Nothing Out of the Ordinary: The Life of Salomon Marcus

Abstract

From roughly the first half of the eighteenth century, Jewish life in East Prussia was mostly concentrated in Königsberg, the capital city of the province. In 1811, for instance, there were eight hundred and eight Jews in East Prussia, six hundred and fifty of whom were living in Königsberg. In Tilsit, Memel and Gumbinnen, other main cities of the province, there were thirteen, twenty-five, and fourteen Jews respectively. The tiny remainder was spread out among small towns; in the villages there were almost no Jews. While the history of the Jews of Königsberg has been well researched and the Jewish presence in other cities of East Prussia synthesized in several anthologies, that little bit of Jewish life in the small East Prussian towns and villages remains unknown. Considering the insignificant number of Jews who once lived in the East Prussian countryside, this lack of research is understandable. On the other hand, studies on small communities—or, even more accurate in the case of East Prussia, on individual families—can complete the general picture of Jewish life not only in East Prussia, but in the entire Prussian territory. The accuracy of these studies complements overviews intended mainly to develop an understanding of general processes and happenings. A micro-study can therefore add to existing research—even if only used as a tool with which to confirm or question a more wide-ranging thesis. This essay, an examination of one individual Jewish life in East Prussia, is one such micro-study. It is the story of Salomon Marcus, a small-time Jewish merchant who lived in Gilgenburg, a small town in East Prussia in the Osterode District, in the last three decades of the eighteenth and the first two decades of the nineteenth century.