Bekanntmachung (Proclamation)
Hamburg: City Council, 1835. Loose leaf. Elephant Folio broadside (15 1/3 x 12 3/4"). Original gray broadside with black lettering and emblem of City of Hamburg.
The proclamation translated below was printed and posted around Hamburg after riots against its Jewish Citizens had broken out on July 31, 1835 and spread on the following day, August 1st 1835. The tone of the proclamation tries to accomplish two things: First, to downplay the incidents and calm the Hamburg population treating this disorderly conduct not as a major event, and second, to show determination towards anybody who doesn't revert to peaceful measures to solve the misgivings. Although it is issued specifically due to the anti-Jewish riots, it does not mention that the riots were anti-Jewish protests.
"Proclamation (Bekanntmachung / our translation from the original)
The horseplay and mischief taking place on the evening before yesterday in the Alster Hall, spread yesterday evening, leading to crimes on some other streets of the New City, and a repetition will not be tolerated.
Therefore all milling around on the Jungfernstieg, alleys and open places, as well as noise and roaming around in hordes, is forbidden and will be punished severely, and these hordes will be disbursed.
If the mischief in the Alster Hall or any similar establishments will start again, the guests will be asked to leave, the culprits will be arrested, and the establishment will be closed.
The honorable council is optimistic, considering the often shown good will of local citizens, that the measures taken to uphold the peace will be sufficient, and admonishes therefore everybody to act in a way, that public safety and order will not be disturbed, and particularly parents, officials, instructors and employers are called upon to keep everybody at home after 8 p.m..
So stated in our Council meeting, Hamburg on August 2, 1835"
Around 1800 more then 6,000 Jews lived in Hamburg. During the French occupation (1811–1814) Jews officially were granted full equality but, after the city had regained its independence in 1814, the Jewish citizens were again denied civil rights. Other than during the violent Hep-Hep Riots in 1819 that killed many Jews all around Germany, the 1830 and 1835 uproars differed insofar as craftsmen and retailers had organized in guilds and were feeling threatened by economic and legal changes. In 1834 the German-Jewish politician and lawyer Gabriel Riesser and his followers demanded full legal and economic equality for Jews in a publication entitled "Memorandum on the Civic Circumstances of Hamburg's Israelites." The unrest was an expression of criticism against the Jews as a politically favored group of foreign elements. The 1835 riots may be seen as a successful attempt to prevent further emancipation of the Jews, and a setback of the Jewish efforts to gain legal equality, which was granted to them completely and nationwide in 1871.
Text in German, Gothic script. Broadside with horizontal folding crease, a 1/4 x 1/2 inch chip at right end of fold, and small crease at left. Broadside very lightly rubbed with minor sunning along edges. Overall in very good condition. vg. Item #45406
Price: $1,500.00