Jewish Legal Advocacy in 18th-Century German Media

• In Event: Informal Governance and Jewish Advocacy in 18th Century Frankfurt and Vienna

Abstract

Court cases at the Imperial Court (Reichshofrat) in Vienna were generally litigated behind closed doors in written rather than oral proceedings. According to the court’s official procedural rules, multiple safeguards were in place to preserve the anonymity of all legal personnel involved in particular cases to avoid corruption and lobbying. Yet, political stakeholders from across the Holy Roman Empire knew how to circumvent these measures and influence the respective judges and attorneys. Frankfurt’s Jewish community was one of them and it offered its prominent community members privileged access to these informal channels. In the mid 18th century, the Frankfurt Jewish community was shaken by a conflict between two rivaling groups who fought over leadership and treasury of the community. The conflict came to be known as “Kulp-Kannsche Wirren” named after the leaders of both factions. It provides us with a primary example of informal governance practices between the Jewish community, the Frankfurt city government, and the Viennese imperial court. The protagonists of the conflict, Kulp and Kann, used every possibility of triangulated communication to advance their position. Aside from informal lobbying through communal and personal connections at court, the Jewish litigants surprisingly sought out the media public of the empire. They authored, published, and distributed lengthy pamphlets in German language to draw attention to their cause and presumably to gather support from Jews and non-Jews alike. While non-Jewish litigants drew rather frequently on this genre called deductiones to sway public opinion and put pressure on the imperial jury, it has never been noted nor analyzed in a Jewish context. This paper argues that the Kulp-Kann prints were no exception and that they provide us with new and unique insights into early modern informal governance and Jewish advocacy practices that rarely left an institutional paper trail.

Author

• Verena Kasper-Marienberg, North Carolina State University