ABSTRACT
The German-Jewish communities of Constantine’s day had almost disappeared after the fall of the Roman Empire, but between the tenth and eleventh centuries, Jewish merchants from southern Europe migrated north to seek new economic opportunities. German rulers’ preferential treatment of the Jews was crucial to their success but also exposed the newcomers to resentment and conflict with local populations. A new yet familiar assault on German Jewry began in 1509 when Johann Pfefferkorn, a convert from Judaism, acting in concert with the Dominicans, unsuccessfully called for the destruction of dangerous Jewish books such as the Talmud. Ordinary Jews in the eighteenth-century German states continued to suffer discrimination, including restrictions on residence, free movement, and occupations. The extent to which foes of emancipation anticipated the traits of modern antisemitism remains a matter of contention. The French Revolutionary Wars brought emancipation, but the Restoration of 1815 largely reversed it and the abortive Revolutions of 1848 recapitulated the pattern of affirmation and revocation.
