History of German Jewish Surnames
Is my Surname Jewish?
Jewish Surname Changes in Germany and Austria
German and Austrian Jews were subject to many restrictions
in Germany until the early 1800s. In January 1782 the
Austrian Emperor Joseph II. enacted a new law, called the
Edict of Tolerance. It’s main goal was integrate his
Jewish subjects fully into the economic life of the nation,
and he therefore granted them access to public education,
including higher education, and to job training as
apprentices and journeymen. At the same time he declared
the “Jewish language and writing” as abolished:
all trade books, official documents and official
certificates were to be written in German from then on. On
July 1787 a new ruling was published: each Jew in German
lands was required to either adopt (or if they already had
one, to maintain) a firm, German surname. Names derived
from the Hebrew were no longer permitted, and had to be
legally changed. Families with already established surnames
were permitted to keep them, provided they were not Hebrew
names. Given names were to be “Germanized” as
well, and names that were “unknown in the German
language” were no longer permitted. The selection was
quite limited: the Hebrew translator in Bohemia, for
example, submitted a list of about 2000 names, but only 156
of those were considered acceptable by the authorities. All
other names were forbidden, and their use was punishable by
fines.
Although citizenship was now finally granted to Jews in
Austria, they still did not receive equal rights since not
all professions were opened to them.
The Duchy of Baden soon followed Austria’s example,
and one German State after the other joined ranks. King
Frederick William of Prussia declared in his Edict of 11
March 1812 “the Jews to be his national subjects and
citizens”. However not all of Prussia’s
territories were included, and so there were still a number
of Prussian Jews in 1848 without any citizenship rights.
For those Jews who had received citizenship rights,
employment at State offices remained inaccessible, and so
was lecturing at universities.
Before the 1800s most German Jews who lived in cities had
already either a fixed surname, or a double name (examples
for such double names: Amsel Abraham, Löw Baruch, Ascher
Simon). On the country side, Jews were often recorded in
German documents solely by their given name (examples:
Abraham, David, Jakob, Seligmann). In older documents one
may find references to “Jacob Jude”,
“Isaac Jude”, “Abraham Jude”, Jude
simply meaning “Jacob Jew”, “Isaac
Jew”, “Abraham Jew”.
During the Emancipation, some government officials
misunderstood the legislation, and demanded that even
previously appropriate surnames should be changed. A number
of such examples can be found in the Duchy of Baden: In the
District Administration of Lörrach (Rötteln), even the
“acceptable” surnames Bloch and Braunschweig
were changed. There had been 14 families with the Bloch
surname, and 7 by the surname of Braunschweig. None of them
kept their old surname. The Braunschweigs changed their
names to: Beck, Braun, Dornacher, Graf, and Keller. The
Blochs adopted the following family names: Dietersheimer,
Dornacher, Dreher, Geißmann/Geißmar, Kaufmann, Kirchheimer,
Mock, and Weil.
A number of the official name change lists still exist in
Germany, as well as other documents that can help clarify
what a family’s surname was before the official name
change, and reveal if they actually changed their surname
or were able to hold on to the family’s original
name. Birth registrations in Naugard, Prussia, for example,
list a Nathan Friedländer with the added remark: “by
the name Silberstein”. Some records show him as
Nathan Friedländer Silberstein, while he only appears as
Silberstein after 1821. Between 1800 and the 1820s many
“double names” can be found in documents
– usually they reveal the family's surname before the
name change, however in a few cases the families had
adopted a new surname they didn’t care for after a
while, so they changed again.
Older records written in Hebrew seem to be quite rare, and
it is unclear if they were lost of destroyed over time afer
the new regulations of the early 1800s took effect, when
every German Jewish community was required to keep their
Jewish records in the German language. Not all of these new
German records were kept in an orderly fashion, and
subsequently research can be slow and arduous in some
cases. But there are also plenty of examples where records
were kept very well, and in those cases Jewish ancestry can
easily be traced to the 1800s, or even further into the
past.
Please note: Jewish families were required change their
names everywhere in Germany. Subsequently many families who
were not related at all chose the exact same surnames: if
your family came from the same town as another family with
the exact surname as yours, it does therefore not
necessarily mean that you are related to that family! You
have to consult citizenship lists and name change papers,
or other reliable certificates and papers, before you can
make that determination. Example: When researching a
Pulvermacher family who had settled in Berlin said to be
related to the famous Pulvermachers from Posen, I was
surprised to find that one of the families had adopted the
Pulvermacher surname during a name change as late as the
1840s, and was in no way related to any of the other
families by the same surname!
It is advisable to never draw conclusions before having
carefully researched one’s family records!
Jewish and Christian Surnames
While some of the newly chosen surnames are the same as the
surnames of their Christian neighbors, others reflect the
sensitivities of Romanticism, leading many to think of such
names as “typical Jewish names”. Plant names
such as Mandelbaum, Rosenbusch, Rosenbaum, Rosenstihl,
Rosenstock, Rosenberg, Weinstock, or professional names
such as Goldschmidt, Krämer, Mahler, Eisenhändler, may come
to mind.
There were however numerous German Christian families,
especially so in East and West Prussia, who had carried the
surnames of Rosenberg, Rosenbaum, Rosenkranz, Goldschmidt,
Goldberg, etc. already for many centuries. It is therefore
extremely important to research one’s family history
carefully, and once again, not to jump to any conclusions
simply based on a surname.
In other words: a “Jewish sounding German
surname” does not necessarily mean that ones
ancestors were Jewish if
one’s parents
and grandparents were Christians! The same applies to
German surnames mentioned in Jewish surname databases. When
entering those same names into a regular database, one will
very likely come across the same names among Christian
families.
To prove this point, here is another example of Jewish name
changes in the early 1800s from the District Administration
of Durlach, in the Duchy of Baden: 17 Jewish families lived
in the village of Weingarten (plus 6 individuals who were
not married). Before the name change there were 3 families
with the surname Esaias, obviously relatives or brothers,
however each of them changed to a different surname! Among
the 17 families the following names were chosen: Bachmann,
Bär, Baum, Blum, Fuchs, Hirsch, Holz, Klein, Krieger,
Löwenstein (previously Löw), Meerapfel, Rose, Rothschild,
Schmidt, Schwarz, Sommer, Stahl, Stein, Stengel,
Weidenreich, Winter. While Löwenstein, Meerapfel, Rose,
Rothschild, indeed sound like “typical Jewish
surnames”, all of the other surnames are in most
cases not “Jewish names”, with a large number
of German families who already had carried those surnames
for centuries.
Religious Conversions
There were at all times Jews in Germany who converted to
Christianity, however before the 1790s such conversions
were few, and very far between. Pastors, as well as the
nobility, welcomed such conversions and often encouraged
them by handing out lavish gifts and money to the new
convert. Special entries were made in the church book
describing such baptisms, and who attended. Some of these
Jewish converts to Christianity were eventually married to
a Christian in the same community, and the marriage record
usually has added remarks referring to the previous
conversion. Other converts were sent to distant towns, to
remove them from the “bad” influence of their
former friends and family. Before the 1790s given names and
surnames of the Jewish convert were typically changed at
baptism, in order to bring about a “clean
break” to the past.
Only after the 1790s the number of converts increased
– after all, conversion guaranteed access to full
citizenship rights and professions, less discrimination,
and opened many new doors (but the German nobility still
didn’t extend invitations to their social events,
except to extremely wealthy individuals).
After centuries of continual persecution, and having been
shut out from German cultural life, the Jewish supporters
of Enlightenment called for assimilation and reform. Most
German Jews struggled to assimilate while holding on to
Jewish religion at the same time, but others felt that
assimilation into German-Christian culture was the highest
prize to pursue, and that differences between both
religions could easily be reconciliated. After all, both
religions preached that one had to care for and love ones
neighbor! There must have been thousands of converts
between the 1790s and 1850s, some of them very famous
poets, musicians, and socialites. The majority of converts
though were rather well educated, middle-class Jews.
Hitler and his National-Socialists were well aware that
many such conversions had taken place, as well as the fact
that they were recorded in the church books. That is the
reason why Germans were required to prove their Arian
background in their “Ahnen Pass”, their
“Passport of Ancestors”, and information on at
least 3 generations of ancestors had to be given. If a
convert was discovered, one was clearly not considered
“Arian”, and many children and grandchildren of
converts suffered the exact same fate as those who had
remained true to their faith.
If your family is Christian by religion, but you suspect
that your ancestors are Jewish, and/or that your surname
sounds Jewish and you would like to research the matter,
you should begin by finding your ancestor’s district
or town of origin in Germany. Based on this information we
can search for your ancestor’s birth record, his or
her parents records, and other family records, and step by
step and carefully trace your family tree, and in the
process answer your questions.
If, on the other hand, we end up researching your family
tree back to the 1700s and don’t find any trace of a
conversion, chances still might exist that your ancestors
may, at one point, have been Jewish, but these chances are
really quite minuscule (again, conversions were rare before
the 1790s in Germany).
There was another large group of European Jewish converts
in the 1400s – Spanish Jews who were forced to
convert to Catholicism before their expulsion from Spain in
1492. History books refer to them as Marranos, or
Conversos. Baptized under threat of being burnt at the
stake to Catholicism, many of their descendants remained
outwardly Christian for generations until it was safe for
them to revert back to their old faith. Some families
however never returned to Judaism. Most of these Conversos
fled to Turkey, some to West Africa, to the Caribbean
Islands, South America and from there also to New Mexico,
and a number of them settled in Germany and Poland. Their
surnames often sound Spanish, Latin, Hebrew, or Arab
– usually not German. In some cases it may be
possible to trace such families back to their origins, as
long as they lived in towns where old records of
Marrano/Converso populations exist – however: most
German church books only go back to the 1600s or 1700s.
German, Austrian, or Swiss Family Crests
with the Star of David
I have been asked by descendants of Christian families if
their family seal might not be clear proof of Jewish
origins, since it includes a symbol like the Star of David.
The answer is clear: No, a Star of David in an old family
crest does not proof Jewish origins. Before the Nazi Era
and the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, Christian
sensitivities towards this symbol were different than
today. Many villages and towns displayed a star like the
Star of David in their crests. It was considered to be a
Christian symbol, since the Christian church (whether
Catholic, Lutheran, or other denominations) claimed to be
the “New Israel”. The Masonic Lodge embraced
this star symbol as well, using it in their displays and
rituals. And further, European nobility and royalty claimed
to be heirs of the throne of David and of Jerusalem,
especially after the Crusades and subsequent occupation of
Jerusalem. The royalty of Austria and Spain still uphold
this claim to this very day.
If you suspect that your family is of Jewish origin and
would like to know and proof so, you need to search for
written proof; old documentation still exists and can be
found most everywhere in Germany.
If you would like to find your Jewish or your Christian
ancestors in Germany, Switzerland, or in other countries
where records were kept in the German language, I will
gladly be of assistance. I’m an expert in deciphering
old German Script and German genealogy research. I also
know the country of Germany, German, Christian, and Jewish
history very well. Over the years I have built a team of
highly educated and reliable German research associates,
who can offer support and access records in Germany on
location if need be.
© 2007-2015 Esther Bauer