Joseph Süß Oppenheimer
Joseph Süß Oppenheimer (1698? – February 4, 1738) was a German Jewish banker and court Jew for Duke Karl Alexander of Württemberg in Stuttgart. Throughout his career, Oppenheimer made scores of powerful enemies, some of whom conspired to bring about his arrest and execution after Karl Alexander's death.
Joseph Süß Oppenheimer
1698 or 1699
February 4, 1738 (aged 39)
In the centuries since his execution, Oppenheimer's rise and fall have been treated in two notable literary works, and his ordeal inspired two films, including the antisemitic production Jud Süß, released in Nazi Germany in 1940, itself the cause for a famous postwar trial.[1]
In literature, art and film[edit]
The story of Joseph Süß Oppenheimer was the subject of a number of literary and dramatic treatments over the course of the past two centuries.[4] The earliest of these was Wilhelm Hauff's 1827 novella titled Jud Süß.[5] The most successful literary adaptation was Lion Feuchtwanger's 1925 novel titled Jud Süß based on a play that he had written in 1916 though never performed and subsequently withdrawn by Feuchtwanger.
Ashley Dukes and Paul Kornfeld also wrote dramatic adaptations of the Feuchtwanger novel. In 1934, Lothar Mendes directed a film adaptation of the novel in which Süß was portrayed by actor Conrad Veidt.[6]: 42–44 An anti-semitic Nazi propaganda film titled Jud Süß was made in 1940 by Veit Harlan, in which Süß was portrayed by actor Ferdinand Marian.
In the 1990s, the German sculptor Angela Laich created a sculpture devoted to Joseph Süß Oppenheimer as well as illustrations for Hellmut G. Haasis's biography.
In 2016 the movie Norman was released, loosely inspired by Oppenheimer's life, starring Richard Gere.
Biographies[edit]
Shortly after Feuchtwanger's novel was published, Selma Stern published a biography of Oppenheimer titled Jud Süß: Ein Beitrag zur deutschen und zur jüdischen Geschichte. More recently, Hellmut G. Haasis published a biography titled Joseph Süß Oppenheimer, genannt Jud Süß: Finanzier, Freidenker, Justizopfer. It is still the standard work on the topic. In 2017, Yair Mintzker, a history professor at Princeton University, published a new account of Oppenheimer's trial, The Many Deaths of Jew Süss, which is the most comprehensive treatment of Oppenheimer's trial available in English.