Bespräch eines Juden zu Lassel bey Mainz mit einem eingebildeten Freyheits-Mann über den Freyheitsbann, in Jänner 1793 [“The discussion of a Jew in Lassel-bei-Mainz with an imaginary Freedom-Man on Freedom-Way in January 1793.”].

This lampoon by a German reactionary pokes fun at the innovations of the French Revolution, caricaturizing it as a collusion of Jews and revolutionaries. One notes the men's three-cornered caps popularized by the Revolution. The historical backdrop to the engraving is as follows. On November 6th, 1792, French General Custine captured the German city of Mainz. At the beginning of 1793 commissioners of the National Convent in Paris arrived in Mainz to prepare the election of the municipalities and the constituent assembly. This was the genesis of the so-called “Mainzer Republik.” Unfortunately, the newly founded “Republik” was short-lived. After four months of siege by Prussian and Austrian troops, on July 23rd, 1793, Mainz was reconquered by the forces of reaction. See Landtag Rheinland-Pfalz: Die Mainzer Republik, Der Rheinisch-Deutsche Nationalkonvent (1993); Stadt Mainz: Die Publizistik der Mainzer Jakobiner und ihrer Gegner (1993).