The Jewish communities of medieval Germany resided mainly in towns and often in particular districts of towns. On several occasions, notably in the wake of the first and second crusades, these religiously and physically distinctive communities had been subjected to persecution. The advent of the Black Death unleashed a further bout of persecution, some spontaneous, some planned, in over eighty towns between November 1348 and August 1350. Ignorance of the explanations for the dissemination of plague led to accusations across much of Europe that 'outsiders' had poisoned supplies of drinking water. In some areas foreign pilgrims were held responsible for this: in Germany, among other places, suspicion fell on the Jews. Yet fear of the onset of plague, rather than the search for scapegoats after its outbreak, accounts for the German massacres which occurred before the arrival of plague. Likewise pogroms frequently occurred before the arrival in towns of Flagellants who have often been accused of whipping up anti-Jewish sentiment in a time of fear. Rather, such attitudes were perhaps encouraged consciously or unconsciously by local preachers with many of the pogroms occurring on Sundays or feast days. Traditionally the pogroms of the 1340s have also been seen as an expression of political tension between the unrepresented crafts (seen as hostile to Jews) and the governing patriciate (seen as protective of Jewish communities or prepared to acquiesce in their massacre in order to appease the craftsmen). Of late this interpretation has been dismissed although the cancellation of debts owed to murdered Jews benefited debtors of diverse social standing. The political background to the pogroms is, however, significant. As rival contenders asserted their claim to the Crown, none was in a position to exercise the traditionally protective role assumed by emperors towards Jewish communities. The cluster of pogroms in Meissen and Thuringia reflected the anti-Jewish sentiments of the local lord. By contrast only one pogrom, at Krems, occurred in lands firmly controlled by the more sympathetic Habsburgs.
D. Ditchburn
World History
