Kulp-Kannsche confusion
The Kulp-Kannschen Wirren were a dispute among the Jewish population of Frankfurt am Main around 1750. The influential Kann and Kulp families fought for influence within the Jewish community.
The Kann family had risen to become one of the richest merchant and bankers' houses in Frankfurt since the middle of the 16th century and had also provided officials of the Jewish community since the end of the 17th century. The Kulp family only acquired real estate in Frankfurt's Judengasse at the beginning of the 17th century, but had also become a leading merchant and banker house by the middle of the 18th century.
The cause of the conflict was the administration of Bär (or: Beer) Löb Isaak Kann, the head of the Kann family. This was the caste master and thus the financial administrator of the Jewish community. In this function, according to tradition, he disregarded the resolutions of the rest of the community council or dominated it and appeared personally in the style of a prince. Displeasure over this behavior formed behind David Mayer Kulp in 1749. This opposition to Kann called for the communal finances to be disclosed and for the council to be elected to replace the supporters of Kann.
As a result, there was a split in the population in the Judengasse. The clashes went as far as violence. Both the council of the imperial city of Frankfurt and the representatives of the emperor as the protective power of the Jews tried several times to restore calm. For years the city military was stationed in Judengasse to suppress internal fighting. In 1753 new community leaders (called “master builders” in Frankfurt) were elected, also under military protection. There was no fundamental reform, but the conflict subsequently subsided.
Both families had lost considerable sums of money and prestige in the course of the turmoil. Bär Löb Isaak Kann personally was banned from Jews by the internal jurisdiction of the community. This meant that after his death in 1764 he was denied a burial in the Jewish cemetery . For the Kann family, this was accompanied by a decline in their political power in the late 18th century, although they remained an important business family.
literature
- Isidor Kracauer : The Kulp-Kannschen confusion . A contribution to the history of the Jewish community in Frankfurt a. M. in the XVIII. Century, in: Archive for Frankfurt's History and Art , No. 29 (1910), pages 135–212.