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Politics or Pogrom? The Fettmilch Uprising in German and Jewish History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Christopher R. Friedrichs
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Extract

Something important happened in the imperial city of Frankfurt am Main between 1612 and 1616. Nobody doubts that. The Fettmilch Uprising, as it is generally known, involved a complex and turbulent series of events which culminated in the dramatic execution of the ringleader, Vincenz Fettmilch, and six of his comrades. But why exactly were they executed—and what was the uprising all about? This depends on what you read. It is a commonplace, of course, that historical events are subject to different interpretations, but here a much deeper problem of historical perception seems to be at stake. For we come across descriptions of the uprising so different in substance as to make one question whether they even refer to the same event. And the differences between these accounts are generally related to one of the most sensitive and troubling aspects of German history: the status and treatment of the Jews. In fact the Fettmilch Uprising illustrates with disturbing clarity the difficulties that both Germans and Jews have long experienced—and continue to experience—in attempting to understand and give meaning to some important aspects of their common past.

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Article
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Central European History , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , June 1986 , pp. 186 - 228
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Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 1986

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References

1. Israel, Jonathan I., “Central European Jewry during the Thirty Years' War,” Central European History 16 (1983): 7CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Essentially the same version is repeated, in a slightly expanded form, in Israel's wide-ranging study, European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilism, 1550–1750 (Oxford, 1985), 68–69Google Scholar, where the author does note that the Fettmilch Uprising “evinced hostility towards the ruling patricians” but emphasizes that “in form, the revolt was an attack on the Jews.”

2. Mauersberg, Hans, Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte zentraleuropäischer Städte in neuerer Zeit, dargestellt an den Beispielen von Basel, Frankfurt a. M., Hamburg, Hannover und München (Göttingen, 1960), 114–15.Google Scholar

3. Individual references will not be provided for the material in this section, which attempts to offer a balanced summary based on the best works on the topic—notably the studies by Kriegk, Kracauer, and Bothe, all of which are discussed and cited below.

4. The dates of events in Frankfurt are given in accordance with the old Julian calendar, which was used in Frankfurt at the time and is followed by most accounts of the uprising.

5. The text of the Vertrag appears in Bothe, Friedrich, Frankfurts wirtschaftlich-soziale Entwicklung vor dem Dreissigjährigen Kriege und der Fettmlichaufstand (1612–1616), 2 (Frankfurt, 1920): 492–510.Google Scholar

6. For a brief description of each major urban uprising in this era, see Friedrichs, Christopher R., “German Town Revolts and the Seventeenth-Century Crisis,” Renaissance and Modem Studies 16 (1982): 27–51, esp. the appendix.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7. Diarium Historicum, Darinnen Des Heyligen Reichs Statt Franckfortt am Mäyn gefährlicher Uffstandt unnd schwüriges Unwesen… ordentlich verzeichnet ist… (Frankfurt, 1615)Google Scholar. A subsequent edition of 1617 added material on the events of 1616. The authorship of the Diarium has never been established, but the old belief that it was written by Johann Friedrich Faust von Aschaffenburg, the most implacable patrician enemy of the uprising, is no longer accepted.

8. Ibid., 2–3.

9. There is no need to list the titles of all the pamphlets generated during the uprising itself. A good sampling is provided by the Diarium, in which many of the pamphlets were reprinted verbatim.

10. Le Mercure françois, vol. 3 (2d ed., Pans, 1617), book 1: 544–62; vol. 4 (Paris, 1617), part 2 [1616]: 170–75Google Scholar. The first passage lists the main clauses of the Bürgervertrag and describes quite accurately the main events of 1614, including the forced resignation of the council, the attack on the ghetto, and the arrest of Fettmilch; the second passage records the execution ceremonies of 1616. Some excerpts from this material were published in the Mitteilungen an die Mitglieder des Vereins für Geschichte und Alterthumskunde in Frankfurt a.M., 1 (1858–1860): 34–39Google Scholar.

11. Relation, oder Kurtze Warhaffte Erzehlung und Bericht, Welchergestah die Execution über die Franckfurtische Aechter, und ihre Adherenten … volzogen worden (Augsburg, 1616; there exist other versions without the woodcuts); among other pamphlets are: Grundlicher Bericht, und warhaffte eigendliche Erzehlung deren von dero Röm. Kays. Majestet … Anbefohlenen … Execution (n.p., 1616), Warhafftiger Bericht, Wie von Röm. Keys. Mayest. die Franckfurtischen Auffrührer sind gestrafft worden … (n.p., 1616).

12. Tricinium. I. Cursum Francofurdianum, II. Cursum maximae partis Mundi, III. Colloquium Gallico-Hispanicum, canens, Oder Dreyfaches Gleich … (n.p., prob. 1616); quotation fol. B ii.

13. Resolutio Tricinii Inconcinni, das ist: Abfertigung eines dreyfachen Gleichen … Durch Damian Bonnert … (Würzburg, 1616), fol. C iiiGoogle Scholar.

14. Among these was the Continuation (published 1620 in Orleans) of the Historiarum sui temporis of Jacques Auguste de Thou. I have not seen this volume, but from the excerpt printed in Schudt, Johann Jacob, Jüdische Merckwürdigkeiten … Sammt einer vollständigen Franckfurter Juden-Chronik, 3 vols. (Frankfurt, 1714), 2: 57Google Scholar, it is obvious that the account in the Continuation was taken from the material in the Mercure françois, vol. 3, book 1: 544ff. The Mercure may also have been the source of the account in the Meterani Novi oder Niederländischer Historien ander Theil (Amsterdam, 1640Google Scholar), cited by I. M. Jost (see below, n. 75).

15. Gottfried, Johann Ludwig, Historische Chronica, oder Beschreibung der Fürnemsten Geschichten, so sich von Anfang der Welt, bis auff das Jahr Christi 1619. zugetragen…, 3d ed. (Frankfurt, 1657), 1136, 1141–43Google Scholar. The first edition had been published in 8 volumes in 1629–34. Though the Chronica was written primarily by Gottfried, the last sections (including the passages cited here) were written by Johann Philipp Abelinus, who subsequently wrote the first two volumes of the Theatrum Europaeum, a work originally conceived as a continuation of the Chronica. Both Gottfried and Abelinus moved to Frankfurt in the 1620s and thus would have had access to eyewitness accounts of the uprising. For basic biographical information about both authors, see the Neue Deutsche Biographie (Berlin, 1953– ), 1: 15; 6: 677–78.Google Scholar

16. Historische Chronica, 1142–43.

17. On the uprising in Cologne and the execution of Gülich, see Ennen, Leonhard, Frankreich und der Niederrhein, oder Geschichte von Stadt und Kurstaat Köln seit dem 30jährigen Kriege bis zur französischen Occupation, 2 vols. (Cologne, 1855–1856), 1: 403–61Google Scholar. For an introduction to the events in Hamburg, see Loose, Hans-Dieter, “Die Jastram-Snitgerschen Wirren in der zeitgenössischen Geschichtsschreibung,” Zeitschrift des Vereins für Hamburgische Geschichte, 69 (1983): 1–20.Google Scholar

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19. Ludolf, Hiob, Allgemeine Schau-Bühne der Welt, Oder: Beschreibung der vornehmsten Welt-Geschichte, so sich vom Anfang dieses Siebenzehenden Jahr-Hunderts … begeben …, 4 vols. (Frankfurt, 1699–1718), vol. 1: columns 392–94, 447–50, 497–98, 532, 580–82.Google Scholar

20. Ibid., col. 448. A subsequent passage expands the point by explaining that while free cities and republics should attempt to forestall any causes for rebellion by providing sound administration and avoiding unnecessary innovations, once an uprising actually breaks out it must be promptly and firmly crushed by military force: cols. 447–50.

21. On the origins and subsequent observance of these days, see Horovitz, Markus, Frankfurter Rabbinen: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der israelitischen Gemeinde in Frankfurt a.M., 2d ed., ed. Unna, Josef (Jerusalem, 1969), 50–52Google Scholar; Schudt, Jüdische Merckwürdigkeiten 2: 95; and the report in the Mittheilungen an die Mitglieder des Vereins für Geschichte und Alterthumskunde in Frankfurt am Main, 3 (1865–1868): 353Google Scholar. For a brief discussion of the general phenomenon of local “second Purims” in the Jewish communities of medieval and early modern Europe, see Yerushalmi, Yosef Hayim, Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory (Seattle, 1982), 46–48Google Scholar; for a specific example from seventeenth-century Prague, see Israel, “Central European Jewry,” 10.

22. The Vintz-Hanss Lied was composed by Elchanan bar Abraham Helen; there were versions both in Hebrew and in the local Jewish-German dialect. The Jewish-German version appears both in Hebrew characters and in German transliteration in Schudt, Jüdische Merckwürdigkeiten, 3: 9–35; the Hebrew version follows (36–62). A translation into modern German was published by Levy, J. B.: Das Vincenz-Lied, 2d ed. (Berlin, 1916)Google Scholar. The text was always sung to the tune of “Die Schlacht von Pavia,” a popular German melody of the sixteenth century; the music is printed by Levy following p. 32.

23. The only other significant Jewish source is the Hebrew book Josif Ometz, which was composed by Joseph (Juspa) Hahn, who was rabbi of Frankfurt during the Fettmilch Uprising; the book was published in Frankfurt in 1723. Though primarily concerned with ritual matters, this work provided some material pertaining to the events of 1612–16. For a discussion of Hahn and excerpts from the historically relevant passages of his work, see Horovitz, Frankfurter Rabbinen, 48–58.

24. Schudt, Jüdische Merckwürdigkeiten, 3: 20. I have followed the original wording exactly (including the curious repetition of the word “werden” in the third line), but for the sake of clarity I have modernized the punctuation. The passage can be translated roughly as follows:

As the time of the [Frankfurt] fair approached,

Voices were heard to resound in the town:

“We'll be rid of the Jews soon enough;

Their number is up.”

Vintz-Hanss himself said to us:

“I am your Haman in these times.

And I am not afraid of a Mordechai,

For none of you are pious enough for that.”

25. The strong identification with the Purim story, however, did not prevent the Jews of Frankfurt from also seeing parallels with other episodes in their history. For example, it was determined in accordance with Jewish numerology (gematria) that the numerical values of the Hebrew letters forming the name Vinz were equivalent to the values of the letters in the name of Antiochus, the oppressor of the Jews at the time of the Maccabees: see the introduction of the Vintz-Hanss Lied in Schudt, 3: 9. For a general discussion of the tendency of post-biblical Jews, until the nineteenth century, to interpret the events they experienced as mere recurrences of what had happened in ancient times, see Yerushalmi, Zakhor, 20–24, 34–36.

26. For a brief summary of the Worms episode, with references to the literature, see Baron, Salo W., A Social and Religious History of the Jews, 2d ed., 18 vols. (New York and Philadelphia, 1952–1983), 14: 197–200.Google Scholar

27. See Schudt, Jüdische Merckwürdigkeiten, 2: 64.

28. As is evident, for example, throughout the celebrated memoirs of Glückel of Hameln: Lowenthal, Marvin, trans., The Memoirs of Glückel of Hameln (New York, 1977).Google Scholar

29. For a recent discussion of this development, see Press, Volker, “Kaiser Rudolf II. und der Zusammenschluss der deutschen Juden: Die sogenannte Frankfurter Rabbinerverschwörung von 1603 und ihre Folgen,” in Haverkamp, Alfred, ed., Zur Geschichte der Juden im Deutschland des späten Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit, Monographien zur Geschichte des Mittelalters, 24 (Stuttgart, 1981), 243–93, esp. 291–93.Google Scholar

30. For a thorough study of this movement, see Soliday, Gerald L., A Community in Conflict: Frankfurt Society in the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Century (Hanover, N.H., 1974).Google Scholar

31. Historische Nachrichtungen, Uber die In des H. Reichs-Stadt Franckfurth am Mayn, zwischen dem damahligen Edlen Rath, und E. Burgerschafft, Vor 100. Jahren fürgewesene Strittigkeiten … (Frankfurt, 1715).Google Scholar

32. Ibid., sect. ii, fols. B r, E2 v, F r, and passim.

33. Ibid., sect. iii passim.

34. Ibid., fol. F2 v–G r; see also K r/v.

35. Ibid., fols. D r, G r, K2 r/v.

36. Schudt, Jüdische Merckwürdigkeiten, 2: 54–57. Schudt (1664–1722) was a scholar of Jewish customs and languages who wrote from the perspective of a devout Lutheran inspired by the hope of the Jews' eventual conversion; see, for example, the “Vorrede” to the first volume of the Merckwürdigkeiten, esp. fols. 002 v-003 r.

37. Historiche Nachrichtungen, fol. G2 r/v.

38. For the changing social character of the burgher leadership, see Soliday, Community in Conflict, esp. chap. 5.

39. von Lersner, Achilles August, Der weit-berühmten freyen Reichs- Wahl- und Handels-Stadt Franckfurt am Mayn Chronica; oder, Ordentliche Beschreibung der Stadt Franckfurt Herkunfft und Auffnehmen …, 2 vols. (Frankfurt, 1706–1734), vol. 1, part 1: 392–95; vol. 2, part 1: 511–16Google Scholar. The material in the second volume is noticeably more hostile to Fettmilch than that in the first. The second volume was issued posthumously by Lersner's son Georg August, but it is clear that the passage concerning the Fettmilch Uprising was written by Lersner senior, since it includes a cross-reference to another passage (vol. 2, part 1: 438–39) in which the author cites one of his own previous works.

40. For a brief introduction to Lersner's career, see Voelcker, Heinrich, “Die Pflege der Wissenschaft in Frankfurt am Main,” in idem, ed., Die Stadt Goethes: Frankfurt am Main im XVIII. Jahrhundert (Frankfurt, 1932), 206–7Google Scholar. Though Lersner was at one point barred from membership in the prestigious Alt-Limpurg society due to his having married beneath his station, this in no way diminished his identification with the patrician outlook.

41. E.g., the short allusion in Stock, Johann Adolph, Kurtz gefasste Franckfurther Chronick … (Frankfurt, 1745), 105–6.Google Scholar

42. Kriegk, Georg Ludwig, Geschichte von Frankfurt am Main in ausgewählten Darstellungen (Frankfurt, 1871), 408Google Scholar, here based largely on information from Stock.

43. Ibid., 409–10.

44. Goethe, Johann Wolfgang, Aus meinem Leben: Dichtung und Wahrheit, Part 1, Book 4; available in any full edition of Goethe's works, e.g., the Gedenkausgabe, vol. 10 (Zurich, 1962): 165–66Google Scholar. My translation is a bit freer than the one provided in the standard translation by Oxenford, John, most recently reprinted as The Autobiography of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 2 vols. (Chicago, 1975), 1: 154–55.Google Scholar

45. The book Goethe had in mind could not have been Lersner's Chronica: since Goethe mentions Lersner's chronicle by name in the immediately preceding paragraph, he is not likely here to have referred to it so vaguely. In any case Lersner's work, though containing numerous references to the Fettmilch Uprising, did not offer the kind of argument that made such an impression on Goethe. Nor did the Diarium Historicum.

46. In a public ceremony carried out in 1797 under the auspices of the French-controlled revolutionary regime, the pillar of shame on the site of Gülich's house was torn down and his honor was proclaimed to have been restored: Merlo, J. J., “Nickolaus Gülich, der Haupt der Kölner Revolution von 1680–1685: Beiträge zu seiner Geschichte,” Annalen des historischen Vereins für den Niederrhein 46 (1887): 21–47, here 43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

47. Kirchner, Anton, Geschichte der Stadt Frankfurt am Main, 2 vols. (Frankfurt, 1807–1810), 2: 355–56Google Scholar. An anticipated third volume, which was to begin with a detailed treatment of the uprising itself, was never published.

48. [Meisinger, Ludwig August], Neue Frankfurter Chronik, oder geschichtliche Darstellung denk-würdiger Begebenheiten der freien Stadt Frankfurt a.M., 4 vols. (Frankfurt, 1828–1830), 1: 217–36.Google Scholar

49. Lange, Georg, Geschichte der freien Stadt Frankfurt am Main, von ihrem Anfang bis auf die neuesten Zeiten (Darmstadt, 1837), 252–96.Google Scholar

50. In fact Lange cited Goethe directly only as an authority on how many skulls were still visible on the Brückenturm in the eighteenth century (290 n.). But from this it is clear that Lange was familiar with Goethe's passage about the Fettmilch Uprising, and his concluding point about the beneficial effects of the uprising on the city's political life (296), though more accurate in terms of constitutional detail, was similar in spirit to Goethe's argument.

51. The brief description of the uprising in Krug, Friedrich, Historisch-topographische Beschreibung von Frankfurt a/M. und seiner Umgegend (Frankfurt, 1845), 38–39Google Scholar, is remarkable only for the number of inaccuracies contained in so short an entry; the author had clearly not consulted Lange. By contrast, the longer account in Heyden, Eduard, Gallerie berühmter und merkwürdiger Frankfurter (Frankfurt, 1861), 275–310Google Scholar, is to a large extent copied word for word from Lange, though the author did add some material taken directly from the Diarium and included some new biographical information about Johann Martin Bauer, the man who arrested Fettmilch and subsequently became the Schultheiss of Frankfurt.

52. Römer-Büchner, B. J., Die Entwickelung der Stadtverfassung und die Bürgervereine der Stadt Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt, 1855), 103–30.Google Scholar

53. Ibid., 103.

54. Ibid., 120. Although the author treats in some detail the events of 1612 and 1613 and discusses the aftermath of the uprising from 1615 onward, the year 1614 is almost entirely missing from his account, as is any significant discussion of the anti-Jewish aspects of the uprising.

55. For example, Römer-Büchner is one of the major sources for the passage by Mauersberg quoted at the beginning of this paper: Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte, 115n.

56. Eggers, Hartmut, “Der historische Roman des 19. Jahrhunderts,” in Koopmann, Helmut, ed., Handbuch des deutschen Romans (Düsseldorf, 1983), 342–55, esp. 343–44.Google Scholar

57. Feldmann, Karl, Vinzenz Fettmilch, der Lebküchler von Frankfurt: Ein Trauerspiel (Offenbach, 1850).Google Scholar

58. Brümmer, Franz, Lexikon der deutschen Dichter und Prosaisten vom Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts bis zur Gegenwart, 6th ed. (Leipzig, 1913), 2: 196.Google Scholar

59. Eggers, “Der historische Roman,” 344–45.

60. Fettmilch did, in fact, have a follower named Hartmann Geisselbach who escaped from Frankfurt and was sentenced in absentia in 1616. But the characterization in Feldmann's play is totally fictitious.

61. Act 3, scene 6 (“… this earth, the home of legal-minded man./Honors not the free law of the heart.”).

62. Frank, Rudolf, Vincenz Fettmilch: Eine historische Erzählung aus der Geschichte der freien Stadt Frankfurt a/M. (1612–1616) (Leipzig, 1861)Google Scholar. I have not been able to ascertain any particulars about the author. For a contemporary critique of this work and the preceding one, see “Vincenz Fettmilch in der Geschichte und in poetischer Behandlung,” Neues Frankfurter Museum [Beiblatt der ‘Zeit’], 1 (1861): 401–3Google Scholar. The anonymous author found Feldmann's play superior in literary merit to Frank's work, but criticized both authors for unnecessary fictitious inventions.

63. Frank, Vincenz Fettmilch, 80 and passim.

64. Ibid., 71, 74n., 190–94.

65. Oelbermann, Hugo, “Der Lebküchler aus der Töngesgasse: Historische Novelle,” Siesta: Feuilleton des Frankfurter Beobachters, 1867: 145–54, 1868: 1–10 (18 Dec. 1867–12 Jan. 1868)Google Scholar. On Oelbermann's career, see Brümmer, Lexikon, 6th ed., 5: 178.

66. Oelbermann, “Lebküchler,” 1867: 149 (22 Dec).

67. Ibid., 1868: 8 (10 Jan.).

68. Ibid., 1868: 9 (11 Jan.).

69. Ibid.

70. Basnage, Jacques, Histoire des Juifs, depuis Jesus-Christ jusqu'à present, pour continuation à I'histoire de Joseph, 9 vols. (The Hague, 1716)Google Scholar; one of numerous editions of the work. In a brief and not very accurate passage on the position of Jews in Frankfurt, Basnage asserts that “on les y pille souvent” (9: 985). Schudt took strong exception to this statement since, as he explained, the Jews of Frankfurt had been pillaged only once: Jüdische Merckwürdigkeiten, 2: 55.

71. Ibid., 2: 55–69, 3: 9–62.

72. Jost, Isaak Markus, Geschichte der Israelitetn seit der Zeit der Maccabäer bis auf unsre Tage, 9 vols. (Berlin, 1820–1828).Google Scholar

73. Cf. the intellectual portrait of Jost in Baron, Salo W., History and Jewish Historians: Essays and Addresses (Philadelphia, 1964), 240–62.Google Scholar

74. Jost, Geschichte der Israeliten, 8: 216–25; quotation, 216. The same material is presented in an abridged form in Jost's, Allgemeine Geschichte des Israelitischen Volkes, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1832), 2: 432–35.Google Scholar

75. Jost described the Vintz-Hanss Lied as “bearable” (“erträglich”) in its Hebrew version but “abominable” (“abscheulich”) in its “degenerate”Jewish-German version: Geschichte der Israeliten, 8: 222. In addition to Schudt and the Vintz-Hanss Lied, Jost cited one other source, the Meterani Novi, a chronicle published in Amsterdam in 1640.

76. Graetz, Heinrich, Geschichte der Juden von den ältesten Zeiten bis auf die Gegenwart, 11 vols. (Leipzig, 1853–1876; frequently republished); 10 (2d ed., 1882): 29–39.Google Scholar

77. Baron, History, 263–75, offers a useful introduction to Graetz and his work.

78. This is clear from a comparison of Jost's and Graetz's respective versions; both, for example, begin with a detailed summary of the clauses of the Frankfurt Judenstättigkeit (the code regulating Jewish life).

79. Graetz, Geschichte, 29–39 passim. In addition to the Vintz-Hanss Lied and other material from Schudt, Graetz drew on some nineteenth-century studies. The 2d edition also includes references to the study by Kriegk, discussed below, which was published in 1871 and thus was not yet available when Graetz published the first edition of volume 10 in 1868.

80. There is, for example, no basis for Graetz's statement (34) that “Erst ähnliche Vorgänge in Worms beschleunigten das Ende der Frankfurter Wirren.”

81. Baron, History, 275. The English translation, History of the Jews, 6 vols. (reprinted Philadelphia, 1956Google Scholar), in which the account of events in Frankfurt and Worms appears in vol. 4: 694–700, is based on the abridged edition of the original.

82. Becker, Karl Christian, “Peter Müllers, hiesigen Bürgers und Mahlers, handschriftliche Chronik aus den Jahren 1573 bis Juny 1633,” Archiv für Frankfurts Geschichte und Kunst, N.F. 2 (1862): 1–165Google Scholar. The diary itself was apparently lost in World War II but a complete typescript prepared by Heinrich Heuser (Stadtarchiv Frankfurt [StAF]: Chroniken S5/43) gives evidence of the kind of language Becker felt obliged to omit (“gottlosen verfluchten diebische Juden,” etc.).

83. Georg Ludwig Kriegk, Geschichte von Frankfurt am Main, 237–417.

84. Ibid., esp. 237–47, 281–82, 361–62.

85. Speyer, Otto, Die Frankfurter Revolution unter Vincenz Fettmilch, 1612–1616 (Frankfurt, 1883)Google Scholar borrowed heavily from Kriegk but tried to push the analogies with modern revolutions even further, e.g., by labelling various personalities as “reactionary” or “liberal” (20). The anti-Jewish aspects of the uprising were de-emphasized, and the author was quick to reassure his readers, right after describing the attack on the ghetto, that the Jews were soon restored to their homes and rights (35). A far more blatant distortion of Kriegk's model was provided by Emil Richter, “Der Fettmilch-Aufstand in Frankfurt a.M.: Ein Beitrag zur Juden- und Wucherfrage in der Zeit vor Ausbruch des 30-jährigen Krieges,” a series in the Deutsche Reichspost, 16 Nov. to 4 Dec. 1879 (possibly continuing beyond that date). This version stresses the revolutionary character of the uprising (it opens by comparing the citizens' petitions to the English Petition of Right) from a somewhat anti-Semitic perspective.

86. E.g., Janssen, Johannes, Geschichte des deutschen Volkes seit dem Ausgang des Mittelalters, 8 vols. (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1876–1894), 5 [1886]: 663–65.Google Scholar

87. Kracauer, Isidor, “Die Juden Frankfurts im Fettmilch'schen Aufstand, 1612–1618,” Zeitschrift fur die Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland, 4 (1890): 127–69, 319–65; 5 (1892): 1–26Google Scholar. An abridged version was published as “Die Schicksale der Juden in Frankfurt a.M. während des Fettmilchschen Aufstandes,” Programm der Realchule der israelitischen Gemeinde (Philanthropin) zu Frankfurt a. M. (Frankfurt, 1892), 3–27Google Scholar; reprinted with minor changes in Kracauer's Geschichte der Juden in Frankfurt a.M. (1150–1824), 2 vols. (Frankfurt, 1925–27), 1: 358–98Google Scholar.

88. Kracauer, “Die Juden,” passim; see esp. 4: 128.

89. Ibid., 4: 350, 354–55.

90. Ibid., 4: 129–31. 135. Kracauer also emphasized that Fettmilch was not alone in leading the anti-Jewish movement, and drew particular attention to the role of the lawyer Nicolas Weitz in orchestrating the campaign against the Jews: ibid., 4: 132–33 and passim.

91. Bothe's, major work was his Geschichte der Stadt Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt, 1913; reprinted 1966Google Scholar). The same title was used for the abridged and totally revised version published as a 2d edition (Frankturt, 1923) and then, with some minor changes, as a 3d edition (Frankfurt, 1929, reprinted 1977).

92. Among the relevant holdings of the Stadtarchiv Frankfurt which were lost in 1944 were the city's own series of records concerning the uprising (Bürgerunwesen, Ugb. E 87–96) and the Hessische Kommissionsakten, i.e., the records maintained by one of the two commissioners (the landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt), which were deposited in Frankfurt around 1880. The contents of these series, however, are partially duplicated in other records which survived the war in Frankfurt itself or in collections outside the city, e. g., the records of the other commissioner (the elector of Mainz), now at the Bayerisches Staatsarchiv in Würzburg.

93. Bothe, Friedrich, Beiträge zur Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte der Reichsstadt Frankfurt (Altenburg, 1906)Google Scholar; idem, Die Entwickelung der direkten Bestcueung in der Reichsstadt Frankfurt bis zur Revolution 1612–1614, Staats- und sozialwissenschaftliche Forschungen, 26: 2 (Leipzig, 1906)Google Scholar; idem, Frankfurts wirtschaftlich-soziale Entwicklung vor dem Dreissigjährigen Kriege und der Fettmilchaufstand (1612–1616), 2. Teil: Statistische Bearbeitungen und urkundliche Belege, Veröffentlichungen der historischen Kommission der Stadt Frankfurt a.M., 7 (Frankfurt, 1920)Google Scholar.

94. Friedrich Bothe, “Der Fettmilchaufstand” (StAF: S6b/19, Nr. 3, 4); this was to have been the first half of a two-volume study, the second volume (containing documents and statistical data) having already appeared in 1920 as cited above. The beginning of this manuscript covered in a condensed form the material treated fully in another unpublished manuscript, “ Vorgeschichte des Fettmilchaufstandes” (StAF: S6b/19: Nr. 1, 2, 5). Bothe also left a manuscript entitled “Der Frankfurter Fettmilchaufstand (1612–16) im Rahmen der deutschen Politik” (StAF: S6b/59), some findings of which were published in “Erzbischof Johann Schweikart von Mainz und die Frankfurter Katholiken zur Zeit des Fettmilchaufstandes,” Archiv für Frankfurts Geschichte und Kunst, 5. Folge, 1 (1951): 9–40Google Scholar.

95. E.g., Bothe, Entwickelung der direkten Besteuerung, 293–96; Geschichte, 3d ed., 162; “Fett-milchaufstand,” 76–78; “Erzbischof Johann Schweikart,” 9.

96. Bothe's constant emphasis on the variety of actors and interests involved in the Fettmilch Uprising may be contrasted with the interpretation offered by Alexander Dietz, the great early twentieth-century expert on Frankfurt's economic history. To Dietz the uprising was an anti-patrician movement instigated chiefly by politically and economically ambitious merchants, though the movement also depended on support from the economically frustrated lower orders of society: Frankfurter Handehgeschichte, 5 vols. (Frankfurt, 1910–1925), 2: 73–97.Google Scholar

97. E. g., the passage in “Fettmilchaufstand,” 79: “In Frankfurt war es vor dem dreissigjährigen Kriege soweit gekommen, dass nur noch die Frage war, wie lange die erbitterte Bürgerschaft das ausbeuterische Treiben der Juden dulden … würde…. Die Frankfurter hofften im Kaiser einen Heifer finden zu können in ihrer Not und bedachten nicht, dass dieser selbst in den Händen der Juden war.”

98. Ibid., 1009.

99. Quarck, Max, Soziale Kämpfe in Frankfurt am Main, Vom Mittelalter bis an die Schwelle der grossen Revolution (Frankfurt, 1911), 23–27Google Scholar. This book was based on Quarck's lectures to the Frankfurter Arbeiterbildungsausschuss (vii). Fettmilch himself was de-emphasized in this account, seen neither as a hero nor as a villain.

100. Stoltze, Adolf, Vincenz Fettmilch: Drama in fünf Auszügen (Frankfurt, 1925)Google Scholar. Stoltze was the son of the poet and humorist Friedrich Stoltze. For Bothe's sympathetic comment on this play, see Geschichte, 3d ed., 330–31.

101. E.g., Act 4, scene 1.

102. E.g., Act 3, scene 5.

103. In contrast to Feldmann's play, however, the inevitable hopeless love interest is not between a Christian and a Jew, but between Fettmilch's daughter and a member of a patrician family.

104. Kernholt, Otto, Deutschlands Schuld und Sühne: Geschichtlichc Betrachtungen zur Entstehung und Lösung der Judenfrage (Leipzig, 1923), 96–97.Google Scholar

105. Fritz H. Chelius, “Ein Lebküchler erobert die Kaiserstadt: Der Fettmilch-Aufstand zu Frankfurt a/M.” (Typescript, n. p., n. d.; formerly owned by the Forschungsabteilung Judenfrage des Reichsinstituts für Geschichte des neueren Deutschlands, now available in the Stadtarchiv Frankfurt), 26–30.

106. Debus, Fritz, Kaiser, Erzbischof und Juden: Eine Zusammenstellung von Tatsachen aus der Geschichte der Stadt Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt, n.d. [1934]), 32Google Scholar; see also Chelius, “Lebküchler,” 29, which concedes that Fettmilch's wife and children joined in the plunder but suggests that Fettmilch prevented excesses.

107. Sporhan-Krempel, Lore, Aufruhr wider Juden und volksfremde Machthaber: Tatsachenbericht aus der Zeit vor dem grossen Krieg 1618–1648 (Ludendorffs Verlag/Laufender Schriftbezug, 11:3; Munich, 1940).Google Scholar

108. The Ludendorff movement was founded by General Erich Ludendorff but carried on vigorously by his wife Mathilde, its real guiding spirit, following the general's death in 1937. On the activities of the Ludendorff movement under the Third Reich, see Borst, Gert, Die Ludendorff-Bewegung, 1919–1961: Eine Analyse monologer Kommunikationsformen in der sozialen Zeitkommunikation (diss., Munich, 1969), 218–51.Google Scholar

109. Sporhan-Krempel, Aufruhr, 33. Even this was not quite strong enough for the publishers, who added a postscript to the book explaining that the uprising had failed because Fettmilch and his followers were trapped in a Christian mode of thought, and because the Emperor and church officials were obliged by Christian ethics to protect the Jews: ibid., 90–91.

110. Ibid., 62.

111. Lore Sporhan-Krempel continued to enjoy a successful literary career in Germany after 1945. She listed her book on the Fettmilch Uprising (though under a falsified title which concealed its anti-Semitic content) in her entries in the 1949, 1952, and 1958 editions of the standard directory of German authors; the reference to this book was dropped only from 1963 onwards: Kürschners Deutscher Literatur-Kalender, 51st–59th eds. (Berlin, 1949–1984)Google Scholar. In response to a recent inquiry about the origins of this book and about her connections to the Ludendorff Verlag, Dr. Sporhan replied blandly as follows: “I became aware of the Frankfurt Fettmilch Uprising already as a schoolgirl, since a teacher told us that one of his ancestors had participated in the uprising…. But only years later did I begin to take a close interest in this uprising. The literature I consulted was surely the same with which you are familiar…. What impressed me was that Fettmilch made the effort during what was, after all, a dreadful era to minimize the spilling of blood as much as possible. As for the publisher? Well, no other one was interested in this topic.” (Letter from Dr. Lore Sporhan to the author, 17 Jan. 1986, original in German.)

112. Dubnov, Simon, History of the Jews, trans. Spiegel, Moshe, 5 vols. (South Brunswick, N.J., 1969), 3: 704–12Google Scholar; the Weltgeschichte des jüdischen Volkes was first published in German in 1925–29.

113. The account is also marred by some minor factual errors, e.g., the statement that Fettmilch was a gunsmith: ibid., 707. This and other minor errors may be due in part to the complex translating history of the manuscript, which was written in Russian but first published in German and subsequently published in other languages.

114. Baron, , Social and Religious History, 14: 190–97Google Scholar; the admirable range of sources which Baron used for his relatively brief account is indicated in the notes (376–78).

115. The uprising is mentioned or briefly described in general works too numerous to be cited in full here; among the better accounts are those of H. H. Ben-Sasson in idem, ed., A History of the Jewish People (London, 1976), 652–53Google Scholar, and Keller, Werner, Diaspora: The Post-Biblical History of the Jews, trans. Richard, and Winston, Clara (New York, 1969), 299–300Google Scholar. Among books devoted specifically to the history of Jews in Germany, the uprising is treated in Lowenthal, Marvin, The Jews of Germany: A Story of Sixteen Centuries (Philadelphia, 1936), 177–78Google Scholar; Elbogen, Ismar and Sterling, Eleonore, Die Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland: Eine Einführung, rev. ed. (Frankfurt, 1966), 113–14Google Scholar; Kampmann, Wanda, Deutsche und Juden: Die Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland vom Mittelalter bis zum Beginn des Ersten Weltkrieges (Heidelberg, 1963), 90–91.Google Scholar

116. Dimont, Max I., Jews, God and History, paperback, ed. (New York, 1962), 244.Google Scholar

117. Schwartzman, Sylvan D., The Story of Reform Judaism (New York, 1953), 13Google Scholar; another account also appears in the same author's Reform Judaism in the Making (New York, 1955), 17Google Scholar.

118. As reported in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 4 Mar. 1980: 27.

119. Heinemann's controversial Bremen speech of 1970 and Rastatt speech of 1974 are reprinted in Heinemann, Gustav W., Allen Bürgen verpflichtet: Reden des Bundespräsidenten, 1969–1974, Gustav W. Heinemann: Reden und Schriften, 1 (Frankfurt, 1975), 30–44Google Scholar; quoted passage, 33–34. Heinemann specifically urged that local history be studied to increase an awareness of past “freedom movements” (40). See also Geiss, Imanuel, “Geschichte bis in die Schulbücher,” in Boll, Heinrich, Gollwitzer, Helmut, and Schmid, Carlo, eds., Anstoss und Ermutigung: Gustav W. Heinemann, Bundespräsident, 1969–1974 (Frankfurt, 1974), 37–56.Google Scholar

120. Czok, Karl, “Zu den städtischen Volksbewegungen in deutschen Territorialstaaten vom 16. bis zum 18. Jahrhundert,” in Rausch, Wilhelm, ed., Die Städte Mitteleuropas im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Städte Mitteleuropas, 5 (Linz, 1981), 21–42, esp. 22–23.Google Scholar

121. Schmiedt, R. F. in Steinmetz, Max, ed., Deutschland von 1476 bis 1648 (Berlin, 1965), 290Google Scholar. For an earlier expression of this view, cf. above, n. 99.

122. Langer, Herbert, The Thirty Years' War, trans. Salt, C.S.V. (Poole, 1980), 20.Google Scholar

123. E.g., Klaus Gerteis, “Frühneuzeitliche Stadtrevolten im sozialen und institutionellen Bedingungsrahmen,” in Rausch, Städte Mitteteuropas, 43–58, esp. 48–49. Some constitutional aspects of the Fettmilch Uprising were discussed in the influential article by Brunner, Otto, “Souveränitätsproblem und Sozialstruktur in den deutschen Reichsstädten der früheren Neuzeit,” Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte 50 (1963): 329–60 passim.Google Scholar

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125. The author rejects the traditional term “Fettmilchaufstand” in favor of “Bürgeraufstand” since he considers Fettmilch's personal role in the uprising to have been overemphasized, and, more generally, rejects the tendency to “personalize” historical events: ibid., 36. But in doing so he rejects a usage which, for better or worse, has been fixed since the nineteenth century.

126. Rainer Koch's recent study of Frankfurt's social and consitutional development categorizes the uprising as a “struggle for freedom” by members of Frankfurt's guilds and by citizens outside the guild system against patrician domination, but the author is careful to point out that this “bürgerliche Freiheits- und Emanzipationsbewegung” remained a “ihrem Selbstverständnis nach zugleich antiadelige und antijüdische Bewegung”: Koch, Rainer, Grumdlagen bürgerlicher Herrschaft: Verfassungs- und sozialgeschichtliche Studien zur bürgerlichen Gesellschaft in Frankfurt am Main (1612–1866), Frankfurter Historische Abhandlungen, 27 (Wiesbaden, 1983), 10, 16.Google Scholar

127. E.g., Sievers, Leo, Juden in Deutschland: Die Geschichte einer 2000-jährigen Tragödie (Munich, 1979) 101–4: this book was based on articles which first appeared in Stern magazineGoogle Scholar. See also Kampmann, Deutsche und Juden, 90–91.

128. Kraus, Kurt, “Frankfurt im Zeichen revolutionärer und anarchistischer Wirren: Versuch einer geschichtlichen Rückblende,” IPA-Report [International Police Association], 1 (1972), no. 1: 3–29.Google Scholar

129. Heinrich Heym, “Ein Zuckerbäcker macht Revolution: Der Aufstand der Zünfte unter Vincenz Fettmilch zu Beginn des 17. Jahrhunderts,” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 27 Sept. 1963: 35. The title of Heym's article echoes the relevant chapter title (“Ein Kuchenbäcker macht Revolution”) in the collection of historical vignettes by Gerteis, Walter, Das unbekannte Frankfurt, 3 vols. (Frankfurt, 1961–1963), 1: 25–31Google Scholar, which, like most treatments of this sort, is strongly anti-patrician in tone and moderately sympathetic to Fettmilch.

130. “Der Frankfurter Fettmilch Auftstand,” Hauptwache: Frankfurter Illustrierte Zeitung, 2 (1977), 2: 18–22; 3: 22–26.Google Scholar

131. Karasek, Horst, Der Fedtmilch-Aufstand, oder: Wie die Frankfurter 1612/14 ihrem Rat einheizten (Berlin, 1979)Google Scholar. The title evokes the events of May 1614 when the citizens stoked the city hall oven to make things more uncomfortable for the council members held in captivity. “Fedtmilch” was how Fettmilch himself signed his name.

132. Lustiger, Arno, “Die Zuckerbäcker eignet sich nicht als Volksheld,” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 20 Mar. 1980: 31.Google Scholar

133. “Revolution in Frankfurt” was broadcast as a Dokumentarspiel by the Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen network during prime time on 16 Jan. 1979. Some stills from the broadcast and background material on the uprising were published in Das Fernsehspiel im ZDF, no. 23 (Mainz, 1978), 85–89.Google Scholar

134. Heinrich Leippe, “Die Revolution von Frankfurt,” Manuscript, 1977. I am grateful to the author and to the S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt, for permission to cite excerpts from the text.

135. Act 2, scene 5.

136. Ibid.

137. Act 2, scenes 8 and 9. Leippe's play, incidentally, also has the seemingly obligatory hopeless love interest, in this case between Fettmilch's daughter and the son of Hans Martin Bauer, the man who eventually arrested Fettmilch.

138. I am grateful to Dr. Franz Neubauer of the Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen, who served as editor of this production, for providing information about how and why the text of the play was amended for the television broadcast.

139. Although Meyn drew some comparisons between Frankfurt and four other cities (Nuremberg, Augsburg, Strasbourg, and Aachen), he specifically rejected a strategy of comparing Frankfurt systematically with other German cities which experienced uprisings: Reichsstadt Frankfurt, 33.

140. Becker, Carl, Everyman His Own Historian (New York, 1935), 249.Google Scholar