Barthold Dowe Burmania

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Barthold Dowe Burmania was a Dutch statesman and ambassador to the court of Vienna in the eighteenth century.

He was a man of broad humanitarian sympathies and an especially staunch friend of the Jews. When, in the 1740s, Maria Theresa ordered the expulsion of the Jews from Prague (to take place before the end of Jan., 1745) and from all Bohemia (before the end of June, 1745) Burmania, at the request of the Jewish communities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and The Hague, exerted all his influence at the court to have the edict revoked. He was assisted by the English minister, Sir Thomas Robinson. The result of his efforts was the postponement of the date of exile to the last day of Feb., 1745. Again the Jewish communities of Holland appealed to Burmania, and again he pleaded, urged, and remonstrated with the Austrian Reichskanzler (Chancellor), that "sovereigns, more than other persons, are responsible to God and man for their deeds." Another month of grace was granted, but on March 31, 1745, the Jews of Prague were exiled. Thereupon, Burmania, supported by the ambassadors of England, Poland, and Turkey, directed his energies toward averting the expulsion of the Jews from the whole of Bohemia, which was to take place in June.

A royal edict was issued April 8, 1745, ordering all Jews of Moravia also to emigrate within a short time. Again Burmania pleaded for them, and the edicts were modified (May 15, 1745), the Jews being allowed to remain in Bohemia and Moravia "until further orders". Burmania endeavored to have repealed the edict which was issued June 25, 1746, prohibiting all Jews from coming within two hours' distance of Prague; but he was not successful. Finally, however (July 14, 1748), Maria Theresa revoked the edict of Dec. 18, 1744, "on account of the pressure from the foreign ambassadors," and the Jews were allowed to return to Prague.