The Judas Fire. History and Present of an Anti-Semitic Easter Custom in the German-Speaking World

• Applicant: Dr. Andreas Rentz
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 507628385

This project examines the origins and development of the Judas Fire ("Judasfeuer"), an internationally widespread Easter custom with an anti-Semitic character. As recently as 2019, the "Judas Court" in Pruchnik, Poland, caused an international scandal when a Judas figure designed with stereotypically "Jewish" features such as a hooked nose and orthodox hair style was burned. Similar customs also exist in German-speaking countries, but until now there has been no scholarly examination of the phenomenon. The following project aims to address this desideratum.The following questions arise: Under which circumstances did the Judas Fire originate and how did it develop and change in the course of time? What social function did it have, especially at the time of National Socialism? How and why did the narrative of a supposedly pagan origin emerge? And last but not least: To what extent can it be qualified as anti-Semitic? The aim of the project is to gain insight into the historical origins and development of a custom that is still practiced today and to make a contribution to historical research on anti-Semitism in an area that has never been systematically studied before.These questions are to be answered by an interdisciplinary methodological approach that is to be located in historical ritual research. Spatially, the object of study is limited to the German-speaking region, but it also takes into account the regions of Silesia, Sudetenland, and Alsace-Lorraine, which belonged to the former German Reich, in addition to the present-day states of Germany and Austria. Temporally, the entire history of Judas Fire is to be covered from its earliest evidence in the 17th century to the 20th century, with a focus on the late 19th and 20th centuries due to the significantly better source material. Ethnological collections and surveys, newspaper articles, but also court records, account books and edicts act as sources. Here, it is possible to build on two articles on the subject that the applicant has already published. In doing so, the empirical findings must be placed in the broader interpretative context of Christian anti-Judaism in order to gain a better understanding of how hostility toward Jews was articulated and transmitted among the rural population. In view of the fact that the custom is still practiced today and that anti-Semitism is on the rise, it is of current relevance to investigate the historical background of the Judas Fire.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants