Literary stumbling block: Paying the bill for Christian pranksters

Stolpersteine, small brass memorial plaques, commemorate the fate of the people who were persecuted and murdered during the National Socialist era. Court reporter Raquel Erdtmann has now dedicated a criminal history and literary stumbling block to the memory of Joseph Süßkind Oppenheimer. The Duke of Württemberg’s former finance councilor Carl Alexander was publicly executed in Stuttgart on February 4, 1738. The authorities had initiated a public spectacle, erected a twelve-meter-high gallows and had an iron cage made for the hanged man, in which the body was displayed as a deterrent until March 19, 1744. That much is known. Novels were written from this material and an infamous propaganda film was made during the Nazi era: “Jud Süß”.

Raquel Erdtmann was the first scientist to view the trial files, which have been accessible since 1919 in the Stuttgart Main State Archives and fill eight meters of shelves, and to use many other contemporary sources. The result is a moving book that bears witness to brutal, racist anti-Semitism and religious anti-Judaism in pietistic Württemberg, then an economically backward country. The politically responsible people did not know the virtues of the “Swabian housewife,” let alone the rules of proper household and accounting. Whereupon Duke Carl Alexander chose the successful Jewish businessman Joseph Süßkind Oppenheimer from Fraankfurt am Main as an advisor and commissioned him to modernize, especially the public administration. So Süßkind combed through the country’s shattered finances, revealing sloppiness, self-service and nepotism, and a lack of transparency. Because he was by no means submissive and timid in his criticism, he made many enemies.

Raquel Erdtmann demonstrates a remarkable ability to present the financial context of the time in a way that is understandable for today. Süßkind describes her as a temperamental and disrespectful, sometimes blustering professional. He chose his employees not based on their origins, but rather based on their qualifications, whether Jews or Christians. What mattered to him was efficiency and honesty. His employer, the Duke, admired him, appointed him finance councilor – an empty title – and, despite demands from those around him, refused to fire his advisor. Süßkind traded in precious metals and diamonds, anything that generated income. The Duke was also his customer. In order to satisfy his enormous need for money, Süßkind gave the monarch a number of grants from his own treasury. Even the minting rights, which he looked after as part of the ducal coin shelf, barely yielded anything due to the high procurement and logistics costs. Süßkind often had to pay in advance. During the trial, however, such facts were turned into the opposite in order to make a fool of the Jew.

When the young duke suddenly died, Süßkind was immediately arrested. Raquel Erdtmann professionally traces the eleven-month trial, which took place behind closed doors and in which Süßkind was assigned an incompetent defense attorney who also committed party betrayal. The author quotes from the protocols and demonstrates Süßkind’s modern, liberal view of criminal procedure rules. Raquel Erdtmann measures the procedure against the rules of the “Carolina” at the time, but also in today’s legal understanding. It becomes clear that it was not a fair trial; the death sentence was certain from the start. When the new Duke, Carl Rudolf, signed it, he is said to have murmured: “It is a rare occurrence that a Jew pays the price for Christian rogues.«

The prison conditions were pure torture. Süßkind’s girlfriend was also arrested and gave birth to a son in prison, who soon died there for lack of even the slightest care. His father knew neither of his birth nor death. Süßkind’s mother begged the Duke to be allowed to see her son again before the execution. She was granted this wish, but too late due to sloppiness. Süßkind’s resistance did not collapse even in the face of death; all attempts to convert him to Christianity were rejected by him: “I’m dying as a Jew.”

Raquel Erdtmann’s stumbling block for “Jud Süß” is a moving example of early anti-Semitism. The author draws some frightening parallels to the Nazi genocide of European Jews 200 years later.

Raquel Erdtmann: Joseph Süßkind Oppenheimer. A judicial murder. Steidl, 272 pages, br., 24 €.

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