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THE MANY DEATHS OF JEW SueSS

Yair Mintzker

The Notorious Trial and Execution of an Eighteenth-Century Court Jew

Joseph Suess Oppenheimer—"Jew Suess"—is one of the most iconic figures in the history of anti-Semitism. In 1733, Oppenheimer became the "court Jew" of Carl Alexander, the duke of the small German state of Wuerttemberg. When Carl Alexander died unexpectedly, the Wuerttemberg authorities arrested Oppenheimer, put him on trial, and condemned him to death for unspecified "misdeeds." On February 4, 1738, Oppenheimer was hanged in front of a large crowd just outside Stuttgart. He is most often remembered today through several works of fiction, chief among them a vicious Nazi propaganda movie made in 1940 at the behest of Joseph Goebbels.

THE MANY DEATHS OF JEW SueSS is a compelling new account of Oppenheimer's notorious trial. Drawing on a wealth of rare archival evidence, Yair Mintzker investigates conflicting versions of Oppenheimer's life and death as told by four contemporaries: the leading inquisitor in the criminal investigation, the most important eyewitness to Oppenheimer's final days, a fellow court Jew who was permitted to visit Oppenheimer on the eve of his execution, and one of Oppenheimer's earliest biographers. What emerges is a lurid tale of greed, sex, violence, and disgrace—but are these narrators to be trusted? Meticulously reconstructing the social world in which they lived, and taking nothing they say at face value, Mintzker conjures an unforgettable picture of "Jew Suess" in his final days that is at once moving, disturbing, and profound.

Yair Mintzker is associate professor of history at Princeton University.

DIE VIELEN TODE DES JUD SueSS
Justizmord an einem Hofjuden
Deutsch von Felix Kurz
[HC Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 10/2020]
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Published 2017-05-01 by Princeton University Press

Comments

This is a highly intelligent, scintillating, and fascinating book that will stimulate a great deal of debate. The story of ‘Jew Suess' is a wonderful subject and Mintzker is the historian to tell it. He has a fine imaginative ability to recreate a whole world.—Lyndal Roper, author of Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet

remarkable... This fascinating intellectual journey deserves a wide audience outside the academic scope of the book. Read more...

Well written and engaging. This meticulously researched work offers a fascinating and intelligent accounting of Oppenheimer's life that will captivate readers of history and Jewish studies. (Starred Review)

Whatever approximation to the truth the polyphonic method yields, it brings the society and its protagonists to life in a way I have never seen before. On account of the rich texture of the evidence, the ancien régime becomes real, while Mintzker's lively prose turns the case into a detective story . This wonderful book raises all sorts of questions. We are left to make up our own minds. Which was the real Oppenheimer? Can we find a compromise among the four accounts, and on what basis? I certainly cannot, but Mintzker's attempt to do so makes this work an excellent exercise. (Jonathan Steinberg)