The
Rintfleisch-Pogrom was a
pogromA pogrom is a form of riot directed against a particular group, whether ethnic, religious, or other, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes, businesses, and religious centers...
against
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
s in the year 1298.
It was set during the civil strife between King
Adolf of NassauAdolf was the King of Germany from 1292 until 1298. Though his title in his lifetime was Rex Romanorum , he is usually known as Adolf of Nassau. He was never crowned by the Pope, which would have secured him the title of Holy Roman Emperor...
and his rival
Albert of AustriaAlbert I of Habsburg was King of the Romans, Duke of Austria, and eldest son of German King Rudolph I of Habsburg and Gertrude of Hohenburg....
, when imperial authority, traditionally concerned with the protection of the Jews, had temporarily collapsed.
The Jews of the
FranconiaFranconia is a region of Germany comprising the northern parts of the modern state of Bavaria, a part of southern Thuringia, and a much smaller region in northeastern Baden-Württemberg called Heilbronn-Franken...
n town of
RöttingenRöttingen is a town in the district of Würzburg, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated 30 km south of Würzburg, and 15 km east of Bad Mergentheim.- Climate :...
were accused of having obtained and desecrated a consecrated host.
One "Lord Rintfleisch", whom the sources refer to either as an impoverished knight or a butcher (the name "Rindfleisch" means "beef" in
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
), believed to have received a mandate from
heavenHeaven may refer to the physical heavens, the sky or the seemingly endless expanse of the universe beyond. This is the traditional literal meaning of the term in English...
to avenge the sacrilege and exterminate the Jews.
He gathered a mob around him and burned the Jews of Röttingen on April 20.
The
Rintfleisch-Pogrom was a
pogromA pogrom is a form of riot directed against a particular group, whether ethnic, religious, or other, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes, businesses, and religious centers...
against
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
s in the year 1298.
It was set during the civil strife between King
Adolf of NassauAdolf was the King of Germany from 1292 until 1298. Though his title in his lifetime was Rex Romanorum , he is usually known as Adolf of Nassau. He was never crowned by the Pope, which would have secured him the title of Holy Roman Emperor...
and his rival
Albert of AustriaAlbert I of Habsburg was King of the Romans, Duke of Austria, and eldest son of German King Rudolph I of Habsburg and Gertrude of Hohenburg....
, when imperial authority, traditionally concerned with the protection of the Jews, had temporarily collapsed.
The Jews of the
FranconiaFranconia is a region of Germany comprising the northern parts of the modern state of Bavaria, a part of southern Thuringia, and a much smaller region in northeastern Baden-Württemberg called Heilbronn-Franken...
n town of
RöttingenRöttingen is a town in the district of Würzburg, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated 30 km south of Würzburg, and 15 km east of Bad Mergentheim.- Climate :...
were accused of having obtained and desecrated a consecrated host.
One "Lord Rintfleisch", whom the sources refer to either as an impoverished knight or a butcher (the name "Rindfleisch" means "beef" in
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
), believed to have received a mandate from
heavenHeaven may refer to the physical heavens, the sky or the seemingly endless expanse of the universe beyond. This is the traditional literal meaning of the term in English...
to avenge the sacrilege and exterminate the Jews.
He gathered a mob around him and burned the Jews of Röttingen on April 20. After this, he and his mob went from town to town and killed all Jews that fell under their control, destroying the Jewish communities at Rothenburg-on-Tauber,
WürzburgWürzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. Located on the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. The regional dialect is Franconian....
,
NördlingenNördlingen is a town in the Donau-Ries district, in Bavaria, Germany, with a population of 20,000. It is located in the middle of a giant meteorite crater, called the Nördlinger Ries. The town was also the place of two battles during the Thirty Years' War...
and
BambergBamberg is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in Upper Franconia on the river Regnitz, close to its confluence with the river Main. Bamberg is one of the few cities in Germany that was not destroyed by World War II bombings because of a nearby Artillery Factory that prevented planes from...
.
In
NurembergNuremberg is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. It is situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal and is Franconia's largest city. It is located about 170 kilometres north of Munich, at 49.27° N 11.5° E. The population is...
, the Jews sought refuge in the fortress and were assisted by the Christian citizens, but Rindfleisch overcame the defenders and butchered the Jews on 1 August. The
Nürnberger Memorbuch contains the names of numerous murdered Jews, among them
Mordecai ben HillelMordechai ben Hillel, also known as The Mordechai, , was a 13th century German rabbi and posek. His chief legal commentary on the Talmud, referred to as the Mordechai, is one of the sources of the Shulchan Aruch. He died a Martyr's death at Nuremberg.-Biography:Little is known of the Mordechai's...
, a pupil of
Jehiel ben AsherJehiel ben Asher was a Jewish liturgical poet; flourished in Andalusia in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. He was the author of four liturgical poems, mentioned by Zunz , and of a dirge of twenty-five strophes on the persecution of the Jews in Spain in 1391...
, with his wife and children. The communities at
RegensburgRegensburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate...
and
AugsburgAugsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria in Germany. It is a College town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
alone escaped the mass killing, as they were protected by the cities' magistrates.
Spreading from Franconia to
BavariaBavaria , with an area of and almost 12.5 million inhabitants, is located in the southeast of Germany and is the largest state of Germany by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
and
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
, the persecutors destroyed 146 communities, about 20,000 Jews were killed.
King Albert I, having overcome Adolf and assumed the crown, finally had Rintfleisch arrested and hanged. The cities in which Jews had been killed were required to pay fines to the king.
"Rintfleisch-Pogrom" was not the term used at the time itself, "
PogromA pogrom is a form of riot directed against a particular group, whether ethnic, religious, or other, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes, businesses, and religious centers...
" being a
RussianRussian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...
word which at this time is unlikley to have existed at all in its present meaning, and certainly was not known in Germany.