The Great Lord who abused Favor through evil Advice Colored engraving with a caricature of Joseph Suss Oppenheimer
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 12.500 inches (31.75 cm) | Width: 9.125 inches (23.178 cm)
Creator(s)
- Peter Ehrenthal (Compiler)
- Johann Baumgartner (Artist)
Biographical History
The Katz Ehrenthal Collection is a collection of more than 900 objects depicting Jews and antisemitic and anti-Jewish propaganda from the medieval to the modern era, in Europe, Russia, and the United States. The collection was amassed by Peter Ehrenthal, a Romanian Holocaust survivor, to document the pervasive history of anti-Jewish hatred in Western art, politics and popular culture. It includes crude folk art as well as pieces created by Europe's finest craftsmen, prints and periodical illustrations, posters, paintings, decorative art, and toys and everyday household items decorated with depictions of stereotypical Jewish figures.
Archival History
The etching was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016 by the Katz Family.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Katz Family
Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Scope and Content
Small colored print with a satiric portrait of Joseph Suss Oppenheimer (1698-1738) (Jud Suss) being attacked by small devils. The print, made in 1738, around the time of the event, is based upon a drawing by Johann Baumgarter. Oppenheimer was a Jewish banker who administered the finances of Duke Karl Alexander of Wurttemberg, enriching the Duke and himself. Others were envious and resentful of his success, feelings increased by his actions, such as granting contracts to Jews and easing settlement restrictions. When the Duke died unexpectedly in March 1737, Oppenheimer was arrested, tried for fraud and treason, and sentenced to death. A huge crowd watched the hanging and the body was left hanging in public for six years. In 1939, a film, Jud Süss, was produced by Goebbels's Nazi Propaganda Ministry. The inflammatory, antisemitic film portrayed Jew Süss as a grotesquely exaggerated, greedy, unscrupulous Jewish businessman who rapes a non-Jewish woman. The film was a major success throughout Europe. The print is one of more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic artifacts and visual materials.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Color print with a portrait of a man depicted from the waist up in three quarters left profile with his head turned toward the viewer. He has large round eyes, a large nose, a small, faintly smiling mouth, and a double chin. He wears a curly wig, red jacket with yellow trim, blue waistcoat, white shirt, and dark red cloak. A yellow devil holding a lit candle hovers above his left shoulder. A brown devil in purple robe with purple wings hovers above his right shoulder. In a panel at the top, 6 undersized men with beards, large hats, and full robes look down at him. The men on the far left and far right hold links at opposite ends of a chain. In panels on the left and right, numerous interlinking objects, including weapons, clothing, and shackles, hanging from chains at the top. A wide panel at the bottom contains a barrel over a burning basket of tools on the left, a caption and a small oval with an image of a tall gallows in the center, and a gallows in front of brick platform on the right.
front, bottom right corner, pencil : Rigsi 41
People
- Suss-Oppenheimer, Joseph, 1698 or 1699-1738--Pictorial works.
Subjects
- Court Jews--Persecution--Germany--Wurttemberg.
- Jews--Persecution--Germany--History--18th century--Pictorial works.
- Antisemitism--Germany--History--18th century--Pictorial works.
- Jewish capitalists and financiers--Persecution--Germany--Pictorial works.
- Antisemitism in art.
- Jewish bankers--Pictorial works.
- Anti-Jewish propaganda--Germany--History--18th century--Pictorial works.
Genre
- Object
- Art