The Thirty Years War fought from 1618 to 1648 left 4.5 to 8 million dead, mostly civilians from disease or starvation.
From the point of view of a 21st century American of Jewish extraction, it was one of those endless and pointless European wars.
The nobility – emperors, kings, princes, prince-electors, archdukes, dukes, counts, and margraves – formed alliances and sometimes switched sides.
They expected their subjects to switch with them.
Both Flehingen and Wissembourg were right in the middle of the fighting between Catholic France and the Protestant states of Germany.
By the end of the war, the population of Flehingen was reduced to less than a third of what it was before the war.
When it was all over, the margrave of Baden thought it would be a good idea to get some protected Jews in there to provide him with some income and restart the economy.
There were at least three classes of Jews in Germany at the time: court Jews, protected Jews, and wandering Jews.
At the top, court Jews were close to the ruler.
They lent money to the government, procured supplies for the government or the military, lived extravagant lifestyles and often lost their heads when the crown changed hands.
At the bottom, wandering Jews were the illegals.
They were not permitted to live in villages and they were not permitted to own land in the countryside.
They made their living as beggars and peddlers, buying this or that in one place and selling it in another, returning home only on the Sabbath.
They brought news from one village to another and entertained the townsfolk as a way to gather people to make sales, perhaps the start of Jews in the news and entertainment industries.
In the middle, protected Jews were protected because they paid protection money to the ruler.
They paid higher taxes than Christians, they paid fees to marry, or to construct a synagogue. Sometimes their protected status was only valid for a limited time, or could only be passed on to the eldest son, or the fees could be raised, or the status could be cancelled at the whim of the ruler.
My ancestors were protected Jews.
I don’t know when they were granted this status, but Erna implies that it went back to the Thirty Years War.
The economic services they provided were as Cattle Dealers.
3,678 total views, 3 views today