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The Readmission of Jews into Brandenburg (1671)

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10. Should – which may God forbid! – war break out in Our Lands in these twenty years, the said Jews shall be free, like Our other subjects, to take refuge, with their families, in Our fortresses, and they are to be received and tolerated there.

Accordingly, We command all Our subjects and servants of whatever rank or status that they shall for twenty years from this date on allow the said Jews to pass freely and securely everywhere in the whole of Our Electorate and other lands, to attend the public fairs, depots, and places of trade, to offer all their wares for sale publicly, and to give them facilities without let or hindrance for honorable trade and such traffic as is not forbidden, and not to molest them. Furthermore, all magistrates and officers of law are to give them all due assistance for which they ask and to offer them the same hospitality as they give to others, under pain of Our highest displeasure and also of a fine of fifty gulden in gold, and more if We think fit. In token whereof We have signed this Privilege and Letter of Protection with Our own hand and confirmed it with Our Seal of Grace.

Potsdam, May 21, 1671
Frederick William




Source of English translation: C.A. Macartney, ed., The Habsburg and Hohenzollern Dynasties in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, in Documentary History of Western Civilization. New York, Evanston, and London: Harper & Row, 1970, pp. 259-63. Introduction, editorial notes, chronology, translations by the editor; and compilation copyright © 1970 by C.A. Macartney. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Source of original German text: Christian Otto Mylius, Corpus Constitutionum Marchicarum, Oder Königl. Preußis. und Churfürstl. Brandenburgische in der Chur- und Marck Brandenburg, auch incorporirten Landen publicirte und ergangene Ordnungen, Edicta, Mandata, Rescripta [et]c. : Von Zeiten Friedrichs I. Churfürstens zu Brandenburg, [et]c. biß ietzo unter der Regierung Friederich Wilhelms, Königs in Preußen [et]c. ad annum 1736. inclusivè / ... colligiret und ans Licht gegeben von Christian Otto Mylius. Berlin und Halle, Zu finden im Buchladen des Waysenhauses, [1737]-1755 [Part 5, Sec. 5, Chapter III, No. II], pp. 121-26.

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