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JewishHistoryעברית

Rintfleisch massacres

Date
April 1298 – October 1298
Location
Franconia and neighbouring landsGermany
Then part of
Holy Roman Empire
Perpetrators
  • Rintfleisch and accompanying mobs (Mob)
Killed (estimate)
4,000 – 5,000[1]Historisches Lexikon Bayerns (Lotter) gives at least 4,000 to 5,000 killed in 130 to 146 localities, and 3,441 named victims in 44 "blood towns" of the Nuremberg Memorbuch. Jewish Encyclopedia, following Grätz, says about 120 congregations numbering 100,000 Jews were swept away.
Country

10% – 13% of the Jewish population of Holy Roman Empire (c. 1500)[33]

Worldwide

0.33% – 0.5% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 1300)[13]

Category
Pogrom, Massacre, Blood libel
Confidence
DisputedLotter's lexicon entry, based on the Nuremberg Memorbuch and contemporary chronicles, puts deaths at least at 4,000–5,000 in 130–146 places. The 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, citing Grätz, gives about 120 congregations and 100,000 Jews, a figure far above the documented named victims (3,441) and rejected by the later scholarship used here.

Summary

On 20 April 1298, during the contest for the German crown between Adolf of Nassau and Albert of Austria, a host-desecration rumour at Röttingen in Franconia was followed by the burning of the town's Jews. A leader called Rintfleisch, described in most sources as a butcher or executioner rather than a noble, gathered a mob and moved from town to town killing Jews who would not convert. The Nuremberg Memorbuch dates further waves in late June and from 18 July to 1 August, including the destruction of the communities of Würzburg (24 July) and Nuremberg (1 August). Regensburg and Augsburg were protected by their magistrates. King Albert later punished some of those involved, including, according to a Viennese continuation chronicle, by banishing Rintfleisch.

Sources

  1. Friedrich Lotter, Rintfleisch-Verfolgung, 1298. Historisches Lexikon Bayerns (2009)
  2. Gotthard Deutsch, S. Mannheimer, Rindfleisch. Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 1,000,000 – 1,200,000[13]c. 1300DellaPergola's Fundamentals Table 2 gives 1.2 million in 1300. Botticini and Eckstein Table 9 give about 1–1.2 million for the early fourteenth century.
  • Holy Roman Empire: 40,000[33]c. 1500Botticini and Eckstein's Germany-Austria (GA) series, which they equate for 1500–1800 with the Holy Roman Empire area of their map, cites Guggenheim and Toch at about 40,000 Jews around 1500 (~0.25% of ~16 million). This is German lands / HRE as defined in that appendix, not a separately enumerated sum of every imperial estate.

Sources for population estimates

  1. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2025)
  2. Sergio DellaPergola, Notes toward a Demographic History of the Jews. Genealogy 8(1) (2024)
  3. Jewish Population of Europe in 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  4. Jewish Population of the World. American Jewish Year Book 1948–1949, via Berman Jewish Policy Archive (1949)
  5. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Voluntary Conversions and Diaspora: A Human Capital Interpretation of Jewish History. American Economic Association annual meeting paper (2007)
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  7. Mandate for Palestine. Report of the Mandatory to the League of Nations (Palestine Administration, 1922). United Nations UNISPAL (British mandatory report) (1922)
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  9. The Contagion of Violence. 1391 and the Jews of the Spanish Kingdoms. Palgrave / Springer chapter (preview) (2021)
  10. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Religious Norms, Human Capital, and Money Lending in Jewish European History. Handbook chapter PDF via zvi-eckstein.com
  11. Sergio DellaPergola, Some Fundamentals of Jewish Demographic History. Berman Jewish Policy Archive (PDF) (2001)
  12. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, THE CHOSEN FEW: HOW EDUCATION SHAPED JEWISH HISTORY, 70–1492 (book summary). Bar-Ilan University Economics seminar PDF (Princeton University Press forthcoming summary)
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  20. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank / Israel CBS host (2025)
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  50. Greece. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  54. Jacqueline Shields, Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries. Jewish Virtual Library
  55. Lebanon Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
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  57. Algeria (Vital Statistics). Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
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  63. Argentina Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
  64. All-Union 1959 census — ethnic composition of the USSR. Demoscope Weekly (РГАЭ РФ fond 1562)
  65. All-Union 1959 census — ethnic composition of the Uzbek SSR. Demoscope Weekly (РГАЭ РФ fond 1562)