20 - The Jewish Minority and the Christian Majority in Early Modern Central Europe

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.