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German Crusade, 1096

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Military History and War;
Pre 1900 Military; Religious disputes

                                     Crusades
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   The German Crusade of 1096 is that part of the First Crusade in which
   peasant crusaders, mostly from Germany, attacked Jewish communities.
   Although anti-Semitism had existed in Europe for centuries, this was
   the first organized mass pogrom. In some cases, authorities and
   religious leaders attempted to shelter their Jewish subjects. However,
   as Pope Urban II did not mention the Jewish people when preaching the
   First Crusade, and later condemned any violence perpetrated against the
   Jews, these attacks on Jewish communities can be considered perversions
   of the Crusader cause.

Background

   The preaching of the First Crusade inspired an outbreak of
   anti-Semitism. It was popularly believed that the Christian conquest of
   Jerusalem and the establishment of a Christian emperor there would
   instigate the End Times, during which the Jews were supposed to convert
   to Christianity. In parts of France and Germany, Jews were perceived as
   just as much of an enemy as Muslims: they were thought to be
   responsible for the crucifixion, and they were more immediately visible
   than the far-away Muslims. Many people wondered why they should travel
   thousands of miles to fight non-believers when there were already
   non-believers closer to home. It is also likely that the crusaders were
   motivated by a need for money, and the Rhineland communities were
   relatively wealthy, both due to their isolation, and because they were
   not restricted as Christians were against moneylending.

   The first outbreaks of violence may have occurred in France, although
   no direct evidence survived. The French Jewish community sent a letter
   to the Rhineland Jews warning them of the crusaders' arrival, but the
   Rhinelanders responded that they had no fear.

Folkmar and Gottschalk

   In the spring of 1096, a number of small bands of knights and peasants,
   inspired by the preaching of the Crusade, set off from various parts of
   France and Germany. The crusade of the priest Folkmar, beginning in
   Saxony, persecuted Jews in Magdeburg and later in Prague in Bohemia.
   Folkmar's crusade split up before reaching Hungary. Another priest
   named Gottschalk led a crusade from the Rhineland and Lorraine into
   Hungary, occasionally attacking Jewish communities along the way. His
   force was attacked and destroyed by Hungarian troops after his drunken
   followers pillaged Hungarian territory.

Emicho

   The largest of these crusades, and the most involved in attacking Jews,
   was that led by Count Emicho. Setting off in the early summer of 1096,
   an army of around 10,000 men, women, and children proceeded through the
   Rhine valley, towards the Main River and then to the Danube. Emicho was
   joined by William the Carpenter and Drogo of Nesle, among others from
   the Rhineland, eastern France, Lorraine, Flanders, and even England.

   Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, absent in southern Italy, ordered the Jews
   to be protected when he learned of Emicho's intent. After some Jews
   were killed at Metz in May, the Bishop of Speyer, John, gave shelter to
   the Jewish inhabitants. The Bishop of Worms attempted to do the same,
   but the crusaders broke in to his episcopal palace and killed the Jews
   inside on May 18. News of Emicho's crusade spread quickly, and he was
   prevented from entering Mainz on May 25 by Bishop Ruthard. Ruthard
   tried to protect the Jews by hiding them in his lightly fortified
   palace, but nevertheless Emicho entered on May 27 and a massacre
   followed; Ruthard was possibly involved in this, as he took money from
   Jews who had been killed and then fled the city. Mainz was the site of
   the greatest violence, with possibly thousands of Jews being killed.
   One man, named Isaac, was forcefully converted, but later, wracked with
   guilt, killed his family and burned himself alive in his house. Another
   woman, Rachel, killed her four children with her own hands so that they
   would not be killed by the crusaders.

   On May 29 Emicho arrived at Cologne, where most Jews had already left
   or were hiding in Christian houses. In Cologne, other smaller bands of
   crusaders met Emicho, and they left with quite a lot of money taken
   from the Jews there. Emicho continued towards Hungary, soon joined by
   some Swabians. Coloman of Hungary refused to allow them through Hungary
   and they were completely defeated at Nis; William the Carpenter and
   other survivors eventually joined Hugh of Vermandois and the main body
   of crusader knights.

Later attacks on Jews

   Later in 1096, Godfrey of Bouillon also collected tribute from the Jews
   in Mainz and Cologne, but there was no slaughter in this case. After
   the success of the First Crusade in the Holy Land, the Jews in
   Jerusalem were either slaughtered along with the Muslims, or they were
   expelled and forbidden from living in the city.

   The First Crusade ignited a long tradition of organized violence
   against Jews in European culture. Jewish money was also used in France
   for financing the Second Crusade; the Jews were also attacked in many
   instances, but not on the scale of the attacks of 1096. In England, the
   Third Crusade was the pretext for the expulsion of the Jews and the
   confiscation of their money. The two Shepherds' Crusades in 1251 and
   1320 also saw attacks on Jews in France; the second in 1320 also
   attacked and killed Jews in Aragon.

Jewish reactions

   News of the attacks spread quickly and reached the Jewish communities
   in and around Jerusalem long before the crusaders themselves arrived.
   However, Jews were not systematically killed in Jerusalem, despite
   being caught up in the general indiscriminate violence caused by the
   crusaders once they reached the city.

   The Hebrew chronicles portray the Rhineland Jews as martyrs who
   willingly sacrificed themselves in order to honour God and to preserve
   their own honour. Faced with conversion or death, they usually chose
   death. On numerous occasions, a prominent Jew is willing to convert,
   only to speak out against Christ and Christianity when a crowd has
   gathered for the baptism, mocking Jesus as a product of "lust" and
   "menstruation"; a swift death follows. Count Emicho is also cursed
   whenever he is mentioned ("may his bones be ground into dust"), and the
   Pope is compared to Satan.

   In the years following the crusade, the Jewish communities were faced
   with troubling questions about murder and suicide, which were normally
   sins just as they were for Christians. The Rhineland Jews looked to
   historical precedents to justify their actions: the honourable suicide
   of Saul, the Maccabees revolt against Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the
   suicide pact at Masada, and the Bar Kochba revolt were seen as
   justifiable deaths in the face of a stronger enemy.
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