Abstract
Hidden Belief or
Double Identity? The Image of Marranism
in the 19th and 20th Centuries.
Berlin 2009/03/23 Anna L. Staudacher
“Resigners”, Converts and Reverts in Vienna 1782-1914
Ad fontes! Notices of resignation,
“declarations” in the context of converting to Christianity, declarations of
converting back to Judaism, books of conversion, baptismal registers, books of
resignation ... and other sources have
been preserved and critically incorporated: 16,000 notices of resignation by
adults for themselves and their children were handed in at the magistrate of
the City of Vienna, at the archives of dioceses and parishes: there exist
“declarations” which were personally signed. There were requests to change one´s
name, reasons for which had to be given in detail, together with “Rekursen”, by
way of which appeals were lodged against rejections; all are found at Viennese
archives – overly rich sources, across all classes, which make a close look
possible, already published. Forthcoming: Der Austritt aus dem
Judentum in Wien von 1868-1914 (Resignation from Judaism Between 1868 and
1914).
Marranism in the stricter sense of
the word, forced baptism and sticking to the belief of the forefathers, all
this did not happen in Vienna during the 19th century, apart from a few
individual cases: with one exception, concerning the poorest of the poor,
Jewish maids whose children were baptised by force in pre-March because
otherwise the office of foundlings, created by Emperor Joseph II., would not
take them, whose mothers had to accept baptism in order of receiving at least
some information about their children – denominationally raped motherly love.
Here, concerning one or the other case, we may assume that life was still going
on according to Jewish customs and laws, as returning to Judaism was possible
only from 1868 on. Cross-denominational weddings of Jews and Christians did not
happen in Austria until the year 1938, which means: until the year 1868 any such
wedding was Christian, mostly Roman Catholic – marranism in a Catholic
marriage?
However, the baptismal registers
document a kind of marranism in the wider sense, but under different
circumstances: Jewish parents from the upper class had their children baptised
in secrecy, secured Catholic education by help of Catholic governesses, went on
with their lives as Jews within the Jewish community. Later, after the
introduction of “Notzivilehe” (emergency civil marriage), with one partner
staying to be Jewish and the other having to resign from the Church, it was
often that children were baptised right after their birth – if this was Jewish
households with Catholic servants may be left open.
Rather frequent weddings among
converts may be called marranism in the wider sense, an expression of double
identity. If we turn to the sources, they give evidence to weddings among
converts having been specific only for that educated upper class which for the
time being has been in the focus of research: artists, writers, scientists, industrialists.
One knew each other from the past, was friends with each other, fell in love,
married. This was only a small part of an educated middle and upper class which
itself made only three to eight per cent of all converts. With the others, it
was precisely a projected wedding to a non-Jew which resulted in resigning from
Judaism, even after the year 1868, after the introduction of “Notzivilehe”.
However, sources on those returning
emphasize again and again that due to outer circumstances one had felt to be
forced to accept baptism, but that over the decades one had not stopped living
as a Jew. Such exceptions should be interpreted with some reservations, as they
were meant to support the intended goal of returning to Judaism. Furthermore it
is obvious that before officially changing one´s denomination one does not live
according to the old denomination anymore – and that thus one leads a Jewish
life even before officially resigning, that one has already been keeping
customs and laws for some time – this has not got anything to do with marranism.
On the other hand, also “baptism candidates” again and again emphasize in the
same way, for which there is also evidence from sources, that they had been
living as Christians, for years and decades, before accepting baptism.
In the past year, at a congress of
the GSA (German Studies Association, St. Paul) Gerald Stourzh suggested the
neutralization of positively or negatively occupied terms in the context of
Jewish-Christian converts and also noticed an increasing tendency to tie converts
and “resigners”, even children of converts who were born after their parents´
conversion, to Jewishness while following the pattern of the Nuremberg Laws –
for example by listing them in Jewish biographical encyclopaedias. When using
an emotionally occupied term, let us take care not to juggle names!
Wien, am 16. Februar 2009
Anna L. Staudacher
Übersetzung: Mirko Wittwar