Die Briefbücher des Erfurter Rates bis 1456 als Quelle für Kredite von Juden

Abstract The three oldest books with drafts of letters written by the council of Erfurt contain letters from 1427 to 1430, from 1434 to 1438 and from 1449 to 1456. A lot of them mention Jewish matters, among them many concern credits of Jews to debtors in towns surrounding Erfurt. Some credits are even mentioned in different letters. The number of credits rise during the time of economical crisis in the 1430ies. In the 1450ies some Jewish families already left Erfurt, the remaining were forced to leave the city in 1453. Several former Erfurt Jews asked for safe conduct for Erfurt to demand outstanding debts. The letters in general show, how Jewish families dealt with different problems, with slow debtors or with a seizure of their money and registers in the surrounding towns. This demonstrates, in which way Jewish families dealt with daily situations or special occations.