Data Collection Jewish Genealogy
Jewish households in the Kurmark (as of 1809)
Preliminary remarks
The authorities of Brandenburg started to document and control the Jewish population almost immediately after Jews were allowed to settle again in their territory. The first lists that we found so far go back to 1688 and include the names of Jews living in Berlin and Frankfurt/Oder.
Many of the documents created in the 17th and 18th century got lost but we can still find a considerable number of them in archives like the Brandenburg Main State Archive (Brandenburgisches Landeshauptarchiv) and the Prussian Secret State Archives (Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz). Other useful sources of information are the collections of Selma Stern and Jacob Jacobson in the Leo Baeck Institute (New York).
This dataset is based on four types of lists kept in the Prussian Secret State Archives. They contain personal data from Jews who have been living in 51 localities of the Kurmark in the year 1809.
Terms explained
The term “Schutzjude” (protected Jew) refers to the legal status a person of Jewish faith has been granted by a higher authority, like the ruler of a territory. We find the term used as well in a law issued by Frederick the Great in 1750 which distinguished between two categories of Schutzjuden: ordentliche und außerordentliche Schutzjuden ("ordinary" and "extraordinary" protected Jews).
These legal categories which granted different legal rights remained in place in Brandenburg until 1812, the year in which Jews living there were offered the opportunity to become Prussian citizens based on an edict issued on March 11, 1812
Using the term “Jewish household”, we move away from the usual approach and not only take into account the core family (parents and children), but also include servants as well as brothers and brothers-in-law.
About the database
Our database contains names and ages of
- ordinary and extraordinary protected Jews
- children of ordinary protected Jews with a special legal status ("angesetzte Kinder")
- employees of the Jewish community
- employees of the Hebrew printing house at Frankfurt/Oder
In addition, the database includes information on the number of children this group of people had as well as on servants, brothers, and brothers-in-law and, furthermore, whether a protected Jew owned a house.
Protected Jews and the employees of the Jewish community whose names were recorded in the registers were in most cases men. The names of widows who took over their husband´s legal status, was usually not recorded in these documents.
The biggest problem in compiling information about the individual households from various lists proved to be the inconsistent spelling of names (e.g., Wulff/Wolff, Liepmann/Liebmann, Hertz/Herz, Levi/Levy/Levin).
In many cases the database also includes the names that a person had as a Prussian citizen after 1812 as far as we could tell. This task was complicated by, among other things, different spellings of names.
We used four different Jewish tables to compile the database, all from 1809:
- List of the Jewish families in localities of the Kurmark (I. HA Rep. 104, IV C Nr. 107)
- List of the servants of protected Jews in localities of the Kurmark (I. HA Rep. 104, IV C Nr. 024)
- List of the brothers- and sisters-in-law in localities of the Kurmark (I. HA Rep. 104, IV C Nr. 025)
- List of the houses of the protected Jews ("Jewish houses") in localities of the Kurmark (I. HA Rep. 104, IV C Nr. 133)
All lists mentioned above have already been digitised. Therefore, any user of this database can easily obtain information beyond what we have included.
Abbreviations
OS = Ordentlicher Schutzjude (ordinary protected Jew)
AS = Außerordentlicher Schutzjude (extraordinary protected Jew)
PB = Publique Bediente (employees of the Jewish Community)
JD = Jüdische Druckerei (Hebrew printing house)
E = Emiriti (mainly widows of former employees)
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