Jakob Joseph Frank

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Jakob Joseph Frank,
Historical Monograph

Jakob Joseph Frank , Herb Dobrucki ( Hebrew יַעֲקֹב יוֹסֵף בן יְהוּדָה לייב Ja'akow Josef ben Jehuda Lejb , Polish Jakób Józef Frank , *  1726 in Korolówka , Podolia , Poland-Lithuania ; † December 10, 1791 in Offenbach am Main ), also the real Jacob , was an Ashkenazi Jew who saw himself as a Sabbatian , rabbi , Kabbalist , prophet , astrologer and alchemist also as the reincarnation of the biblical Jacob and the alleged Messiah Shabbtai Zvi and Zvis Movement, the Sabbatianism , developed from 1755 to Frankism . This messianic movement, named after him, had political effects throughout Europe until the middle of the 20th century.

Jakob Frank is one of the most influential figures in the history of Judaism , who completely separated from the Land of Israel . As one of the first European Jews, he was determined to open his people in Eastern Europe to the modern age after they had waited in medieval living conditions since the end of the Middle Ages (i.e. for more than 250 years) and closed themselves to the modern world outside. Unlike in Western Europe , where at the same time, under Moses Mendelssohn, the Enlightenment began to open up to the modern world , Frank made use of Jewish messianism to gather behind him the mostly simple, poorly educated and gullible people of the Eastern Jewish shtetl : the supposedly reborn Messiah let them convince themselves that the Talmud is meaningless and that the loyalty to the Torah (“doctrine of God”) associated with it is the main cause of their backward living conditions. After two public disputations and the final banishment of Frank and his followers from the Jewish community, Frank pursued the goal of building his own Frankist court in Europe, which he did after his conversion to Catholicism and his elevation to the Polish aristocracy towards the end of his life as Baron von Offenbach also succeeded in small, Protestant territory. But there was no great power or privilege in Offenbach either.

Life

Childhood and youth with first violations of the law

No uniform picture can be given of Jakob Frank's origin and family.

Frank's mother Rachel Hirschl from Rzeszów gave birth to her son as Ja'akow Josef ben Jehuda Lejb in 1726 in the age of popular mysticism . His maternal grandmother was an astrologer . On the eighth day of Frank's life, the day of his circumcision , she is said to have said to his parents: “Take care of him and raise him properly because a new thing will come into the world through him”, according to a birth legend. Because he was born and saved in life-threatening circumstances, all birth legends highlight Frank's Choseness.

Frank's father, Rabbi Jehuda Lejb , looked after the estate of a Polish nobleman for a while . Many Ashkenazi Jews worked for the Polish aristocracy as business people, hosts and tax collectors. 70 percent of the Polish-Lithuanian Ashkenazim lived in cities on an equal footing with non-Jews . Noble landowners encouraged these traders because they paid high prices on agricultural products, had good international connections and were politically loyal. This had brought about an upswing in Polish-Lithuanian towns and their Jewish communities. This resulted in the shtetl in which the Ashkenazim made up the majority of the population, predominantly inhabited the center of the village and shaped their own social organization. They formed influential minorities in the Catholic-dominated cities of Poland-Lithuania, but rejected as competition. In the 18th century they dominated trade and craft in the feudal corporate state of Poland-Lithuania. A factor that should not be underestimated for the increasing kindling of hopes for the coming Messiah was therefore the cruel pogroms against the Jews in Eastern Europe. There was the great Cossack uprising under Bohdan Chmielnicki in 1648 , that year which, according to a passage from the Zohar, should be the year of redemption. Through this uprising, which was directed against Poles and Jews, about 300 Jewish communities were destroyed and about 100,000 Jews were cruelly murdered. As a result of the so-called “War of the Bloody Flood” , 180,000 of the 450,000 Jews in Poland-Lithuania remained. All Jewish communities of that time, regardless of whether they flourished or vegetated, had one thing in common besides the common legacy of the Lurian Kabbalah and the hope of a Messiah: the insecurity and fear of persecution. So did the Franks family.

Thanks to his father's Talmudic scholarship, Frank received a strict upbringing as an Orthodox Jew . In the Eastern Jewish shtetl of that time, however, this learning was increasingly limited to the aristocratic circle of rabbis and wealthy parishioners. The general population, on the other hand, preferred to be trained by charismatic mystics , who spread their often popular teachings as traveling preachers. They tried to heal and protect people with the practical Kabbalah ( amulets containing combinations of God's names, sayings, exorcism, etc.). However, Podolia was a region in which the belief in demons and other supernatural phenomena was very widespread in the popular beliefs of the Jews, Poles and Ukrainians and was, as it were, the legacy of Jews and Christians. The broad, uneducated population of Podolia increasingly indulged in a superstition that was shaped by folkloric traditions. Numerous moralistic books with popular mysticism , such as Kav haJaschar ("The Straight Line"), were translated into Yiddish at this time . On the basis of growing superstition and high messianic expectations, the Eastern European Hasidic movement had developed in Podolia . The figure of the tzaddik was created, a righteous man who, because of his lifestyle, serves as a model for all Jews and is allowed to establish his own Hasidic court , in which he determines the life of his followers as ruler. The intimate relationship between the tzaddik and the popular masses became the basis of Hasidic life in Eastern Europe. The collapse of the traditional Jewish social structure in Poland-Lithuania, together with the process of expansion of the Lurian Kabbalah and the underground mission of the "moderate Sabbatians ", led to a deep crisis in the Jewish tradition in the 18th century. The decline of rabbinical authority, the loss of personal security, and the increasing impoverishment heightened messianic hope and the desire for religious and social renewal.

Frank's childhood was strongly influenced by this desire for religious and social renewal. Equally strong is the fact that his father was often expelled from the Eastern Jewish shtetl and caused to flee with the family because he was suspected of having secret contacts with the Sabbatians, even of being a Sabbatian teacher . The family emigrated to the Principality of Moldova , where Jakob Frank spent most of his childhood in Chernivtsi . Later the von Chernivtsi family had to flee from the Cossacks to Snjatyn , Faraon and Romani and finally to move to the Principality of Wallachia in Bucharest . If you believe Frank's tales, he spent the life of a neglected youth in Bucharest.

Frank did not question the Jewish tradition with its world of commandments and prohibitions. Instead, he rebelled against the father's traditional rabbinical behavior. A childlike rebellion against authoritarian upbringing habits also turned into a wild, anarchist violation of Jewish dietary laws . He also made fun of the belief in all kinds of supernatural phenomena, but at the same time by no means negated the existence of demons and spirits. He was happy to flaunt himself as a Prostak , that is, as a simple, poorly educated, but energetic person who, in contrast to the top-heavy scholar, prefers to act rather than discuss.

His parents made it possible for him to do a prestigious apprenticeship as a businessman in Bucharest , which he broke off "because of too hard work weighing." Instead, he attracted attention as the leader of a youth gang with thefts and robberies . Finally, in Bucharest, Frank came into contact with the teachings of the Sabbatians through a certain Rabbi Leib, who was presumably a merchant and crypto-Sabbatian and who appeared to be leading the life of an Orthodox Jew. He advised Frank to go with him to the Ottoman Empire in Smyrna and to visit the Sabbatian Rabbi Issachar from Podhajce there.

From 1750 to 1752 Frank studied Sabbatianism in Smyrna with Rabbi Issachar. During this time he, like the other foreign merchants from the West, was nicknamed "Frank". Through his Sabbatian contacts he soon got to know Chana , the daughter of the trader Jehuda Lev Tuvia , and married her on her advice in 1752 in the Ottoman Nikopol (now Bulgaria ).

Eva Frank (1774), daughter

After the wedding he stayed in the Ottoman Empire and went to Saloniki (today Greece ), right in the heart of Sabbatianism, the center of the Dönme . Here Frank realized that the old ways of Sabbatianism were not for him, but that he must deal with active Sabbatianism if he wants to be successful. So Frank initially followed the tradition of the kebab. Because of the apparition of the Holy Spirit in Saloniki, Frank later presented himself as the “chosen one”. In his Book of the Lord's Words , he noted that during his second stay in the city, he received the “order”, similar to Shabbtai Zvi , to “perform strange deeds”. One of these strange acts was to use psychological tricks to let people of different faiths perform the act of a different faith “daily” (e.g. a Jew crosses himself, a Muslim pronounces the names of the “first” and “second”). He enjoyed the power to induce others to break their law. The most significant of his pranks in Saloniki is said to have been Frank's breaking off a Jewish service when he sat down on the Torah scroll, which is holy for Jews, with a bare bottom in front of 1,200 parishioners . Frank referred to the Spanish book Zohar , which differentiates between a Torah of creation and a Torah of the world of emanation , which would now be revealed in messianic times. Following this messianic teaching means in his antinomic thinking that the total veneration of the "old" Torah must now turn into total contempt. The Dönme did not support Frank's brutal, ruthless figure and hoped that he would leave Saloniki again soon. Saloniki's Jewish communities even responded to Frank's provocations with attempted murder . Frank finally escaped from Saloniki at the risk of his life.

As a young adult, Frank boasted of his male potency and was already living a radical antinomism that was the unconditional settlement with the traditional Eastern Jewish world in which he grew up. Decades before the Haskala and modern Zionism showed the way out of the shtetl , Frank drew a stark line under traditional Jewish life. It had become pointless to him.

His daughter Rachel Eva Frank was born in Nikopol in October 1754 . A year later, Frank returned to the Polish-Lithuanian Voivodeship of Podolia as a Sabbatian missionary , where he began his leadership.

Vision and Departure - The Contra-Talmudists

“When I went into the first room, I was given a rose as a sign so that I could go with her to the second and so on from one to the other. There were countless of these rooms and in the last of them I saw the first , […]. He immediately asked me: 'Are you the wise Jacob? I heard that you are brave and brave of heart. I have gone up to this limit, but from here I have no power to advance. If you want, I will strengthen you and may God help you. Because very many ancestors took this burden on themselves, went this way and fell. At that moment he showed me through the window of the room an abyss that was like a black sea, hidden by unusual darkness. And beyond the abyss I saw a mountain whose height seemed to touch the clouds. "

- Jakob Frank : Book of the Lord's Words, §1

While studying Kabbalah in Saloniki , Frank moved from one mystical level of understanding to the next and finally saw himself at the place of the Sefirot , where he met Shabbtai Zvi in the spirit . This would have explained to him his powerlessness and the dangers of the path on which so many ancestors had failed. Like Shabbtai Zvi, one has to descend into the dark part of the cosmos, which is without divine light. The symbol of Franco's teaching is the Jacob's Ladder , which in Frank's ideas like a V is built. At first the path leads steeply down into the abyss, but then it should lead endlessly up to life. It is believed that his Sabbatian contacts Issachar, Mordechai, and Nachman encouraged him to be the born again Messiah. According to their teaching, the Messiah soul was previously embodied in King David , the prophet Elijah , Jesus , Mohammed , Shabbtai Zvi , Baruchja Russo and now in Jakob Frank. Nevertheless, Frank's hunger for power was the background to his actions and his desire to leave the meager life of a Polish-Lithuanian shtetl Jew and vagabond behind him.

From 1755 he gathered the Sabbatians of Podolia, who had been scattered up until then, in Lanckorona . Among them were traders , landowners , blacksmiths and common people. Following the customs of the Dönme , Frank and his followers celebrated a holy wedding between the earthly and cosmic spheres. These celebrations were observed and displayed. They led to widespread persecution of the Frankists. Wherever they were recognized as such, they were mistreated or taken prisoner. So Frank had to flee to Jezierzany and on to Kopyczyńce with his supporters .

The rabbinical court of Judaism in Poland saw the Frankists as Sabbatians and had them arrested again. But Mikołaj Dembowski , Bishop of Kamieniec-Podolski , obtained their release by virtue of his office in order to invite them to a church interrogation on March 31, 1756 in Kamieniec-Podolski , as rumors circulated in the country that they would also offend Christian teachings. Frank instructed his followers to negotiate with the bishop in such a way that, with the help of the clergy, an early disputation (religious discussion) with rabbis regarding the first dogmas written by Frank is made possible and they receive a letter of protection in thanks for a prospect of conversion to Christianity . Since Dembowski saw in the Frankists potential converts , with whose help one could possibly bring even more Jews to Christianity, he agreed to it. Above all, however, he saw the offer of the Frankists as an opportunity to officially condemn the questionable Talmud through credible witnesses. He agreed to issue the letter of protection if the Frankists would revoke the Talmud. So on August 2, 1756 before the consistory with 9 theses of the Manifesto of the Counter-Talmudists, the Frankists made the first confession of faith, who hereby tried to lean on Christian beliefs without denying their own. Dembowski recognized the sect-like character of the Frankists and the ambiguity of their theses, but wanted to bring them to baptism in order to stage an effective public damnation of the Talmud and the conversion of the Jews.

Disputation I and conversion to Islam

In Brody on June 18, 1756, the Rabbinate Podolia imposed the Jewish ban on the Frankists, who from then on lost most of the opportunities to earn a living by excluding their communities. Frankist women were regarded as prostitutes and their children as bastards . Contact and trade with Frankists was strictly forbidden and every Jew was asked to report “suspicious sectarians”. On August 27, 1756, the Frankists received the letter of protection from the Catholic Church promised by Bishop Dembowski. Nevertheless, the Jewish exile was repeated in Lemberg , Dubno and Konstantinów. The Jews ignored the letter of protection and episcopal summons and continued to persecute the Frankists. Finally, on June 20, 1757, the first disputation took place in Kamieniec-Podolski , which lasted eight days. The essence of the disputation was the attempt to prove the thesis that the Talmud contained only “fairy tales, lies and blasphemies”. But the disputation ended without a final result. Bishop Dembowski died on November 9, 1757 and his letter of protection against the Frankists lost its effectiveness. Spurred on by the anti-Talmudist disputation, a real hunted down on the Frankists began. In Warsaw , the Apostolic Nuncio Nicolo Serra was dealing with the case. He knew that the Frankists did not really want to convert to Christianity, but strived for religious freedom and autonomy and reported this to the papal curia . They are nothing more than a new sect .

Jakob Frank, who had been in the Ottoman Empire since his 9 theses were proclaimed, first in Giurgiu , the center of Islam in Wallachia , then in Istanbul , was now in an awkward position, because the way back to Poland seemed due to the events there blocked. In order to receive a letter of protection from the Sultan , he saw no way out and converted to Islam with ten of his followers in Istanbul under the observation of the authorities, while his followers were persecuted in Poland-Lithuania. Thereupon the vizier offered him and his converts a great career in Giurgiu as part of the Ottoman army and in Istanbul a large estate with stables for over 40,000 horses. But Frank turned down all of this because he did not want to give up his mission in Poland-Lithuania. He wanted to make it clear what a bright future he was giving up in order to continue his rather uncertain divine mission. But the Frankists who remained there saw their salvation only in the flight and in a conversion to Islam, in order to possibly join the Dönme. Frank refused. A few separated from Frank here and became part of the Dönme in the Ottoman Empire against his will.

It was clear to Frank that his mission in Poland-Lithuania would not succeed if he did not support King August III. , the Polish aristocracy and the Polish clergy .

Disputation II and conversion to Christianity

In an "iron letter" dated June 11, 1758, King August III confirmed . the decree of Bishop Dembowski , which put Frank and his followers under royal protection. Frank then returned to Poland-Lithuania on December 7, 1758 and established his first Hasidic court in Iwanie (either Iwanie-Puste or Iwanie-Zolot) . There he chose a special, internal circle of sisters and brothers as special confidants between him and the large outer group of the Frankists, the militarily organized company . In Iwanie this company formed a group of banned Jews, some of whom had already become Muslims . With charisma , despotism and a lot of stage magic, Frank succeeded in getting his followers halfway to obedience and enjoying the "taste of power" and appearing as a "holy lord".

Latin Cathedral to Lviv

Frank's two petitions to Władysław Aleksander Łubieński , the Archbishop of Lemberg, (the second also to King August III.) Of February 20 and May 16, 1759, in which the Frankists describe their situation as desolate and declare that they are ready to be baptized , if only they got their second disputation with the rabbis of Poland-Lithuania would go unanswered. On May 25, 1759, two Frankists submitted the new manifesto of the Contra-Talmudists to the Consistory of Lemberg, which with 7 theses became the basis of the second disputation and later conversion to Christianity . The Lviv Archbishop was appointed Primate of Poland and Sztepan Mikulski , diocesan administrator of the Lwów diocese , decided that there would be a second disputation. He even provided trained theologians with the Frankists . Mikulski closely linked his decision to two recent murders in Żytomierz and Jampol , behind which the church again suspected two dreaded Jewish ritual murders . During the disputation, the accused Jews from Jampol, the entire Jewish community and the Frankists were the plaything of an affair of the church, in which Mikulski and various clergymen were primarily concerned with finally proving the dreaded ritual murder legend . The Apostolic Nuncio in Poland Nicolo Serra also agreed to the disputation, as long as the Frankists then proceed to baptism as one. With impressive rituals, Frank swore his followers to the conversion to Christianity that followed the disputation. Klaus Davidowicz writes in his book Between Prophecy and Heresy that Frank tried in his teaching not to include Christianity as “pseudo-Christianity”, but rather to extract parts from it that could be combined with his teaching. Baptism should not simply be a cover, like Islam does with the donme. Frank justified it as a necessary step from which one must proceed .

On July 17, 1759, the second disputation with representatives of the Church , the Szlachta and the Polish authorities started in the Latin Cathedral in Lemberg ; 10 Frankists faced three rabbinical Judaism (until August 25, excluding Jakob Frank) : Chajim Kohen Rappoport, Nathan ben Mosche and David ben Abraham . The entrance fee went to the Frankists. Essentially, there was a dispute about the Frankist thesis 7 , which says that whoever believes in the Talmud needs Christian blood and therefore commits ritual murders. Mikulski ended the disputation in September 1759 and declared the traditional Jews defeated in the first six Frankist theses. The Frankists could of course not prove the blood charge , so Mikulski left thesis 7 to the consistorial court . He asked the Frankists to keep their promise and to be baptized. In Poland-Lithuania's churches of the Jesuits , Dominicans , Franciscans , Saint Bernards , and Carmelites , the Frankists were introduced to Christian teachings and prepared for their baptism .

August III. , King of Poland-Lithuania, Elector of Saxony

According to the baptismal records published by Aleksander Kraushar from the Lemberg archive, within a year from September 1759 onwards, Polish nobles as godparents were baptized into the Roman Catholic faith:

There were 3,000 Frankists in 1764 and 29,000 Frankists in 1790. When they were baptized, the neophytes adopted the family names of their (noble) godparents and received their status. When he was baptized on September 17, 1759 in St. John's Cathedral (Warsaw), Jakob Frank had none other than King August III. from Poland-Lithuania as godfather (represented by the Starost Bratkowski) and began his life as a Jewish Christian in the context of a large church ceremony after there had already been initial baptism ceremonies in Lemberg. In gratitude for his conversion and the achievement of being the first in Poland-Lithuania to have made a mass conversion possible to Catholicism , Frank was personally ennobled by the king as Józef Dobrucki (in German: Josef the Good ) in the Polish Szlachta . Frank's full name as a Jewish Christian was henceforth Jakób Józef Frank-Dobrucki . His wife Chana Frank was baptized with his daughter Eva in 1760 and was now called Anna Frank-Dobrucki .

In Polish Livonia there were also conversions of many Eastern Jews at the same time , but these are related to the charitable work of the Roman Catholic Mariawitek Order and its founder, Provost Józef Stefan Turczynowicz , St. Stephan (Vilnius) . In terms of the number of actually predominantly female neophytes , there is also a certain number of male "children" of the Mariawitek order who were ennobled into the Szlachta in 1764 and 1765 by the last King of Poland-Lithuania, Stanisław II. August Poniatowski of the Constitution of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as " distinguished neophytes " . Aleksander Kraushar suspected that there were some Frankists among them in 1895 , which Choiński refused in 1904.

Inquisition and lifelong banishment

After the baptism of the first Frankists in 1759, it quickly became apparent in their confessional talks what sectarian character the Frankist movement really was. Shaken by the simplicity, naivety and gullibility of the people the church had welcomed with it, the Catholic clergy began to sense the real scope of this matter. The neophytes spoke openly with them about everything that moved their hearts: about the miraculous deeds and teachings of their master and even about the fact that Frank only accepted the Christian religion in order to obtain land in Poland-Lithuania to settle with his followers. The church tried to convert the newly converted to actual Christianity by isolating them from Frank. The Frankist confessional talks about the Apostolic Nuncio of Poland-Lithuania finally led to Frank's arrest in the church of the St. Bernard Monastery in Warsaw on February 7, 1760, then to his custody in the Camaldolese monastery and finally to the Inquisition on February 13, 1760 on charges of heresy . The burden of proof was overwhelming. The Church asked questions about life, faith, and rites. Frank replied in Ottoman Turkish , but got caught up in contradictions, avoided questions, said he couldn't remember things. In the eyes of the Inquisition, he was a sectarian who betrayed uneducated people and only used religions pretend to get money and privileges like lands . The Inquisition was also aware of his unsuccessful conversion to Islam . She therefore confronted him with the allegation that he was playing a similar false game with Christianity as she had previously with Islam. But Frank reacted again with religious visions , in which his special choice was announced to go to Poland and convert all Jews to Christianity. Frank as a missionary of Christianity, who was not yet a Christian himself and had hardly any knowledge of the Christian religion, did not convince the Inquisition against the background of their other sources, and the Inquisition handed the problem over to the Vatican or Frank for guarding in the Jasna Góra monastery in Czestochowa .

Jasna Góra Monastery (Częstochowa)

Frank arrived there on February 26, 1760. A year later, on June 6th, 1761, the Curia decided that he would be exiled for life in the Częstochowa Monastery as a lighter sentence for his religious crimes because he was suffering. Completely isolated from the outside world, he began to learn Polish here . From 1762 his wife was allowed to live with him. From then on he was allowed to receive guests, which led to increased activities until 1768: Frankists from all over Eastern Europe now made a pilgrimage to their “Holy Lord” in Częstochowa. Since in 1764 Poland-Lithuania's last King Stanisław II August Poniatowski held the office of elected monarch and the end of Poland was already beginning to appear, Frank sent Boten to Russia , Bohemia , Moravia and Germany , who passed on the order that all Polish Frankists should give up Catholicism joined, come to Częstochowa or all from Hungary would have to move to Warsaw. After a confederation of small aristocrats in the Ukraine came together in 1768 to “drive the Russians out of Poland, depose the pro-Russian king and ensure the unrestricted rule of the Roman Catholic Church” - because one is defending the Catholic faith and the Golden freedom understood - and several Jewish communities during a haidamaka - revolt were murdered with the aim of "all Poles and Jews slaughter", ended a bloody four-year civil war in 1772 with the first partition of Poland . Anna Frank had died two years earlier in the Częstochowa monastery and was buried in the extensive cave system near Olsztyn . Jakob Frank, who had had all Frankists brought to Warsaw apart from two of his closest followers, now saw a commanding officer clear the last Polish fortress before his eyes. The Russians who had conquered Częstochowa released Jakob Frank and his daughter Eva on January 21, 1773. During his 12 years in the monastery he became a father of four again.

His children born in the Jasna Góra Monastery (Częstochowa) are:

  • 1763: Jakob Frank († 1769 Częstochowa)
  • 1765: Rochus Frank († 1813 Offenbach am Main )
  • 1767: Joseph Frank († 1807 Offenbach am Main)
  • 1769: Josepha Franziska Frank (missing)

Jakob Frank turned his back on Poland forever. For him it was the messianic land of realization to which he remained lifelong, even if he never saw it again.

Between Brno and Vienna

Frank's cousin , Schöndl (Katharina) Dobruška, lived in Brno and openly supported Sabbatians . Since there had been no major Jewish settlement in Brno since the expulsion of the Jews in 1454, no strong traditional opposition had to be expected there and Frank decided to set up his new, militarily organized company here in the city and moved into a house in the Brünner Neugasse (later: Giskragasse). Rumors probably first appeared there that brought Eva Frank into connection with the Russian tsarist house. Eva is said to have performed as "Eva Romanowa " even then .

The years 1772 to 1789 were a time of extreme political upheaval in Europe. Frank's apocalyptic fantasies and the hope for an empire of his own in Europe should be viewed against this background . Today it can no longer be said how he built up his company and financed his Frankist court , but it was here in Brno that Frank lived out his penchant for militarism for the first time: he had his recruits dressed in colorful uniforms (the Sabbatian color green played one central role) and trained them, let them train hard.

In 1775, Jakob Frank and his daughter even reached an audience at court in Vienna , where they offered Emperor Joseph II his Frankist army to support them in the hope of maintaining their own Frankist state in his empire. His audiences at court and his relationship with the emperor (like those with the later Russian tsar Paul I ) are among the opaque episodes of his life. Presumably Frank hoped to be able to establish contact with the nobility and court with the help of his daughter. In Brno he had numerous portraits of Eve made for his company, boldly based on the Black Madonna of Czestochowa , which from then on bore the image of the 'Virgin' as an amulet on their breasts. It is quite possible that noble gentlemen - possibly also Emperor Joseph II - liked to let Eva into their bedchamber and fobbed Frank off with vague promises in return.

Over the years, Emperor Joseph II lost his interest in the Franks. Requests for imperial help failed. When Frank ran into financial difficulties in 1784, he kept himself afloat as a kind of "healer". Soon he was called a doctor . He tried his hand at alchemical experiments. Messengers from the Warsaw Company came to get the medicine from the "holy lord". However, one died when he took it.

Finally, in 1785, Emperor Joseph II issued a ban on printing Kabbalistic books. Frank should pay off all debts and fire his servants. At the last minute, funds from the Warsaw company saved Frank from his misery and the Holy Lord left Brno, marked by deep melancholy and lost hopes, on February 10, 1786 and said goodbye to big politics forever.

Frankistenhof in Offenbach am Main and death

Isenburg Castle on a steel engraving by Fritz Bamberger , 1847
Baron von Frank-Dobrucki during the last years of his life
Jakob Baron von Frank-Dobrucki on his deathbed, December 1791

Prince Wolfgang Ernst II of Isenburg and Büdingen in Offenbach am Main was a Freemason and known for having an open heart for "religious enthusiasts". He offered Frank and his followers religious protection under the Protestant rule of Isenburg (now primarily from the Roman Catholic Inquisition) and rented his Isenburg castle to Frank , as the princely family no longer lived in it, but rather in a house in the new one Frankfurter Strasse lived - later in a corner house on Marktplatz (today: Aliceplatz). According to the "Chronik" Frank and 50–80 followers moved into the Isenburg Castle in Offenbach am Main on March 3, 1787, where he was able to spend the last four years of his life as an independent sovereign with the title of Baron von Frank-Dobrucki over his court and his followers to rule. The approximately 400 “Poles in Offenbach” who had followed him here appeared to the outside world as a group of emigrated Polish petty nobles. The most important author who was inspired by the events in Offenbach was Bettina von Arnim . Believers from Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, Prussia and Russia made pilgrimages to Frank, with the rich bringing money and gifts. The poor, on the other hand, came hoping to receive benefits. Funds also flowed from Russia.

Offenbach did not have an independent Catholic parish at the time of Frank's arrival, and so Frank drove to the neighboring Catholic parish of St. Pankratius (Offenbach-Bürgel) on Sundays for Holy Mass. Though outwardly appearing as Christians, he and his followers lived in isolation and continued in their own religious practices.

In the Jewish community there was no doubt about the sectarian character of the group. The Offenbacher Memorbuch also states in a note that there was no contact between the Frankists and the local Jews. Furthermore, since it was not only in Offenbach that people had precise information about Frank's character and his teaching, there is no further reference to this in the memorandum. In the same place the Frankists are even referred to as "the accursed sect".

The operation of a bathhouse on the Main throws a clear light on the almost complete isolation or self-chosen isolation of the Frankists : Although baptized Catholics, the Frankists were not prepared to deal with the Christians (and also with the Jews, who also had their own "bathhouse" were allowed to use) to maintain closer contact than was absolutely necessary due to the presumably existing economic relationships. Nevertheless, no persecutions from the time in Offenbach are known; probably also because Frank had completely withdrawn from open missionary work among the Jews. And since countless sums of money flowed into the city of Offenbach through his graceful staging of a court as well as numerous pilgrims visiting him, he was gladly tolerated. Frank was able to rule undisturbed in Offenbach in a small area. But there was no great power or privilege in Offenbach either. His messianic kingdom and Esau's prophesied victory over Edom had become a long way off.

Jakob Frank died of a stroke in Isenburg Castle on December 10, 1791 at around 4.30 a.m. after he was still able to finish the Book of the Lord's Words, which he had begun in Brno and was only distributed in handwriting among his followers .

The Baron von Offenbach was buried by his followers on December 12, 1791 at 2 p.m. in the Offenbach city cemetery (today Wilhelmsplatz ) with bells ringing and an imposing funeral ceremony, but without a priest and without Christian rites, in an elaborate grave. The Lutherans also rang the bell and accompanied the ceremony with music. About 800 Frankists (including children) accompanied the funeral procession. The cost of Frank's funeral was about 10,000 guilders, after which a significant sum of money was distributed to the poor.

Aftermath

Goethe liked to be enchanted by the Frankist pianist Maria Szymanowska , mother-in-law of the Polish national poet Adam Mickiewicz , but judged Frank: How easily people in need of help let themselves be infatuated again and again by skilled swindlers who know how to alleviate their evil with hope.

Between Eve and her brothers

After Frank's death, 50 Frankist families settled in Bukovina under the guidance of his pupil Anton Czerniewski , where they became known as the Abrahamites .

Moses Dobruški alias Franz Thomas von Schönfeld alias Junius Frey - a nephew of Franks - was offered the leadership of the Frankist movement after the death of the religious leader, but he refused. Eva Frank and her brothers Rochus and Joseph took over the leadership of the Frankist movement. However, they apparently did not have the personality to maintain the court and over the years got into ever greater financial difficulties.

Up until the summer of 1792 Frank's followers lived almost completely isolated in Offenbach, after which an opening towards the outside became apparent. This was probably done with the aim of building and expanding an economic network . This thesis is also clearly supported by the fact that the godparents of the Frankist children were almost exclusively dealers, suppliers, manufacturers and master craftsmen - i.e. potential lenders. There were all sorts of rumors about the Frankist Court: Eva should only have been a foster daughter of Jakob Frank and actually come from the Russian Tsar's house as Romanowa . Many Frankists thought that the tsar would take over the financing of their court. After the followers did not receive any money in 1796, Eva and her brothers were heavily in debt. In 1798, due to debts amounting to several million guilders, the move into the smaller Offenbach mansion of Dr. med. Walther at Marktstrasse 64. Since 1798 none of Frank's entourage lived in the castle. The Franks' successors in the castle were the Catholic priest Birkenfeld for one year and, from 1799, Alois Senefelder , the inventor of lithography , who set up his workshop there.

Between 1798 and 1800 letters written in red ink (the so-called Red Letters ) were sent to Bohemian, Moravian, Galician and Polish communities, which consisted of two alleged Frank letters and a prophetic-apocalyptic section, in which the Jews were invited to be baptized . However, these letters were intercepted early on by the Russian and Austrian authorities, as they were suspected of being revolutionary calls. Eva and her brothers also announced in 1800 that Rochus Frank had been called to St. Petersburg on the orders of his Imperial Russian Majesty and would come back after six months with enough money to satisfy all creditors. However, he came back to Offenbach without success, if he was ever there.

Two young people from Prague and one from Dresden fled Offenbach in 1800 and told the Jews in Fürth about life with Frank's heirs in front of the rabbinical court (Fürth Protocols of November 24th and 25th, 1800): Drawing from Frank's mythological cosmos, his children tried to live a comfortable life as possible to spend at the expense of the trailer. It was a great masquerade through which Rochus and Joseph Frank could indulge in extravagant celebrations. But Eva Frank probably did not lead the life of a "holy matron" either. The Frankist court had finally shrunk to 80 people. There were also 100 people who lived outside.

By 1803 Offenbach was almost completely deserted by the Frankists. Joseph died in 1807 and Rochus in 1813, neither of which left any heirs.

The Russian Tsar Alexander I is said to have met Eva Frank in Frankfurt am Main in November 1813 (on the occasion of his participation in the peace congress) and given her a considerable gift of money. After that she was able to at least not take on any further debts and to do all further business in cash.

In March 1816, at the instigation of a creditor from Mainz , the court court issued arrest over Eva and her property. Now their true identity should finally be clarified. Before the facts could be finally clarified, Eva Frank died on September 7, 1816, one day before the bailiff wanted to visit her. However, the circumstances of her death and burial (the coffin was quickly closed and the death certificate was issued by a doctor who is said to have never seen Eva before) soon gave rise to rumors that she had not died at all, but escaped with the help of an Icelandic official.

After Eva and her brothers

The history of the Frankist groups in the 19th and 20th centuries and their slow expansion in their respective surroundings has hardly been researched.

After Eva's death there were only a few men and women of the servants left in Offenbach, who bought a house, ran a jewelery trade and communicated in a friendly manner with the first Offenbach families. Some women are said to have found work in the city's factories before.

Jacob Joseph Frank's skull, recovered from his grave in 1866; Photograph by A. Kraushar , 1894

In the year 1855 only a few elderly Frankists lived in Offenbach in a special house belonging to them in the "Geleitstrasse"; Peaceful, thoroughly innocent men who lived on decent, albeit modest, feet (by the way, always maintaining profound silence about their circumstances and principles). They were guardians of the sacred graves of Jakob and Eva Franks. The graves of all Frankist heads in Offenbach's city cemetery served the Frankists as pilgrimage sites for a long time . Secret waymarks in green indicated the location of the graves and indicated the Sabbatian appreciation of this color. The Frankists who ultimately remained in Offenbach will almost certainly have merged with the Christian population (especially relieved by the Christian baptism), and the most intimate circle of the Franks will have died there. When the Offenbach city cemetery was leveled in 1866, the graves of Jakob and Eva Franks were opened. The Offenbach homeland researcher Emil Pirazzi took Jakob Frank's skull and left it on his bookcase for a few decades. Aleksander Kraushar , who visited Offenbach during his research in 1894, took a photo of it (see picture on the right).

After Eva Frank's death and the fall of the Offenbach Frankists, the phenomenon of the Prague Frankists also dissolved in the age of the Jewish Enlightenment. Some of them, who had already separated from traditional Judaism through Frankism, left it behind and joined the Haskala . Some of them were among the founders of the first Reform Temple in Prague in 1832. In the 1840s, some of the Frankist families emigrated to the United States. The Sabbatian tradition in Bohemia and Moravia was practiced by some families who had become wealthy and respected, but in the sense of an enlightening self-liberation from the shtetl and rabbinical tutelage and with revolutionary, Masonic and elitist tendencies. These families later mostly erased the evidence of their Frankist past, so that the after-effects for the 19th and 20th centuries are difficult to assess.

The Warsaw Company remained a closed society until the middle of the 19th century, which only married among themselves. The contact between the Warsaw Frankists and the Dönme continued after Frank's death. By the beginning of the 20th century, however, the Warsaw Frankists had separated from Frankism and had finally merged into Polish society. Historians such as Aleksander Kraushar could still find copies of important Frankist sources that they had kept in their homes.

Works

  • Jakob Frank: Collection of the Lord's Words (KSP), §§ 1–2286 . Autograph , Brno 1755.
  • Jakob Frank: Chronicle of the life of Frank . Autograph , Brno 1755.

reception

Film adaptations

Fiction

literature

  • Paul Arnsberg: From Podolia to Offenbach . Offenbach a. Main, 1965
  • Samuel Back: Found files on the history of the Frankists in Offenbach . MGWJ 26 (1877), pp. 189-192, pp. 232-240, pp. 410-420
  • Teodor Jeske Choiński: Neofici Polscy . Materiały historiczne, Warzawa: Laskauer 1904, 289 XX p.
  • Klaus Davidowicz : The Messianic Movements and the Kabbalah, In: The Kabbalah . An introduction to the world of Jewish mysticism and magic, pp. 126–131, Böhlau Verlag Wien-Köln-Weimar 2009, ISBN 978-3-205-78336-7 .
  • Klaus Davidowicz: Jakob Frank and the "big brother" - Esau in the Frankist doctrines, In: Gerhard Langer (ed.): Esau - brother and enemy . Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 2009.
  • Klaus Davidowicz: Between Prophecy and Heresy . Jakob Frank's life and teachings. 170 pages. Böhlau, Vienna-Cologne-Weimar 2004, ISBN 3-205-77273-3 .
  • Klaus Davidowicz: Jakob Frank, the messiah from the ghetto . Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1998, ISBN 3-631-32871-0 .
  • Jan Doktór: Salvation through sin or baptism . Judaica 55.1 (1999), pp. 18-29
  • Jan Doktór: Księga Słów Pańskich . Book of Words of the Lord, 2 vol., §§ 1–2286, Warszawa 1997
  • Jan Doktór: Rozmaite, Adnotacje, Przypadki, Czynoście i Anekdoty Pańskie . Chronicle of Frank's Life, Warsaw 1996
  • Simon Dubnow: History of Hasidism , 2 vol., Berlin 1931
  • Ekaterina Elneliantseva: Between Jewish tradition and Frankist mysticism . On the history of the Wehle family in Prague, Kwartalnik Historii żydów 200 (2001), pp. 549-565
  • Jakub Goldberg: The baptized Jews in Poland-Lithuania in the 16th – 18th centuries . Baptism, social redeployment and integration. Yearbooks for the History of Eastern Europe 30 (1982), pp. 54-99
  • Heinrich Graetz : Frank and the Frankists. A sect story from the last half of the previous century . Grass, Barth et al. Comp., Breslau 1868 ( annual report of the Jewish Theological Seminary Fraenckel'scher Foundation 1868, ZDB -ID 520377-6 ), online (PDF; 8.12 MB) .
  • Heinrich Graetz: History of the Jews from the oldest times to the present . Volume 10: History of the Jews from the permanent settlement of the Marranos in Holland (1618) to the beginning of the Mendelssohn period (1760) . Leiner, Leipzig 1868, p. 418ff.
  • Heinrich Graetz: Frank and the Frankists . Wroclaw 1868
  • Heiko Haumann : The «real Jakob». Frankistic messianism and religious tolerance in Poland . In: Michael Erbe u. a. (Ed.): Thinking outside the box. Dissent and tolerance in the course of history. Festschrift for the 65th birthday of Hans R. Guggisberg . Mannheim 1996, pp. 441-460.
  • Jörg K. Hoensch: The Prince of the Poles in Offenbach . Jacób Jozef Frank and his sect of the Frankists. ZRG 42 (1990), pp. 229-244
  • Eduard Jellinek: News from Frankists in Warsaw . The Jüdisches Literaturblatt 11 (1882), p. 107
  • A. Kraushar : Frank i frankiści polscy , 2 vols., Kraków 1895; translated into English as The End to the Sabbataian Heresy Herbert Levy, Lanham / New York / Oxford, 2001.
  • Harris Lenowitz: The Charlatan at the Gottes Haus in Offenbach . Jewish Messianism in the early modern world, ed. by Matt D. Goldish and Richard H. Popkin, Dordrecht-Verlag 2001, pp. 189-203
  • Hillel Levine: The Kronika - On Jacob Frank and the Frankist Movement , Jerusalem 1984
  • Paweł Maciejko: The Mixed Multitude: Jacob Frank and the Frankist Movement, 1755-1816. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 2011, ISBN 978-0-8122-4315-4 .
  • Hans-Georg Ruppel: Baron Jakob von Frank, the Jewish Messiah (1788-1791) . In: Pearl of the Renaissance. The Isenburg Castle in Offenbach am Main, Schnell & Steiner, 1st edition 2005, p. 66, ISBN 978-3-795418083
  • Winfried B. Sahm, Christina Uslular-Thiele: Offenbach what a city . Published by the Volkshochschule der Stadt Offenbach. 2nd expanded and updated edition. Verlag CoCon, Hanau 2004, ISBN 3-937774-05-X .
  • Stefan Schreiner: The Messiah comes to Poland first . Jakob Frank's idea of ​​Poland as a promised land and its prehistory. Judaica 57/4 (2001), pp. 242-268
  • Kurt Schubert : Jewish history . 5th edition. Beck, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-406-44918-2 , pp. 83ff. ( Beck'sche series - CH Beck Wissen 2018).
  • F.Hip. Skimborowicz: żywot, skon i nauka Jakóba Józefa Franka ze spółczesnych i dawnych z'ródeł, oraz z 2 r'kopismów . Warszawa, 1866
  • Georg Eduard Steitz :  Frank, Jacob . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 7, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, pp. 250-252.
  • Zygmunt Lucyan Sulima: Historya Franka i frankistów . Kraków / Warszawa / Petersburg 1893
  • JL Talmon: Political Messianism . New York, 1960
  • Bernard D. Weinryb : The Jews of Poland. A Social and Economic History of the Jewish Community in Poland from 1100–1800 . Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1972, 1976²
  • Klaus Werner : The sect of the "Frankists" . In: On the history of the Jews in Offenbach am Main. Volume 2: From the beginning to the end of the Weimar Republic. Edited by the City of Offenbach am Main. Offenbach am Main 1990. pp. 106-115.

Web links

Commons : Jakob Joseph Frank  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Beer names in his book the history, teachings and opinions of all existing and still existing religious sects of the Jews and the secret doctrine or Kabbalah . Brno 1822/23, vol. II, p. 309 as year of birth 1712
  2. ↑ In his Chronicle of Life he names Buczacz as the place of birth, but Frank's statement is more likely in the Roman Catholic. Inquisition: Korolówka
  3. ↑ Klaus S. Davidowicz: Between prophecy and heresy . Jakob Frank's life and teachings. Pp. 7, 155
  4. ↑ Davidowicz, Between Prophecy and Heresy, p. 19
  5. ↑ Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson, Michael Brenner, Shmuel Ettinger, Abraham Malamat: History of the Jewish people: From the beginnings to the present. Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-55918-1 , p. 903.
  6. ↑ Zohar I, 139b (Midrash HaNeelam)
  7. ↑ “The skin of some was peeled off to throw the flesh to the dogs, others were buried alive; pregnant women had their stomachs slit open, babies were speared on spears and handed to mothers. ”Nathan Hanover, Yeven, p. 45
  8. ^ H. Roos, Poland from 1668–1795, in: Handbuch der Europäische Geschichte, Vol. 4, Stuttgart 1968, pp. 696–698
  9. ↑ The followers of the messianic movement Shabbtai Zvis had two options after his apostasy : Either they could see the conversion to Islam as a mystery and outwardly continue to lead the lives of Orthodox Jews, but still remain Sabbatians at heart. These "moderate Sabbatians" were later called "Schoepsen". Or they became “radical Sabbatians” and followed Shabbtai Zvi by becoming Muslims.
  10. ↑ Cf. on this and on the following Encyclopaedia Judaica. Judaism and past and present, vol. 6, Berlin / Leipzig, 1930, col. 1030-1080; see. Jewish Lexicon, Vol. 2, Berlin 1928, Col. 712-714; see. theologische Realencyclopaedie, Vol. 11, Berlin / New York, 1983, pp. 324-330.
  11. ↑ Klaus S. Davidowicz: Between prophecy and heresy . Jakob Frank's life and teaching, Böhlau-Verlag 2004, p. 27
  12. ↑ Klaus S. Davidowicz: Between prophecy and heresy . Frank's life and teaching, Böhlau-Verlag, p. 32
  13. ↑ Sacred Marriage is a term from the Zohar, of a cabalistic-ritual reunification Sefira Yesod (u.. A male phallus , tzaddik ) with the Sefira Shekinah (u. A. Kingdom, garden, Queen) as part of a Shabbat celebration says that on earthly sphere to Da 'at should lead. Originating according to the customs of the Dönme , it came to the prescribed sexual "knowledge", which brought about the harmony and unification of the cosmic forces in the world of Sefira . Here symbolized one with Torah - ornaments woman beschmückte, barely clothed in the middle of the room the Shekinah, which strove with the Incarnate Yesod Jacob Frank to join. There was dancing around them. In the end, the divine seed shefa flowed into the Shekhina through Yesod . For the term cf. Zohar I 21b-22a, 162a / b, II 128b-129a, 214b, III 5a / b, 21a, 26a, 247a-b, 296a / b
  14. ↑ The 9 Faith Theses: 1. We believe whatever God prescribed and taught to believe in the Old Testament . 2. The Holy Scriptures cannot be explained by humans without divine grace. 3. The Talmud is to be rejected because it is full of outrageous blasphemies against God. 4. God is one and the only Creator of all things. 5. The same God is threefold in persons; these persons are indivisible in terms of divinity. 6. It is possible for God to take a human body and take upon himself the passions other than sin. 7. Jerusalem will not be built again according to the prophecies. 8. The Messiah promised in the scriptures will no longer come. 9. God alone will erase the curse of the first parents and their offspring, and this is the Messiah incarnated .
  15. ↑ Klaus Davidowicz: Between prophecy and heresy . Frank's life and teaching, Böhlau-Verlag 2004, p. 46
  16. ↑ Peter Gaudentius Pikulski: Złość źydowska przeciwko Bogu… (The Jewish malice against God…), Lwów 1760, p. 146
  17. ↑ 1. All the prophecies of the prophets about the Messiah have already been fulfilled. 2. The Messiah was the true God by the name of ADONAI. He had accepted our shape and therefore suffered for the salvation and the salvation of people's martyrdom . 3. With the coming of the true Messiah, the sacrifices and ceremonies of Judaism ceased. 4. The holy cross is the expression of the Trinity, it is the holy of holies and the seal of the Messiah. 5. Everyone should obey the teaching of the Messiah, for salvation is only in it. 6. One can only come to believe in the King Messiah through baptism. 7. The Talmud teaches that Christian blood is necessary, and therefore whoever believes in the Talmud needs it. Source: Pikulski: Jüdische Malheit, p. 167ff.
  18. ^ A. Kraushar: Frank i frankiśći polscy , Polish edition, Vol. I, pp. 327–377
  19. ^ Mateusz Mieses: Polacy - Chrześcijanie pochodzenia żydowskiego . Warszawa Wydawn. 1938
  20. ↑ Akta kanclers. ks. 42, 45, 46
  21. ↑ T.-J. Choiński: Neofici Polscy . Materialne historiczne, Warszawa 1904, pp. 20–21 / Zbigniew Belina-Prażmowski: Herby uszlachzonych neofitów w inflantach polskich (The coats of arms of ennobled neophytes in Polish Livonia), "Herold" 1931, no.2 / Adam Heymowski: Herbarz inflant polskich z roku 1778 . edited and provided with foreword and comments, Buenos Aires - Paris, 1964
  22. ↑ Aleksander Kraushar: Frank i frankiśći polscy . 2 vol., Kraków 1895; English translation: Jacob Frank, The End to the Sabbataian Heresy .hrsg. Herbert Levy, Lanham / New York / Oxford 2001
  23. ↑ T.-J. Choiński: Neofici Polscy . Materialne historiczne, Warszawa 1904, p. 24
  24. ↑ The missing original protocol comprised approx. 60 pages, the main part of the interrogation can be found in Kraushar, Frank, pp. 162–174; Frank's various answers, however, are scattered throughout the book. A Latin summary of the interrogation can be found under the title Factum in the Vatican Ms. 94 Collecta, sheet 148 a.
  25. ↑ AV, Arch. Nunz. die Varsavia, Ms. 94 Collecta: Velazione della causa e processo di Frenk, decision of the papal curia of June 6, 1761, sheet 161a
  26. ↑ Klaus Davidowicz: Between prophecy and heresy. Jakob Frank's life and teaching , Böhlau-Verlag 2004, p. 85.
  27. ↑ S. Krauss: Schöndl Dobruschka . Festschrift for Armand Kaminka, Vienna 1937, pp. 143–148
  28. ↑ See Paul Arnsberg: Von Podolien nach Offenbach, Offenbach am Main 1965, p. 22 (Offenbacher Geschichtsblätter No. 14)
  29. ↑ See Theologische Realencyclopaedie, Vol. 11, p. 327
  30. ↑ AFPribram: documents and files on the history of the Jews in Vienna , Vienna 1918, Vol 1, No. 234, pp 554th.
  31. ↑ With regard to the disputed question of whether the castle was bought or merely rented, cf. K. Werner: Attempt to quantify the Frank'schen entourage in Offenbach am Main 1788-1818. In: Frankfurter Judaistische Contributions 14 (1986), pp. 153–212, here p. 196; see. K. Werner, "Frankisten" document, 1988, pp. 206f.
  32. ↑ Klaus Werner: A new "Frankist" document . In: Frankfurt Judaic Contributions . No. 16 , 1988, ISSN  0342-0078 , p. 201-211, 203 .
  33. ↑ Since [1787] the area, the way of life and also the population have played themselves wonderfully, and nobody would believe it who has not seen it, and everyone who came through here with a travel journal in their pocket from a trip around the world ' , would think to be transported to the city of fairy tales; a mystical nation walks through the others in colorful, wonderful clothes. [...] Imagine the prince of that people with a silver beard and white robe, who lay down on magnificent carpets and upholstery in front of the gate of his palace on the public street , surrounded by his court , where each individual a strange sign of his office and dignity of his fabulous Clothes. There he dines under the open sky opposite the cheerful gardens, behind whose dainty lattices high pyramids of flowering plants are set up and aviaries covered with fine wire mesh [...] cheer the little songbirds, all surrounded by a soft, green lawn, where many a stream of water shoots up; the boys in trimmed clothes bring gold bowls, in which music can be heard from the open windows of the palace. Source: Goethe's correspondence with a child, third part, diary 1807, p. 641.
  34. ↑ See Jüdisches Lexikon, Vol. 2, 1928, Col. 721
  35. ↑ See Emil Pirazzi : Pictures and Stories from Offenbach's Past, Offenbach am Main 1879, p. 95
  36. ↑ See Achawa-Vereinbuch für 1868/5628, p. 163
  37. ^ Carl Duschinsky: memorial books (memory books) by Offenbach a. Main and other German communities. Kauffmann-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1924, DNB 572940769 , p. 82.
  38. ^ Carl Duschinsky: memorial books (memory books) by Offenbach a. Main and other German communities. Kauffmann-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1924, DNB 572940769 , p. 82, note 66b
  39. ^ Lothar R. Braun: 1788: The Baron von Offenbach. In: offenbach.de. June 25, 2015, accessed June 3, 2016 .
  40. ↑ See AS Schenck-Rink 1866, p. 23
  41. ↑ 14th year book of the Goethe Society, p. 88.
  42. ↑ See Salomon Kassner: Die Juden in der Bukowina, Vienna / Berlin 1917, p. 14, note 13 and Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem), p. 68
  43. ↑ Junius Frey was a nephew of Jakob Frank's 2nd degree
  44. ↑ Cf. Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem), p. 69 and Duker, p. 308, notes 121 and 122. Paul Arnsberg speaks of the fact that Dobruschki could not prevail in the Diadoch fights (cf. p. 30)
  45. ↑ See H.-G. Ruppel: Pearl of the Renaissance, The Isenburg Palace in Offenbach am Main, p. 67
  46. ↑ See Jüdisches Lexikon, Vol. 2, 1928, Col. 722; see. AS Schenck-Rink 1866 p. 26; see. The Israelite. Central organ for Orthodox Judaism. Fiction writer. Supplement to No. 47, June 15, 1899
  47. ↑ See Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem), p. 69
  48. ↑ See the correspondence from the files on Frank (microfilm no. 4479) in the Offenbach City Archives. These documents are largely reproduced in Kraushar, Vol. 1, pp. 271ff. See p. 298ff.
  49. ↑ See AS Schenck-Rink: The Poles in Offenbach am Main, Frankfurt am Main 1866, p. 29f.
  50. ↑ "On the western boundary wall, towards the southern end, you can notice a horizontal line of green color; from this about ten paces to the east, you notice four flat, right-angled elevations on the grassy ground, like four flattened garden beds, alternating between them The boundary forms a cross deepened in the ground; Jakob Frank rests under the southeastern burial mound, [...] under the northeastern hill rests Eva Frank, his daughter, under the southwestern Joseph Frank, his son, and under the northwestern Joseph Pawlowski, a proven one Friend and supporter of this family. The younger son of Jakob Frank, Rochus, rests on the eastern boundary wall of the same churchyard in the same line, about ten paces from the wall, which also has the green stripe as a mark. which testify to careful care. [...] "Eginhard Quelle, Das Grab eines Propheten in Offenbach, Illustrier tes family book for entertainment and instruction in domestic circles, year 7, volume 7, booklet 6, Trieste 1857, pp. 202 / 208f.
  51. ↑ See Theologische Realencyclopaedie, Volume 11, p. 328.
  52. ↑ Jakob's books: Announcement of the reading in Offenbach (accessed on November 16, 2017)
personal data
SURNAME Frank, Jakob Joseph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ja'akow Josef ben Jehuda Lejb (original name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Leader of Frankism
DATE OF BIRTH 1726
PLACE OF BIRTH Korolówka or Buczacz , Podolia (then Poland )
DATE OF DEATH December 10, 1791
Place of death Offenbach am Main , Isenburg-Büdingen