Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Reflecting on German-Jewish History
- Part I The Legacy of the Middle Ages: Jewish Cultural Identity and the Price of Exclusiveness
- Part II The Social and Economic Structure of German Jewry from the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Centuries
- Part III Jewish-Gentile Contacts and Relations in the Pre-Emancipation Period
- Part IV Representations of German Jewry Images, Prejudices, and Ideas
- Part V The Pattern of Authority and the Limits of Toleration: The Case of German Jewry
- Part VI Through the Looking Glass: Four Perspectives on German-Jewish History
- 19 Germany and Its Jews: A Changing Relationship
- 20 The Jewish Minority and the Christian Majority in Early Modern Central Europe
- 21 The Jews of the Netherlands in the Early Modern Period
- 22 Jewish Identity in a World of Corporations and Estates
- Index
20 - The Jewish Minority and the Christian Majority in Early Modern Central Europe
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2013
- Frontmatter
- Reflecting on German-Jewish History
- Part I The Legacy of the Middle Ages: Jewish Cultural Identity and the Price of Exclusiveness
- Part II The Social and Economic Structure of German Jewry from the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Centuries
- Part III Jewish-Gentile Contacts and Relations in the Pre-Emancipation Period
- Part IV Representations of German Jewry Images, Prejudices, and Ideas
- Part V The Pattern of Authority and the Limits of Toleration: The Case of German Jewry
- Part VI Through the Looking Glass: Four Perspectives on German-Jewish History
- 19 Germany and Its Jews: A Changing Relationship
- 20 The Jewish Minority and the Christian Majority in Early Modern Central Europe
- 21 The Jews of the Netherlands in the Early Modern Period
- 22 Jewish Identity in a World of Corporations and Estates
- Index
Summary
In statistical terms, Jews were but a small minority within the predominately Christian society of early modern Germany. Of course, from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century the figures changed; of course, there were villages and towns with a somewhat larger proportion of Jewish citizens; and of course, early modern German society was not uniform but divided up in numerous ways - legally, culturally, economically, and politically. In relation to the ständische Gesellschaft (society of estates) of early modern Germany, the Jews have to be seen not as a innerständische (intra-estate) group but as a nebenständische (group existing alongside the estates) minority with a special legal status and with its own cultural and social hierarchy. The essays in this volume analyze some aspects of the life of this minority and some aspects of Christian-Jewish relations. In my brief comment, I want to focus on the changes that took place in the history of the Christian majority from the fifteenth through the eighteenth century, with particular reference to the effect that these changes may have had on the relationship between the Christian majority and the Jewish minority.
In somewhat simplified terms, one can say that by the High Middle Ages the Christianization of central Europe was complete. Notwithstanding the rivalry for leadership between emperors and popes, both secular and ecclesiastical rulers were determined to promote the hegemony of Christianity. Whatever non-Christian or pre-Christian beliefs still existed were suppressed and lived on, at best, only on the local level if at all.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- In and out of the GhettoJewish-Gentile Relations in Late Medieval and Early Modern Germany, pp. 305 - 310Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995
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