Aaron Abrahams Beer

Aaron Abrahams Beer (* before 1685 in Frankfurt am Main , † 1740 in Aurich ) was a German-Jewish financier, mint master and rabbi.

Life

Beer's date of birth is not known. His father Abraham Beer Oppenheim zum golden Einhorn came from the Frankfurt-based Jewish Haas-Kann family. He had an uncle named Aaron Beer zum Einhorn , according to literature also "zum Pelikan", who served as court resident of the Electoral Palatinate . He was active at the Palatinate court and other royal courts, court financier of the Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth and correspondent banker of the court factor Meyer Calmans from Aurich.

In 1685, Aaron Beer zu Einhorn commissioned his son Emanuel to clarify several claims in Aurich that concerned the court of the Count of East Friesland . Aaron Abrahams Beer accompanied his nephew and settled in Aurich. A little later he married a daughter of Meyer Calmans, who died the following year. He then worked as court factor for the regent Christine Charlotte and then in the same function for the princes of the Cirksena . As the court Jew of Prince Christian Eberhard , he was entrusted with delivering silver for the mint. Both concluded coinage agreements according to which Beer had to coin a weight of 40,000 marks in 1694, for example . In return he had to pay the prince an agreed treasure , which included the actual profit of the business. Since Beer had to put the coins into circulation at his own risk, there was an incentive for him to mint low-value coins in order to obtain the highest possible number of coins from the raw material. Due to denunciations of supposedly inferior coins, there were investigations against Beer and the then mint master Bornepohl in the 1690s, which, however, ended with no results.

Beer's main business was to finance the prince's court and its obligations. The prince received an annual allowance of 12,000 thalers from the estates with East Frisian tax sovereignty. However, the payments were sometimes not made and were not enough for the prince to lead a life at court befitting his status. As a court Jew , Beers had to ensure that the prince received the missing funds. This was done through so-called assignments. These were bonds on future income that the prince received or that the estates promised. This should serve the constantly increasing bills of exchange . This was only possible with Beers' good contacts with foreign financiers, most of whom were Jews.

In addition to the coin business, Beer had a tobacco factory in Esens and a pit for Potterde in Middels .

Beers also assumed the office of Parnas for the East Frisian Jews and rabbis. He negotiated with the prince that he would have to pay less general escort . In the process, he created a large and impressive brief in which he gave Prince Georg Albrecht his opinion on the draft of a new general escort from 1708. As a person of the Jewish faith, Beer was extremely emancipated for his time. He had knowledge of rabbinical science and common law . He could speak and write High German, but his father-in-law Meyer Calmans signed in Hebrew.

Beer referred to himself as "Aaron ben Abraham Oppenheim". A corresponding inscription can also be read on his tombstone, which is located in the Jewish cemetery from the north . Beer left behind a son named Abraham who, like his grandson Isaac, worked as an East Frisian land rabbi. The family held the office until 1808.

literature

• Georg Eggersglüß: Beer, Aaron Abraham in: Martin Tielke (Hrsg.): Biographisches Lexikon für Ostfriesland. Ostfriesische Landschaftliche Verlags- und Vertriebsgesellschaft, Aurich, Vol. 1 ISBN 3-925365-75-3 (1993), pages 41-43.