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IntroductionFrankism was a spiritual movement that flourished in the second half of the eighteenth century in central Europe. Its founder, leader, and supposed messiah, Jacob Frank, was born around 1726 in Podolia (in today’s Ukraine). Frank grew up in the Sabbatean religious community and later incorporated its teaching into his own belief system, inspired by Jewish Kabbalah and Catholic Marian mysticism. Like the Sabbateans, the Frankists saw the messiah in the figure of Sabbatai Zevi (1626–76), sometimes referred to as Amira in the writings of the Prague Frankist circle. The leader of one of the branches of the Turkish Sabbateans, Baruchya Ruso (1695–1740), known as Señor Santo, was considered another incarnation of the messiah. The final incarnation of the messiah was thought to be Jacob Frank, or the ‘Holy Father’ (Scholem 1991, 641–43). After his death in 1791, the role of the messiah (or rather the role of the messiah’s mother; discussed below) was taken over by his daughter, Eva Frank (1754–1816), whom the Prague texts refer to as Gevirah or the Virgin: ‘She is the Messiah who did not come to mind. No one thought of it, but it is this Virgin, who is Gevirah, who will bring redemption!’ (Scholem 1991, 644). The Prague texts are a great source of theological concepts of the last stage of the Frankist movement. Their main author, Löw Enoch von Hönigsberg (1770–1828), was a Jewish Haskalah thinker and preacher. In his work, it can be seen that he welcomes the political limitations on religious powers and the resistance against long-privileged social classes of his time. He rejoices over the demise of the old empires, which began to crumble under the weight of the French Revolution and following the Napoleonic Wars. The preacher assures his listeners that there is no need to fear the revolution, as it is a ‘sign of the times’ that encourages hope for the imminent arrival of the messiah (Wessely 1845, 142–145). The Prague phase of Frankism was very productive of millennial notions. The millennial thinking was very evident in the life of the Frankist community in Offenbach, Germany, where Frankists tried to embody the cosmic story of Kabbalah—the idea of reunification of male and female.The Final RefugeDuring his life, Frank was active in a number of different locations. At first, he started to gain followers in his homeland. In 1760, he was imprisoned in the Polish fortress of Czestochowa, and after his release in 1772 he moved to Brno. From there, Frank repeatedly visited the imperial city Vienna, where he negotiated with Emperor Joseph II (1741–1790). In 1787 Frank moved further west to Offenbach. Here he bought Isenburg Castle from Prince Wolfgang Ernst II of Isenburg and Büdingen (1735–1803). Thus, he gained a new refuge for his family and his followers: He bought from a German prince, the one from Homburg-Birstein, a castle in Offenbach, together with the sovereign right of its own jurisdiction and police. The new German landowner titled himself as Baron von Frank. (Mauthner 1918, 304, trans. from German by I. Kohout and M. Vinklát; see also Beer 1823, 325) This sixteenth-century Renaissance chateau still stands in the town of Offenbach in the state of Hesse on the left bank of the river Main. It became the base of Frank’s spiritual movement for almost thirty years. Behind its walls his believers could fulfill their spiritual life without persecution. Just before 1800, the movement began sending many so-called Red Letters from nearby administrative centres to Frankist communities scattered throughout central and eastern Europe. Contemporary witnesses describe this as follows: They helped write letters in red ink that the Czestochowians sent to all the places where Jews gathered. … Letters had to be submitted at the post offices in Frankfurt, Hanau and other nearby places. They acted so that no one would know they had written so many of these letters. (Back 1877, 191, trans. from German by I. Kohout and M. Vinklát; see also Scholem 1991, 646) The letters from the Czestochowians called upon European Jews to convert to Christianity and warned of impending disaster. The community nicknamed Isenburg Castle the ‘Polish Court’ and sometimes the ‘Holy Camp’. The latter designation referred to the biblical camp of Jews travelling through the desert (Porges 1993, 8). In the chateau, there was a darkened ‘Holy Room’, where the clothes of the late Jacob Frank were stored. Here, pilgrims prayed and prostrated themselves: Jacob Frank, who died some time ago, was considered a God. They have a certain room with a bed, a red velvet cover and some trousers. Whoever enters the room must fall to the ground and worship Jacob Frank. All the Praguers who stayed in Offenbach did this. The room was also incensed. (Back 1877, 232, trans. from German by I. Kohout and M. Vinklát; see also Porges 1993, 11) The castle served as a place of pilgrimage. Because of the Red Letters, adherents of Frank’s teachings came from all over Eu...

Frankism - CDAMM