Elias Gomperz

Josef Elias (Cleve-) Gomperz (also Gumperz; * around 1615 in Emmerich ; † June 28, 1689 in Kleve ) was a Jewish merchant and banker and from 1661 first court factor of the Electors of Brandenburg for the western part.

His father was Mordechai Gumpel (around 1585-1664), his mother Simelie Bas Moses Halevy Herz († 1665). He married Sara Mirjam Bendit (* December 6, 1636 in Jülich ; † November 20, 1691 in Kleve), with whom he had ten children. His son Ruben Elias Gomperz (1655–1705) was again court factor and in 1698 came into conflict with the emperor and the elector. Glückel von Hameln was related to him by marriage. The progenitor Chaim Cleve († September 28, 1704) emerged from the Cleve-Gomperz line and founded the Hamburg family line of Gomperz, which was also based in Altona .

While no Jews were tolerated in the Mark Brandenburg until 1671, a few Jews lived in the Duchy of Kleve, which was acquired in 1609 , especially in Emmerich. Elias Gomperz made a name for himself especially as a business steward ( court factor ), financier and army supplier to the Great Elector and the Brandenburg government in Kleve, but also as the head of the Judaism and benefactor of the Duchy of Kleve. His fortune to 100,000 Reichstaler have amounted to. In 1673 the Brandenburg (later) Crown Prince Friedrich I and the governor Johann Moritz von Nassau-Siegen were present in Kleve at the wedding of his son and daughter von Glückel .

Elias Gomperz founded the Jewish community in Kleve in 1661, he had the first synagogue built directly behind his palais-like house on the Gerwin , and the cemetery was probably designed by him. He had been elected chief. Against the previous schtadlan and tax collector Behrend Levi , who wanted to raise large sums for the elector, he had defended himself in 1652 with the Jews in the duchy and the governor, citing Klever's class law. In 1685 the elector demanded a tax from the Jews in Kleve, which Elias Gomperz had to collect as the tax collector appointed by the elector. It almost led to an uprising against it.

The abolition of the body duty in the Duchy of Kleve was thanks to him. In 1689 he set up a teaching house for the Talmud in Kleve, for which the grammarian Salomon Hanau († 1746) was employed at a later time .

Web links

Single receipts

^ Helmut Langhoff (LVR Niederrheinmuseum): A fair master from Emmerich. In: NRZ. September 8, 2018, accessed February 5, 2020 .
↑ Peter Rauscher: The Fall of the Oppenheimer and Gomperz 1697. Court Jews and the financing of the German princely state in the 17th and 18th centuries. In: Key events in German banking history , Stuttgart 2013, p. 51 ff. ( Online )
↑ Elfi Pracht-Jörns: Jüdische Lebenswelten im Rheinland: annotated sources from the early modern period to the present . Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar, 2011, ISBN 978-3-412-20674-1 ( google.de [accessed on February 6, 2020]).
^ Jewish history in Kleve - Mifgash. Retrieved February 5, 2020 .
^ Rudolf Vierhaus: Görres - Hittorp . Walter de Gruyter, 2011, ISBN 978-3-11-094654-3 ( google.de [accessed on February 6, 2020]).
^ German biography: Levi, Behrend - German biography. Retrieved February 8, 2020 .
↑ Selma Stern , Marina Sassenberg: The court Jew in the age of absolutism: a contribution to European history in the 17th and 18th centuries . Mohr Siebeck, 2001, ISBN 978-3-16-147662-4 , pp. 171 ( google.de [accessed on February 5, 2020]).
↑ Memories of the Glückel von Hameln. Translated from the Jewish-German, provided with explanations and edited. by Alfred Feilchenfeld, Jüdischer Verlag Berlin, Graefenhainichen 1920, p. 117
↑ Selma Stern, Marina Sassenberg: The court Jew in the age of absolutism: a contribution to European history in the 17th and 18th centuries . Mohr Siebeck, 2001, ISBN 978-3-16-147662-4 , pp. 206 ( google.de [accessed on February 8, 2020]).

personal data
SURNAME	Gomperz, Elias
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Gomperz-Cleve, Joseph Elias
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Jewish merchant and banker
DATE OF BIRTH	17th century
PLACE OF BIRTH	Emmerich
DATE OF DEATH	June 28, 1689
Place of death	Kleve

[1] Helmut Langhoff (LVR Niederrheinmuseum): A fair master from Emmerich. In: NRZ. September 8, 2018, accessed February 5, 2020 .

[2] Peter Rauscher: The Fall of the Oppenheimer and Gomperz 1697. Court Jews and the financing of the German princely state in the 17th and 18th centuries. In: Key events in German banking history , Stuttgart 2013, p. 51 ff. ( Online )

[3] Elfi Pracht-Jörns: Jüdische Lebenswelten im Rheinland: annotated sources from the early modern period to the present . Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar, 2011, ISBN 978-3-412-20674-1 ( google.de [accessed on February 6, 2020]).

[4] Jewish history in Kleve - Mifgash. Retrieved February 5, 2020 .

[5] Rudolf Vierhaus: Görres - Hittorp . Walter de Gruyter, 2011, ISBN 978-3-11-094654-3 ( google.de [accessed on February 6, 2020]).

[6] German biography: Levi, Behrend - German biography. Retrieved February 8, 2020 .

[7] Selma Stern , Marina Sassenberg: The court Jew in the age of absolutism: a contribution to European history in the 17th and 18th centuries . Mohr Siebeck, 2001, ISBN 978-3-16-147662-4 , pp. 171 ( google.de [accessed on February 5, 2020]).

[8] Memories of the Glückel von Hameln. Translated from the Jewish-German, provided with explanations and edited. by Alfred Feilchenfeld, Jüdischer Verlag Berlin, Graefenhainichen 1920, p. 117

[9] Selma Stern, Marina Sassenberg: The court Jew in the age of absolutism: a contribution to European history in the 17th and 18th centuries . Mohr Siebeck, 2001, ISBN 978-3-16-147662-4 , pp. 206 ( google.de [accessed on February 8, 2020]).