Familianten

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Familianten or Familianten Gesetz was the German term commonly used for the laws and the related record books which regulated the number of Jewish families in the Czech lands in the 18th and 19th centuries.

German language West Germanic language

German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol (Italy), the German-speaking Community of Belgium, and Liechtenstein. It is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg and a co-official language in the Opole Voivodeship in Poland. The languages which are most similar to German are the other members of the West Germanic language branch: Afrikaans, Dutch, English, the Frisian languages, Low German/Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, and Yiddish. There are also strong similarities in vocabulary with Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, although those belong to the North Germanic group. German is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English.

Czech lands

The Czech lands or the Bohemian lands are the three historical regions of Bohemia, Moravia, and Czech Silesia. Together the three have formed the Czech part of Czechoslovakia since 1918 and the Czech Republic since 1 January 1969, which became independent on 1 January 1993.

Contents

Background

It was the avowed policy of the government to prevent any increase in the number of Jewish residents in the Czech provinces. When Maria Theresa revoked her edict expelling the Jews from these provinces (1745), it was on the condition that their number should not be increased; even her son Joseph II reasserted (1780-90) the condition. In 1787 a census was taken which showed the number of Jewish families in Bohemia (8,541) and Moravia (5,106). The number permitted in Bohemia was increased to 8,600, in Moravia to 5,400, while in Austrian Silesia 119 were permitted (patent for Moravia, Nov. 17, 1787; for Bohemia, various royal orders in 1788-89; for Silesia, Dec. 15, 1781). In Moravia the number of Familianten was distributed according to congregations, the largest being Nikolsburg with 620; in Bohemia and Austrian Silesia the Familiant was allowed to settle under the same conditions as were other Jews.

Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor Holy Roman Emperor

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The number of marriage permits issued was limited to the number of deaths among the Familianten. An applicant for a permit was required to give surety for the payment of three years' taxes, to prove that he possessed at least 300 florins, to show that he had received a school education, to pass an examination in Jewish religion according to Herz Homberg's text-book, "Bene Zion," and to give evidence that he was at least twenty-four years of age. A first-born son, a school-teacher, or a veteran of the army had precedence over other candidates. The license was issued either by the county or by the provincial authorities (Kreisamt or Gubernium).

Herz Homberg Austrian writer

Herz Homberg was an Austrian-Jewish educator and writer.

Besides the ordinary Familianten there were those who, in recognition of special merit, were permitted to marry as "supernumeraries". It was a rule, however, that they should be given the first license vacated by death. The law of Francis I (Aug. 3, 1797) permitted Jews who had served as volunteers in the army or who lived exclusively by agriculture or by technical skill to marry without regard to the number of established families. Those who married according to the Jewish law and without license were called Magranten (emigrants), because in order to be legally married they had to emigrate. Their weddings were called "garret-weddings". This law was abolished by the constitution of March 4, 1849, which made all civil and political rights independent of religious belief. It was, however, revived in a different form by a law of March 19, 1853, which declared that section 124 of the civil code, demanding a court license (kreisamtliche Bewilligung) for a Jewish marriage, had not been abrogated by the constitution. The difference between this and the former condition was only the abolition of the fixed number. This law was repealed Nov. 29, 1859. [1]

Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Duke of Tuscany

Francis I was Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Duke of Tuscany, though his wife Maria Theresa effectively executed the real powers of those positions. They were the founders of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty. From 1728 until 1737 he was Duke of Lorraine. Francis traded the duchy to the ex-Polish king Stanisław Leszczyński in exchange for the Grand Duchy of Tuscany as one of the terms ending the War of the Polish Succession in November 1738. The duchy and the ducal title to Lorraine and Bar passed to King Louis XV of France upon Leszczynski's death in 1766, though Francis and his successors retained the right to style themselves as dukes of Lorraine and Bar.

Legacy

One other result of the Familianten laws was that the government maintained very precise records of which families lived in which towns. The list of Familianten were collected in the Book of Jewish Familianten (also called "Mannschaftsbücher" in Moravia). Records were collected in 1799 and in 1811 and updated until about 1830. Each record comprised the name of county, registration number of the family in the whole land (based on "copulatio consensus"), the registration number of the family in the county (set up in 1725), name of the father, his wife, his sons and a few other family details.

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References

  1. "Familianten Gesetz", Jewish Encyclopedia,

Bibliography

PD-icon.svg  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Deutsch, Gotthard (1903). "Familianten Gesetz". In Singer, Isidore; et al. Jewish Encyclopedia . 5. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company. pp. 335&ndash, 6.

The public domain consists of all the creative works to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable.

Isidore Singer American encyclopediast

Isidore Singer was an editor of The Jewish Encyclopedia and founder of the American League for the Rights of Man.