Corn Jew

Kornjude is an anti-Jewish swear word that was widespread from the late 17th to the middle of the 19th century .

The abusive term, which was also used in the language of the authorities , was used to refer to traders - although not necessarily Jewish - who speculated on the staple food of grain and thus ruthlessly enriched themselves at the expense of the "common people". The term found widespread use, particularly in phases of general price increases, in times of shortage and war, such as between 1770 and 1820. The analogous formation of Kornchrist, however, is only occasionally documented. In any case, the cliché of the greedy Jew served as a negative foil against which the grain Jews were defined. This shows, for example, an interpretation from the year 1757, according to which the Korn Jews are not "Jews according to the flesh, but according to the spirit". The term Kornjude was deliberately used negatively - in addition to the term “profit Jew”, which was first documented in the 20th century - for example also by the anti-Semitic author of the Laichinger Hunger Chronicle of 1816/17, which was allegedly falsified during the First World War .

Reproduction of a Kornjuden medal from 1695 by Johann Albrecht Philippi: The defended Korn-Jude. Berlin 1765, p. 105.

The Korn Jew appears on numerous commemorative medals that were produced on a private initiative “for the mass market” and served “popular resentments”. The pictorial program of these medals, which was also distributed in print, allows the mostly well-nourished Corn Jews a. a. End suicidal on a rope where the devil receives him. Quotations from relevant biblical passages or corresponding references to them, which are probably primarily aimed at Christians, are regularly supplied. This is also the case with a Corn Jew medal from 1695, reproduced in print in 1765: The “LUC 12” on the obverse of the barn door on the left refers to the biblical parable of the rich corn farmer in the chapter of the Gospel of Luke , which warns against greed ( Lk 12,16-21  EU ), SPRVCH · SALOMO · XI · v · 26 on the depicted grain saddle on the lapel stands for the Solomonic proverb whoever withholds grain, people curse whoever brings grain to the market on his head comes blessing ( Prov 11:26  EU ) from the book of Proverbs .

literature

• Korn Jews. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 15, Leipzig 1737, column 1541–1543.
• Manfred Gailus : The Invention of the "Korn Jew". On the history of an anti-Jewish enemy image of the 18th and 19th centuries. In: Historische Zeitschrift 272 (2001), pp. 597–622.
• Manfred Gailus: Art. Korn Jews. In: Handbook of Antisemitism . Hostility to Jews in the past and present. Edited by Wolfgang Benz . Vol. 3: Concepts, theories, ideologies. De Gruyter Saur Berlin / New York 2010 ISBN 978-3-598-24074-4 , pp. 178-180.
• Hubert Emmerig: The Kornjuden Medals in the Brettauer Collection. In: Monetary History News. Collector's magazine for coinage and related areas . Vol. 48. Issue 269 (2013), pp. 258–269.
• Robert Jütte : The image of the ›Kornjuden‹ as an antifigure to the early modern principle of ›good narung‹ and the ›moral economy‹. In: Aschkenas 23 (2013), pp. 27–52.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See e.g. B. Jacob Daniel Ernst : The new historical show stage of human folly and divine justice. Leipzig 1702, p 558: " It is found miserly people in the world, and even among us Christians a certain kind which grain Jews, Vorkäuffer, Auffkäuffer, and among law scholars Dardanarii be genennet " ( online at Google Books ). - Friedrich Just Riedel : All writings. Second part: satyrs. Second volume. Vienna 1787, p. 302: " A grain Jew is a person, circumcised or uncircumcised, who practices usury with grain and other necessary foods - not always illegal ones " ( online at Google Books ). - Sebastian Winkelhofer: Sunday and holiday sermons on the Acts of the Apostles. Vol. 2: One and fiftieth to one hundred and fifth sermons. (= Johann Michael Sailer : Edited speeches. Sunday, festival and occasional sermons. Fourth part ). Grätz 1820, p. 45: "You do that, K o r n j u d e, by the way, you are a Christian or a Jew [...]" (blocking print as template) ( online at Google Books ).
2. ↑ For example, " Kornchrist " in an anecdote about a "grain dealer from Franconia" by Isidor Täuber: Studiosus jovialis. Vienna 1846, p. 268 ( online at Google Books ); Hans Jörgel von Gumpoldskirchen. Folk script in Viennese dialects. Vol. 23, No. 45 of November 6, 1854, p. 15: " Messrs. Kornwucherer and Kornjuden, among whom are just as many Korn Christians " ( online at Google Books ).
3. ↑ Assur Abadja [d. i. Christoph Gottlieb Richter]: The books of the Chronica or the story of the wars that the Brandenburgers, otherwise called the Prussians, waged with the Austrians. Leiden 1757, p. 20 No. 4 ( online at Google Books ).
4. ↑ See Michael Globig: The falsified need. In: MaxPlanckResearch 1/2008, p. 66. f. ( online at www.mpg.de ).
5. ^ So Dominik Collet: The double catastrophe: Climate and culture in the European hunger crisis 1770-1772. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2018 ISBN 978-3-525-35592-3 , p. 387.
6. ↑ Cf. on this the probably fictitious, but nevertheless meaningful 'confession' of a Christian Reformed grain dealer: Letter of a grain dealer, in S. to his friend in L. In: Gelehre Beylege zu den Braunschweigischeanze 11 (1771), Sp. 738-742 ( online at Google Books ).