Jews in Frankfurt Criminal Justice 1780-1814

October 12, 2018

The dissertation by Vera Kallenberg entitled "Jüdinnen und Juden in der Frankfurter Strafjustiz 1780-1814. Die Nicht-Einheit der jüdischen Geschichte” (Jews in Frankfurt Criminal Justice 1780-1814: The Non-Unity of Jewish History) has been published and is part of the research field "The History of Criminal Law, Crime and Criminal Justice in Europe".

Using the example of the imperial city of Frankfurt am Main against the background of the upheavals around 1800, the work shows that criminal justice was not a targeted instrument of discrimination and repression of Jews, but also served not only as an instrument for conflict regulation, independent of minority status, residence status, gender and honour. On the basis of detailed case analyses, Vera Kallenberg systematically examines for the first time how the special legal status of Jews and anti-Jewish labels affected their treatment and options for action before the criminal court of the Christian authorities. From the perspective of the Jewish minority, the work makes visible the contradictions and inequalities that permeated German-Jewish history and contributes to the history of law and crime in the transitional phase between the late Enlightenment and the end of the Napoleonic era.

Vera Kallenberg was a PhD student at the Institute until June 2016.

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