Hoffnungen einer Minderheit
Suppliken jüdischer Einwohner an den Hamburger Senat im 19. Jahrhundert
Description:... After sketching the social and political situation of the Jews in Hamburg in the first half of the 19th century, including the "Hep!-Hep!" riots and later pogroms and the uneven progress toward emancipation, examines petitions submitted to the Senate by individual Jews. These touch mainly on two issues: residence rights and mixed marriages. The Senate, on the whole, favored expanding rights for Jews, but retreated before the opposition of the citizenry; in individual cases it nearly always clung to the letter of the law. Thus, it consistently acceded to neighbors' demands to prevent Jews from acquiring property in their streets, unless these were on a secret list of streets permitted to Jews. Christian hostility to Jews was based on religious and cultural prejudice and fear of competition. Christians with a more liberal outlook (mainly the higher classes), who were not in competition with Jews or who rented or sold them real estate, often supported Jewish petitions. Mixed marriages ceased to be a problem after civil marriage was instituted.
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