ABSTRACT
The activities of the Court Jew as army and Court purveyor, as financial and commercial agent, as resident and mint contractor, were, we may assume, very important to him because they provided the economic base of his life, satisfied his ambition and desire for power, gave him position and prestige, privileges and rights, and above all a deeper insight into problems of economies, finances and politics. Their head was the shtadlan, the most important personality of every Jewish corporation, whose title corresponded to that of the syndicus in the cities or to the chief elder of the Berlin Jewry. This shtadlan, once described as the “sovereign guiding-father of the community,” possessed through his wealth, his family name and his own influential position very extensive powers.
