For the German announcement, please visit:  https://judaica.hypotheses.org/540

For the first time after the Shoa and the difficult research conditions in the GDR, the book examines the Jewish history of the medieval March of Brandenburg from the beginning to the early 16^th century. The study systematised all previously known evidence and checked it predominantly against the original or reprography. Original documents, some of them unpublished, from 32 archives and collections have been analysed.

The basis for further investigations on economic and social history is a settlement history, which is presented here precisely as never before.

Various fields of contact between Christians and Jews are of particular interest. For the first time, this study documents the activity of Jews in the butchering profession in detail. The corresponding analysis is a considerable part of the chapter on the economic life of the Jews.

The in-depth study of citizenship seems appropriate not only in view of the different urban landscape compared to the west of Holy Roman Empire. The results also contribute to a key question of current research. The extensive chapter on ‘citizenship of the Jews’ (i.e. legal and social status) draws these results by examining a young society in the so-called “Neusiedellande”, which were not made elsewhere. They clearly point beyond the previous state of research.

Jörn Roland Christophersen: Krisen, Chancen und Bedrohungen. Studien zur Geschichte der Juden in der Mark Brandenburg während des späteren Mittelalters (13. bis Anfang des 16. Jahrhunderts). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2021 (= Forschungen zur Geschichte der Juden, Abt. A, 32). 870+xvi pp., 27 figures, 6 tables, ISBN: 978-3-447-11710-4   (print)/978-3-447-39185-6 (E-Book). 

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