The memorial of Judenburg

Due to its geographic location Judenburg became an economic center of the south of the eastern alps. Judenburg was home to one of the oldest Jewish communities next to Villach and Graz. The first remarks about the Jewish settlement in Judenburg can be found in 1290. The first Jewish ‘Judenburger’, Süßmann, was mentioned in 1305.

The Jewish quarter in Judenburg was located in the North of the historic center. The Jewish quarter was also the religious and social center of the Jewish community, where the medieval Synagogue and the Mikveh were located. The Jewish graveyard lay south of the city, close to the castle Weyer.

Unlike the non-Jewish community of Judenburg, the Jewish population were under the protection of the Fürst of Styria. As craftsmanship was organized in Christian corporations, the Jews were left with banking to make a living. The medieval form of banking was quite an unstable form of business, especially during times of financial instability. The Christian borrowers were not able to pay back the money, which the Jewish lenders were dependent on to survive. As the Jewish were trying to get their money back, the image of the greedy Jew originated. Due to that, the Jewish population got stigmatized over time.

At the end of the 15th century the hostility towards the Jews reached its peak. The Jews were steadily deprived of their rights and rumors of host desecrations and ritual killings were spread. The Christian church played an important part in the spreading of rumors, as those assumptions were brought up in the sermons during church service.

The Styrian Fürst protected the Jewish population as long as they were of use to him and his lands. As the Jewish population lost its financial status, they also lost his protection. In 1496 the Fürst ordered all Jews to leave his lands. They did not only have to leave the lands, but they were banned from re-settling until the second half of the 19th century.

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Dr. Michael Schiestl, Historian of the city of Judenburg