ABSTRACT
The Austrian Civil Code of 1786 (renewed in 1811) claimed to regulate the totality of marital issues, including the former jurisdictions of clerical institutions. This concerned not only the members of the dominant confession, Catholicism, but also Protestantism, Greek-Orthodoxy, and Judaism. In drafting the new law, the jurists had taken denominational and religious differences into account. When the new law came into force, Jewish couples, whose traditional provisions for divorce differed significantly from those for Christian couples, demonstrated a high degree of flexibility. When filing for divorce or for a separation from bed and board, which had not previously been possible under Mosaic law, they creatively utilized regulations formulated for Christian denominations.
Such lawsuits offer insights into Jewish marriages and their ideas of divorce as well as their handling of property. Two cases from the first half of the 19th century form the focal point of this study: the lawsuit of Sara and Hirsch Barach in Vienna from 1811/1812 and that of Dina and Maier (Benedikt) Burgauer in Hohenems from 1826. This analysis will be accompanied by Supreme Court cases from the rest of the 19th century in order to show developments and overall tendencies.
