew Mayer of Bernkastel to settle in Pettau/Ptuj in 1432). Jews also resettled in the residential city of Salzburg, albeit in a less prestigious area, while other, once flourishing communities such as Friesach remained extinct. The material also allows for in-depth insights into Jewish everyday life and Jewish-Christian relations. The appearance of Jews as plaintiffs before local and regional courts illustrates Jewish knowledge of the legal practices and shows that Jewish men and women were able and willing to enforce their claims before a variety of courts. Of particular importance in this regard is the "Judengericht", a uniquely Styrian judicial institution composed of an equal number of Jewish and Christian assessors and presided over by the Christian Justice for the Jews. Overall, the source collection provides an indispensable basis for detailed research on Austrian Jewish history. It will be published as volume 6 of the series in combination with the results of the project P32395-G28 ("Documents on Jewish History in Eastern Austria 1419-1437").