2024-03-29T14:00:52Z
https://keydocuments.net/oai
oai:jgo:source-17.en
2018-04-06T00:00:00Z
en
Gabriel Riesser, A Memorandum Concerning the Civil Conditions of Hamburg Israelites, Submitted. in their support, as a Petition to the Highly Noble and Wise Council. Printed as a Manuscript for the Members of the One Highly Noble and Wise Council and Their Equally Highly Commendable Citizen Colleagues, Hamburg 1834, pp. 6-7
https://dx.doi.org/10.23691/jgo:source-17.en.v1
Gabriel Riesser
Institute for the History of the German Jews
Online Ressource
In 1834, following several anti-Jewish excesses in Hamburg, the Jewish
jurist and native, Gabriel Riesser, commissioned by the Committee for
the Improvement of the Civil Conditions of Israelites Comité zur
Verbesserung der bürgerlichen Verhältnisse der Israeliten, wrote
“Denkschrift über die bürgerlichen Verhältnisse der Hamburgischen
Israeliten” [“A Memorandum Concerning the Civil Conditions of the
Israelites of Hamburg”], which was presented to the Council as a
petition. In this document, comprising 120 printed pages, the author
raised various problems in connection to the citizenship right
Bürgerrecht [citizenship right in the city]: The right of
self-government; the precondition for acquiring civil rights was
inherited real property, the swearing of a citizen’s oath, and the
one-time payment of “Bürgergeld” [citizenship fee]; members of
the nobility were excluded from this; until 1814 citizenship was
granted exclusively to members of the Lutheran church [see: Helmut
Stubbe-da Luz, “Bürgerrecht,” in: Franklin Kopitzsch / Daniel
Tilger (eds.), Hamburg Lexikon, Hamburg 1998, p. 92.], which he linked
to a historical survey. The present excerpted text from the memorandum
summarizes the essence of Riesser’s argument on behalf of equality
of status for Jews. He here advocates the “full legal equality of
all citizens, without distinction of faith” as an important
prerequisite for the well-being of the state.
2018-04-06