Documents on Jewish History in E- and W-Austria 1438-1457

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 1437. In the course of the project "Documents on Jewish History in Eastern and Western Austria 1438-1457", this work will be continued up to 1457 for todays federal provinces of Lower and Upper Austria, Vienna, Burgenland, Tyrol, Vorarlberg and Salzburg. Charters and 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. Jewish settlement in Eastern Austria had been destroyed by Duke Albrecht V in the persecution of 1420/21 known as the "Vienna Gesera". However, the former Jewish presence in the Duchy of Austria can still be traced in the sources decades later. The collection of these sources will also yield new insights into the long-term effects of the persecution and the continuing contacts of the Austrian Christian population with Jews living in other territories. New insights can also be expected into the policy towards the Jews of Duke Albrecht V after he was crowned Roman-German king in 1438, and his successor Friedrich`s attitude towards the Jews in the Habsburg lands. Sources will likely not be as numerous compared to earlier periods, but they will close major gaps in our current knowledge and facilitate the study of a hitherto under-researched chapter in the history of Eastern Austrian Jews. By contrast, an increase in sources can be expected for the Western Hungarian territories which constitute present-day Burgenland, and for the Jewish communities in Wiener Neustadt and Neunkirchen (then part of the Duchy of Styria). Little is known so far about the situation of Jews in Salzburg and Vorarlberg during the project`s timeframe. Likewise, it is not yet known whether Tyrol attracted more Jewish residents and transients after Innsbruck became the residence of the Tyrolean branch of the Habsburg family in 1420, which is why in-depth source research promises new evidence for these regions.