While the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg and the Prussian administrative district of Stade entered the modern era with enormous confessional homogeneity, the administrative district of Aurich - as a result of Ostfreisland's unique Kleinstaaterei. The petty lords, descended from the medieval Hauptlingen, found a ready source of income in granting "protection letters" to non-dominant religious groups. Foremost among these were Jews (who would pay an annual set fee to the Lord) in return for the right to live and carry on a trade in the Herrlichkeit. As the map above indicates, there were many small religious communities scattered across the area.

 

This page is still in progress and will be filled out with material that I am not able to fully include in the printed text of Antisemitism and Rural Politics.