Presenter: Roger Lustig
Format: Download MP4 video file of Slides with synchronized audio

The Germany where our ancestors lived is not the Germany of today. Its boundaries have changed several times. Before its unification in 1871 it was more a concept than a state, composed of dozens of kingdoms, duchies and principalities large and small. Each of these states had its own laws and attitudes toward Jews. To do research in ?Germany? one must know which places belonged to which state at a given time, the legal status of Jews there, and the records that they kept. Germany has an enormous wealth of records pertaining to Jews, especially after 1800, but there are no simple, global rules for using them. My talk will work backwards from today?s Germany to the early 19th century. It will focus on key historical events, their impact on Jewish life and the way records were kept.