Jew Suss Life, Legend, Fiction, Film

by Tegel, Susan

• ISBN13: 9781847250179
• ISBN10: 1847250173
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-08-11
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

For two centuries the image of Jew Suss has been adapted, distorted and transformed by writers and film directors. In telling the story of those various transformations and the reasons for them, this book paints a broad picture of German history and, in some cases, anti-semitism. Joseph Suss Oppenheimer (1698 -1738), better know as Jew Suss, was a Court Jew who served as financial advisor to the Duke of Wurttemberg. Clever and handsome, he adapted easily to court life despite his humble origins. He made many enemies - primarily for his unpopular economic policies - and on the Duke's sudden death he was arrested and charged with high treason and abuse of office. Found guilty, he was executed in Stuttgart in an iron cage suspended above a gallows. His spectacular rise and fall, trial and unusual public execution inspired a media outpouring. It captured the public imagination then and in subsequent centuries, finally serving as a parable for the Final Solution and the most notorious of Nazi anti-semitic films, Veit Harlan's Jud Suss (1940).

Table of Contents

Illustrations	p. vii
Acknowledgements	p. iv
Preface	p. xi
Joseph Süss Oppenheimer: origins and early career (1698-1732)	p. 1
Württemberg's court Jew (1733-1737)	p. 11
Trial and execution (1737-1738)	p. 29
The legend	p. 49
Wilhelm Hauff's Jud Süss	p. 61
After Hauff	p. 79
The historians	p. 87
Lion Feuchtwanger's Jew Süss	p. 101
The British film Jew Süss (1934)	p. 119
Veit Harlan's Jud Süss: in production (1939-1940)	p. 151
Veit Harlan's Jud Süss: on screen	p. 169
Veit Harlan's Jud Süss: reception (1940-1945)	p. 181
Veit Harlan on trial (1945-1950)	p. 199
Conclusion	p. 211
Filmography	p. 213
Notes	p. 217
Bibliography	p. 255
Index	p. 275
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