The background and the conditions of postmedieval history in the German territories, as well as of the history of European Jewry generally and of German Jews especially, are known. First, following the expulsion of the Jews from the imperial cities after 1450, rural and small-town Jewish communities arose. Until the end of the Napoleonic wars, only about 7 percent of all German Jews lived in the three largest Jewish communities: those in Hamburg, Breslau, and Frankfurt am Main. The vast majority still lived in villages and small urban centers. To a great extent, this environment (Lebensraum) shaped the intellectual and social history of the Jews. Second, violent expulsions were gradually replaced by “peaceful” expulsions. Sovereigns who profited handsomely from Jewish settlers extended the practice of Schutzjudentum (protected Jewry). Although the Jews were doomed to transient lives, they were welcomed by the lords of the manor because of innumerable special taxes and tolls. Third, the anti-Judaism of Martin Luther and other religious reformers abetted the growing distinctions between Jews and non-Jews. The common medieval anti-Jewish topoi of the Jew as ritual murderer and host profaner survived the apocalyptic period and were fixed, for example, at Catholic places of pilgrimage. Fourth, because Jews were excluded from nearly all skilled trades, they had to get along as moneylenders, traders, and door-to-door salesmen. Most of them lived at the subsistence level, and only a few advanced socially as Hoffaktoren (Jewish court agents).