Alexander ben Salomon Wimpfen

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Alexander ben Salomon Wimpfen († September 7, 1307 in Frankfurt am Main ), also called Süsskind Wimpfen , was a businessman in Frankfurt. He became famous for the recovery of the body of Rabbi Meir ben Baruch, called von Rothenburg (approx. 1215–1293).

Gravestone of Alexander ben Salomon Wimpfen (right), left: Gravestone of Meir ben Baruch, called von Rothenburg

Meir ben Baruch was a famous rabbi and Talmud scholar . In the eyes of the authorities, he was the instigator of a wave of emigration to Palestine, which they viewed as a financial threat. Arrested in 1286, he was imprisoned in Ensisheim by King Rudolf I to extort money from the Jewish communities in Germany. Meir himself forbade payment so as not to set a precedent for the arrest of other rabbis and died in captivity in 1293. But his body was also held back to extort money.

In 1307 the Frankfurt merchant Alexander ben Salomon Wimpfen succeeded in redeeming the corpse for more than 20,000 pounds of silver by sacrificing his entire fortune - as the legend reports. Alexander himself transported the corpse to Worms, where it was buried at Meir's request in the Jewish cemetery, Heiliger Sand . Alexander himself died just a few weeks later, on the Day of Atonement , and was buried next to Meir. Both graves enjoy a high degree of veneration to this day.

The tombstone of Alexander ben Salomon Wimpfen bears the number 89 according to the old inventory, and the number 794 according to the numbering of the Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute .

literature

in alphabetical order by authors / editors

  • Otto Böcher : The old Jewish cemetery in Worms = Rheinische Kunststätten 148th 7th edition. Neusser Verlag und Druckerei, Neuss 1992. ISBN 3-88094-711-2
  • S. Rothschild: The last months of Rabbi Meir von Rothenburg . In: Vom Rhein 12 (1913), pp. 87f.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Böcher, p. 7; but since he will be buried the next day, September 8th ( Epidat: Worms Jewish Cemetery ), he may have died in Worms after all.
  2. ↑ Rothschild, p. 87.
  3. ↑ Böcher, p. 7.
  4. ↑ Böcher, p. 7.
  5. ↑ Böcher, p. 6.
  6. ↑ Epidat: Worms Jewish Cemetery .
personal data
SURNAME Alexander ben Salomon Wimpfen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Merchant
DATE OF BIRTH 13th Century
DATE OF DEATH September 7, 1307
Place of death Frankfurt am Main