Judaism in Liechtenstein

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The Jews in Liechtenstein goes back to the Middle Ages. Today the number of Jews living in the Principality of Liechtenstein is given as around 20 to 30 people.

history

middle Ages

The first Jews were likely to have passed through what is now Liechtenstein. Jews from Feldkirch , where a community existed in the 14th and 15th centuries, are likely to have had lively contacts in the area. From the 16th century onwards, Jewish communities emerged in the area, for example in Tettnang , Wasserburg , Rheineck , Langenargen and Hohenems , some of which also had trade relations with the Vaduz - Schellenberg area. From the 16th to the 18th century, Jews traveling through Vaduz had to pay their taxes according to the cube tariff .

Jewish communities

From 1632, Jews fled the margraviate of Burgau to the Lake Constance region because of the Thirty Years' War . The Tyrolean sovereign had granted them protection. Some settled on the Eschnerberg in 1637 . For around 14 years, a small Jewish community consisted of around 100 people in 20 households. They lived in Eschen , Nendeln and Mauren , where they also had a synagogue in Popers . The rabbi was Abraham Neuburg from Thannhausen . The Jews were active as traders - especially with horses, cattle, hides, cloth and silverware - and lent small amounts of money. In 1649 281 people from Vaduz-Schellenberg had borrowed money from them. After various problems and tensions with the local population, the Jews had to leave the area in 1651. Trade continued with Jews from Sulz and Hohenems.

In 1727 there was a " baptized Jew " in Vaduz .

After the Jews were forcibly expelled from Sulz in 1745, around 50 of them fled to the Principality of Liechtenstein in Vaduz , Nendeln, Schaan and Eschen. The prince and the villages received money for tolerating the Jews. In 1748 they moved to Hohenems. In 1750, Empress Maria Theresa forbade Jews in Vorarlberg to trade, which is why they increasingly became active in the Principality of Liechtenstein. In 1760, Prince Josef Wenzel forbade Jews to trade in Liechtenstein. At the same time he paid off all debts of the population to the amount of 30,000 guilders . Despite a renewal of the ban in 1781, Liechtensteiners continued to trade with Jews from Vorarlberg again and again.

Individual field names in Eschen, Mauren, Gamprin , Schaan and Planken still remind us of the presence of the Jews today.

Until 1920 there were no Jews living in the principality. The Jewish textile company "Gebrüder Rosenthal" from Hohenems acquired a mechanical weaving mill in Vaduz in 1869 and in 1884 the "Mechanical weaving mill Vaduz". In 1916 the companies that had meanwhile employed more than 1000 people had to be shut down.

20th century

Princess Elsa

Elsa von Gutmann , who married Franz I of Liechtenstein in 1929 and thus became Princess of Liechtenstein, came from a Jewish family in Vienna . She never lived in Liechtenstein, but visited the country several times and was buried in the family grave in Schaan . Despite the princess, the Princely House remained fundamentally opposed to accepting Jewish refugees.

"Pleading requests addressed directly to the princess and referring to relationships with her family only received a negative response."

- Refuge in installments. Liechtenstein and the Jews

The Volksdeutsche movement in Liechtenstein not only aimed to annex Liechtenstein to Nazi Germany , but is also accused of having carried out bomb attacks on Jews. On October 31, 1938, a bomb exploded in Eschen in front of the Kreuz inn. The Jew Josef Strauss lived there. On November 18, 1938, a bomb exploded in front of the "Rheinische clothes factory" in Eschen. The owner was the Jew Richard Graetz. 18 panes were broken. On the night of November 25th to 26th, a bomb exploded in Schaan. It was for a house in which two Jewish families lived. On November 28, an attack was carried out on the «Dux» inn in Schaan, where Jewish guests were staying. The following day, a bomb hit the home of the Fiori and Goldstaub families. On November 30th another bomb exploded in front of the "Rheinische clothes factory", another in front of the house of the Schiftan family. The Liechtenstein police set up roadblocks and searched the apartments of the “Volksdeutsche Jugend”. No further attacks were carried out after an arrest and house searches. Most of the bombs were small and did little property damage. Fortunately, nobody was injured. The government interpreted the attacks as a protest against the Jewish refugees in the country.

In November 1938 the government carried out a census of foreigners in the principality. 118 people with a Jewish faith were recorded. 64 of them had only been living in the country for a few months, 20 had entered the country after the Reichskristallnacht . On December 1, the state government decided that all pending entry applications from Jews should be provisionally rejected. This was justified with "to ensure peace and order". So the strategy of the violent criminals worked.

On the night of March 24, 1939, when the Volksdeutsche movement was planning the Anschluss coup, most of the Jews from Liechtenstein fled to Switzerland, but returned in the following days.

After the Swiss-Liechtenstein Postal Agreement had been signed, the Swiss PTT was responsible for issuing broadcasting licenses. This did not want any private, advertising-financed radio stations. However, the Liechtenstein government wanted to issue a license for such a broadcaster. A powerful medium wave transmitter would bring the government between 200,000 and 300,000 francs annual income. After years of unsuccessful negotiations, after the annexation of Austria on March 16, 1938, Bern agreed to approve a Liechtenstein transmitter. The concession was given to an English company, the Roditi International Cooperation, which belonged to the British Jew William Kenmore. The station called “Radio Liechtenstein” went on the air in September 1938 and broadcast until September 1939. After the outbreak of war, the programs were stopped due to pressure from Germany. The Germans had threatened to bomb the Jewish-owned station. It was described as a “British-Jewish enemy station”, although the broadcasting line tried very hard not to provoke the Germans.

In 1992 Israel and Liechtenstein established diplomatic relations, with Switzerland representing the Principality in Liechtenstein and the Israeli ambassador in Bern being accredited for Liechtenstein.

At the beginning of the 21st century, a commission of historians examined the history of the principality in relation to Jews. She found that Liechtenstein was “ not an important financial center, not a foreign exchange hub, not a refuge for Nazi looted property, not a relocation place for Nazi refugee assets ” (historians' commission).

present

In Liechtenstein there is no Jewish community, no synagogue, and also no Jewish cemetery. In 2016, Anita Winter, the wife of the President of the Swiss Association of Israelites, Herbert Winter , lives in Zurich , to found a Jewish association in Liechtenstein. In the last censuses, Jews fell into the "other religions" category. It is assumed, however, that less than three dozen Jews live in the principality. The Jews, often married to Christians, sometimes meet to celebrate holidays. Some are members of the Jewish community in St. Gallen , others are involved in the Hohenems Jewish Museum .

In 2001 the "Association of Friends of Liechtenstein from Yad Vashem " was founded. In 2011 an exhibition was dedicated to the Jews in the Principality.

literature

  • Karl Heinz Burmeister , Peter Geiger: Jews. In: Historical Lexicon of the Principality of Liechtenstein . December 31, 2011 , accessed June 9, 2019 .
  • Karl Heinz Burmeister: The Jewish community on Eschenberg 1637–1651 . In: Historical Association for the Principality of Liechtenstein (Hrsg.): Yearbook of the Historical Association for the Principality of Liechtenstein . 89th volume. Self-published, Vaduz 1991, p. 144 ff . ( Digitized version ).
  • Karl Heinz Burmeister: Liechtenstein as a place of refuge for the Jews expelled from Sulz in 1745/47 . In: Historical Association for the Principality of Liechtenstein (Hrsg.): Yearbook of the Historical Association for the Principality of Liechtenstein . 86th volume. Self-published, Vaduz 1986, p. 327 ff . ( Digitized version ).
  • Fritz Baum, Nikolaus Hagen, Johannes Inama: Refuge on Raten Liechtenstein and the Jews. (PDF) Exhibition in Küefer-Martis-Huus, May 13, 2010 to February 6, 2011. Accessed on June 9, 2019 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Peter Bollag: Klein am Rhein. In: Jüdische Allgemeine. March 4, 2009. Retrieved June 9, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b U.S. Department of State: Liechtenstein 2017 International Religious Freedom Report ( Memento from May 15, 2019 in the Internet Archive ; PDF)
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Karl Heinz Burmeister, Peter Geiger: Jews. In: Historical Lexicon of the Principality of Liechtenstein . December 31, 2011 , accessed June 9, 2019 .
  4. ^ Karl Heinz Burmeister: Neuburg, Abraham. In: Historical Lexicon of the Principality of Liechtenstein . December 31, 2011 , accessed June 9, 2019 .
  5. ^ Karl Heinz Burmeister: Liechtenstein as a place of refuge for the Jews expelled from Sulz in 1745/47 . In: Historical Association for the Principality of Liechtenstein (Hrsg.): Yearbook of the Historical Association for the Principality of Liechtenstein . 86th volume. Self-published, Vaduz 1986, p. 332 ( digitized version ).
  6. ↑ Johannes Inama: Rosenthal. In: Historical Lexicon of the Principality of Liechtenstein . December 31, 2011 , accessed June 9, 2019 .
  7. ^ Fritz Baum, Nikolaus Hagen, Johannes Inama: Refuge on Raten Liechtenstein and the Jews. (PDF) Exhibition in Küefer-Martis-Huus, May 13, 2010 to February 6, 2011. P. 12 , accessed on June 9, 2019 .
  8. ^ Wilfried Marxer: Volksdeutsche movement in Liechtenstein (VDBL). In: Historical Lexicon of the Principality of Liechtenstein . December 31, 2011 , accessed June 10, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Peter Geiger: Time of Crisis . Chronos Verlag, Zurich 2000, Volume 2, pp. 259 ff.
  10. ↑ Peter Geiger: Time of Crisis . Chronos Verlag, Zurich 2000, Volume 2, p. 263
  11. ↑ Donat Büchel: Connection coup. In: Historical Lexicon of the Principality of Liechtenstein . December 31, 2011 , accessed June 10, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Peter Geiger: The time of crisis in Liechtenstein in the 1930s . Chronos Verlag, Zurich 2000, Volume 2, pp. 287–293
  13. ^ Sebastian Albrich: From gratitude to the Jewish association - Liechtenstein. In: Liechtensteiner Volksblatt. December 31, 2016, accessed June 9, 2019 .
  14. ^ Association of the Liechtenstein Friends of Yad Vashem. In: yadvashem.org. Retrieved June 9, 2019 .