The Hanging of Jud Süss

Jacob Gottlieb Thelot

Lucas Conrad Pfandzelt

1738

Joseph ben Issachar Süsskind Oppenheimer was a financier and court Jew who served as adviser to Duke Karl Alexander of Württemberg. Economic reforms enacted by Karl Alexander (and informed by Oppenheimer) angered the Protestant Württemberg States, especially after Karl had converted to Catholicism, and stoked anti-Jewish sentiment. Oppenheimer, who had embraced an ostentatious and promiscuous lifestyle and dabbled in economic intrigues, was resented for Karl’s financial policies. After Karl Alexander’s death in 1737, Oppenheimer was arrested and charged with a variety of crimes. In 1738, he was executed, and his body was exhibited in an iron cage for six years. Created by the Augsburg copper engraver Jacob Gottlieb Thelot, this engraving was one of many depictions of Oppenheimer’s public execution, including his transfer from Stuttgart to a gallows set up outside the city. The large composition, with two scenes, presents the hanging as a great spectacle seen by thousands of people. A legend at the bottom provides a detailed description of the events, pointing out the homes, the nature of the infantry, the building of the gallows, and so on. The artist (Lucas Conrad Pfandzelt) carefully depicted the way several attendants labored to drag Oppenheimer up the 52-step ladder to the gallows, as two clergymen standing at the base of the ladders made a final attempt to convince him to convert.

We’re sorry. The Posen Library’s licensing agreements prevent this image from being printed or downloaded.

Credits

Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

Engage with this Source
Restricted
Some content is unavailable to non-members, please log in or sign up for free for full access.

Related Guide

Early Modern Trade and Mercantilism

1500–1750

International trade drove Jewish mobility during the age of mercantilism, as Jewish merchants formed wide commercial networks and partnerships and developed cosmopolitan attitudes that facilitated civic inclusion.

Faience-tile mosaic of floral designs throughout, two lines of Hebrew text at the top, and three niches at bottom.
Tooltip info icon

Related Guide

Early Modern Visual and Material Culture

1500–1750

Early modern Jewish visual culture flourished, with illuminated manuscripts, ornate synagogues, and portraiture alongside increasing non-Jewish interest in Jewish customs and greater Jewish self-representation.

You may also like

Portrait painting of bearded man in skullcap holding closed book in front of bookshelf, with Latin text on side.
Tooltip info icon

Portrait of Menachem Vivante

Menachem Vivante (b. 1650) was a rabbi in Corfu in the eighteenth century and a member of a prominent merchant family. In this oil portrait, painted when he was eighty-five years old, he is depicted…
View Source
Portrait painting of man standing next to column and curtain.
Tooltip info icon

Portraits of the Franks-Levy Family

In the 1730s, the German Jewish Franks-Levy family commissioned an artist to create portraits of three generations of the family. These paintings are all attributed to Gerardus Duykinck, a member of a…
View Source