Cube inches

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Medieval dice

The cube inches was from the Middle Ages to the 17th century regionally occurring form or supplement to the body duty , by which all Jews , including women, had to buy safe passage through customs offices. The body duty was a monetary payment, whereas with the dice duty, comparatively worthless dice had to be handed over when crossing customs limits . He also played a role as a popular anti-Jewish chicane outside of the official customs trade .

Temporal and spatial classification

The origins of the cube inch are unknown, but it is believed that it first occurred at the end of the 13th or beginning of the 14th century. The earliest written evidence comes from documents from 1378, when several feudal lords ( Nassau , Trier , Mainz ) exempted their Jewish subjects from the dice duty. In later years there were always temporary exemptions and privileges bought - but even if the custom went out of fashion in the 15th century , it remained in isolated use until the 17th century, sometimes even after the actual body duty was abolished. A lot of evidence indicates that the custom persisted over the centuries. Regionally, besides the ore monasteries of Mainz and Trier as well as Hesse , the cube tariff can be proven especially in the Upper Rhine regions ( Switzerland , Liechtenstein to Reutte in Tyrol ).

to form

The value of the dice was very low, it was a kind of tip to the customs officers, which was often added to the normal body duty, and sometimes also replaced it. Because of its low value, it was not billed to the customs officer. The original function of an “addition” to the Leibzoll, with which customs officers could shorten their waiting times by playing dice, may have developed into a pure chicane or “punishment” in later times, since the dice brought along by the Jews in a row are not only worthless , but also from inferior material, e.g. B. paper were made. In some documented cases, playing cards were required instead of dice. The Cologne author Ernst Weyden described the dice duty in 1867 as "one of the many vexatory torments" and "meaningless ridicule".

The amount of the fee was often a so-called double ; what was meant was a set of three dice.

A "wild" form that appeared alongside the official variant of the dice duty was the so-called dice crime or die- hustling, in which representatives of the common people often harassed or threatened drunk young men, Jewish travelers or passers-by and thus extorted the surrender of dice. If they did not receive this, it was not uncommon for them to be mistreated. Jews did defend themselves, either physically or legally, for example, convictions of the perpetrators to tower sentences are documented. This form is documented for the first time in the Frankfurt mayor's book of 1473 and in 1714 it was documented in detail by Johann Jacob Schudt in his work Jewish merchandise .

Attempts at interpretation

Sources about the origins or reasons of the dice duty do not seem to have survived. The historian Gerd Mentgen offers various interpretative approaches:

The most widespread attempt at interpretation by other authors are discriminatory “acts of punishment” for Jewish participation in the biblically transmitted or popularly supplemented Passion story of Christ. It can be found in various anti-Jewish measures, for example with a connection to the number 30 (number of silver coins of Judas' wages ), mistreatment with glowing nails (legends about Jewish participation in forging cross nails) etc. The interpretation of the dice duty as a punishment for raffling off / Giving away the robe of Christ. It results from a passage in the Gospel according to Matthew 27:35: "After they had crucified him, they cast lots and distributed his clothes among themselves." - which was also shown in contemporary illustrations as dice around the clothes. In this context, the archaeologist Tanja Potthoff pointed out in her article in 2015 that the cube inch is one of the earliest traceable in the Trier area, where the holy rock relic was venerated as a fragment of the tunic of Jesus Christ .

Conversely, some harassment could be interpreted as a mockery of Jewish customs, such as those from the Purim festival . A similar connection could be - according to Gerd Mentgen - possibly to the cube-like Jewish Hanukkah - Three-punching produced, which were possibly attributed by outsiders special powers. Among other things, the historian justifies this approach from the contemporary sources on dice crime, in which it is often said that especially dice with red lettering should be blackmailed.

Finally, it cannot be ruled out that the game of dice, which was also widespread among Jews and which, from the church's point of view, was “the work of the devil”, could have contributed to the origins of the dice duty. Die-maker as a craft stand is also documented among Jews and in Jewish quarters - the surname Würfel , Wörpel or Werfel occurs both among Jews and Christians.

literature

  • Karl Heinz Burmeister: The cube tariff, a variant of the body tariff . In: Ashkenaz - magazine for the history and culture of the Jews . tape 1 , 1993, ISSN  1016-4987 , pp. 49-64 , doi : 10.1515 / asch.1993.3.1.49 .
  • Gerd Mentgen: Die Würfelzoll and other anti-Jewish harassment in the Middle Ages and early modern times . In: Journal for Historical Research . tape 22 , no. 1 . Duncker & Humblot, 1995, pp. 1-48 , JSTOR : 43568624 .
  • Tanja Potthoff: 78 cubes, many facets - a special duty for Jewish travelers . In: Jürgen Kunow , Marcus Trier (Ed.): Archeology in the Rhineland 2015 . Theiss, Darmstadt 2015, ISBN 978-3-8062-3386-5 , p. 171-173 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Burmeister: The cube inch, a variant of the body inch. P. 49.
  2. ↑ a b Ernst Weyden: History of the Jews in Cologne on the Rhine from Roman times to the present: together with notes and documents . DuMont-Schauberg, Cologne 1867, p. 231–232 , urn : nbn: de: hebis: 30-180011361002 .
  3. ↑ Mentgen: Die Würfelzoll and other anti-Jewish harassment in the Middle Ages and early modern times. P. 4, in agreement with Burmeister: The dice tariff, a variant of the body tariff.
  4. ↑ Mentgen: Die Würfelzoll and other anti-Jewish harassment in the Middle Ages and early modern times. P. 2.
  5. ↑ Mentgen: Die Würfelzoll and other anti-Jewish harassment in the Middle Ages and early modern times. P. 11.
  6. ↑ Mentgen: Die Würfelzoll and other anti-Jewish harassment in the Middle Ages and early modern times. P. 4.
  7. ↑ Burmeister: The cube inch, a variant of the body inch. P. 52.
  8. ↑ Werner Schiele: The legal and social situation of the Jews in the Main-Taunus-Kreis in the 17th century . In: District Committee of the Main-Taunus-Kreis (Hrsg.): Between Main and Taunus - MTK yearbook . 2000 ( online version on Historische-eschborn.de).
  9. ↑ a b Burmeister: The cube inch, a variant of the body inch. P. 61.
  10. ↑ a b Burmeister: The cube inch, a variant of the body inch. P. 62.
  11. ↑ Burmeister: The cube inch, a variant of the body inch. P.56.
  12. ↑ Mentgen: Die Würfelzoll and other anti-Jewish harassment in the Middle Ages and early modern times. Pp. 5-6.
  13. ↑ Burmeister: The cube inch, a variant of the body inch. Pp. 59-60.
  14. ↑ Mentgen: Die Würfelzoll and other anti-Jewish harassment in the Middle Ages and early modern times. P. 9.
  15. ↑ Mentgen: Die Würfelzoll and other anti-Jewish harassment in the Middle Ages and early modern times. P. 23.
  16. ↑ The crucifixion. In: Gospel according to Matthew. bibleserver.com, accessed May 13, 2017 .
  17. ↑ Burmeister: The cube inch, a variant of the body inch. P. 64.
  18. ↑ Potthoff: 78 cubes, many facets. P. 173.
  19. ↑ Mentgen: Die Würfelzoll and other anti-Jewish harassment in the Middle Ages and early modern times. Pp. 27-28.
  20. ↑ Mentgen: Die Würfelzoll and other anti-Jewish harassment in the Middle Ages and early modern times. P. 33.