MAXIMILIAN I°

MAXIMILIAN I ° (1459–1519), king of Germany from 1486 and Holy Roman emperor from 1493. His Jewish policy, like that of his father, *Frederick iii, was erratic and motivated by financial considerations. In 1496 he expelled the Jews from *Carinthia and *Styria, after the estates there had undertaken to reimburse him for the loss of Jewish taxes, but he permitted them to settle in *Burgenland. He forbade Jews to live in *Vienna, with the exception of his agent Hirschel of Zistersdorf, with whom he "had to have patience" because he was so much in his debt. In 1509 he gave power to Johannes *Pfefferkorn to confiscate Jewish books and to destroy those which were offensive to Christianity. Reversing this decree in 1510, he ordered expert opinions to be asked from the universities as well as from Johannes *Reuchlin, Victor von *Carben, and Jacob van *Hoogstraaten. After banning Reuchlin's Augenspiegel in 1512, a year later he ordered both sides to keep silent. He issued a decree forbidding rabbis to apply the *ḥerem (ban) against those appealing to gentile courts. Under his rule, *Joseph (Joselmann) b. Gershom of Rosheim became the shtadlan of German Jewry, and in Moravia the first *Landrabbiner was appointed.

maximilian ii (1527–1576), from 1564 ruler of the Hapsburg dominions and Holy Roman emperor, successor to *Ferdinand i. His policy toward the Jews was generally lenient, though he suspected them of supporting the Turks. In 1567 he reaffirmed the charters of Bohemian Jewry, promising to maintain their rights to practice trades they had previously engaged in, and issued decrees against usury. Foreign Jews were forbidden to trade in his dominions without explicit license. Against the will of the local ruler, in 1570 he permitted the Jews free passage through the duchy of *Brunswick (Braunschweig), and asked the *Worms municipality not to harass its Jews because their rights were long standing. While permitting seven families to settle in Vienna in 1571, a year later he decided to concentrate them in one building in the center of the city for easier surveillance, then expelled them in the same year. Maximilian was the first to grant a Jewish craftsman, a diamond cutter from *Breslau (Wroclaw), a permit to pursue his craft. The baptized Jew, Paul Rizius (Ricci, d. 1542), was his court physician.

bibliography:

maximilian i: J.E. Scherer, Die Rechtsverhaeltnisse der Juden in den deutsch-oesterreichischen Laendern (1901), 447–9; M. Brod, Johannes Reuchlin und sein Kampf (1965), index; Baron, Social², 13 (1969), 182–91, passim; S. Stern, Josel of Rosheim (1965), index; M. Grunwald, Vienna (1936), index. maximilian ii: A.F. Pribram, Urkunden und Akten zur Geschichte der Juden in Wien (1918), index; Baron, Social², 14 (1969), 148–52; Bondy-Dworský, 462–550; M. Wiener, in: mgwj, 10 (1861), 241–53; G. Wolf, ibid., 361–3, 456–60.

[Meir Lamed]