Billeting Prussian Military in the Houses of Berlin Jews: An Unknown Chapter in Early Modern Jewish-Christian Interactions

Abstract

During the Thirty Years’ War, both Christians and Jews were obliged to accommodate soldiers in their homes. Billeting was common practice and posed a difficult situation for both the civilians and the military personnel.1 Billeting was initially a direct result from being close to an ongoing war, but when after 1648 the troops stayed and the concept of army changed from an army of mercenaries into a standing army, adequate accommodation needed to be provided for the growing number of soldiers. Thus billeting became institutionalized. In Prussia, the Interims-Verpflegungs-Ordonnanz of 1655 identified arrangements for provisions and billeting, adopting the arrangements of the Ordonnanz von Verpflegung der Soldaten in 1635.2 Provisioning the army was part of the Magistrate’s jurisdiction, and the Ordonnanz lists in detail how much money every rank was entitled to, with officers receiving cash and lower ranks the equivalent in accommodation and wood for burning, salt etc.3 The list not only states the rights of the