Joseph Süß Oppenheimer
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Joseph Süß Oppenheimer (1698-1738) was a Jewish banker and financial planner for prince Karl Alexander von Württemberg in Stuttgart. He was a nephew and stepson of Samuel Oppenheimer, so-called court Jew to Karl Ludwig of the Palatinate.
As a financial advisor for prince Karl Alexander von Württemberg, he also gained a prominent position as a court Jew and held the reins of the finances in his duchy. He put a duchy monopoly on trade of salt, leather, tobacco and liquor and founded a bank and porcelain factory. In the process he gained a number of jealous enemies who, among other things, claimed that he was involved with local gambling houses.
When his protector Karl Alexander died March 12 1737, Oppenheimer was arrested and accused of various things, including fraud, embezzlement, treason, lecherous relations with the court ladies, accepting bribes and trying to bring back Catholicism. The Jewish community tried unsuccessfully to ransom him.
Under heavy torture, Oppenheimer broke down and confessed to just about anything he had been accused of. However, when his jailers demanded that he convert to Christianity, he refused.
Joseph Süß Oppenheimer was hanged February 4 1738. His story, under the title Jud Süß or Jew Süß was the subject of an 1827 novella by Wilhelm Hauff, a 1925 historical novel by Lion Feuchtwanger, a 1934 British film and a Nazi propaganda film made in 1940 by Veit Harlan. The Feuchtwanger book and the 1934 film based on it were both condemnations of anti-Semitism with the film being meant as well as a satire of Nazi anti-Semitism.
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