Old Israelite Cemetery (Munich)

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Old Israelite cemetery

The old Israelite cemetery of Munich is located in the district Sendling and was from 1816 to 1907 in use.

history

There was a Jewish cemetery in Munich as early as 1230 . It is believed to be at the site of today's Maßmannplatz . In 1442 the Jews were expelled from Munich and the synagogue and cemetery were destroyed.

Only towards the end of the 18th century were Jews allowed to settle in the city again. In 1816, the Bavarian King Max I Joseph permitted the construction of a new Jewish cemetery in Thalkirchner Strasse. It was expanded a total of three times (1854, 1871, 1881) and each time a new cemetery wall was added. At the beginning of the 20th century, the cemetery had to be abandoned due to the lack of expansion options. In 1907 the cemetery was closed with the opening of the New Israelite Cemetery .

People who died after 1907 were only buried on Thalkirchner Straße if a family grave had already existed there. Therefore, some of them were murdered in the Dachau concentration camp . Even today, in rare cases, burials can still take place in the cemetery.

Development

Entrance on Thalkirchner Strasse

The brick wall from 1881 surrounds an area of ​​2.5 hectares . The imposing entrance gate on Thalkirchner Straße was closed when the cemetery was closed in 1907 and has not been reopened since. Today's access is via the former side entrance on the south side.

Tahara House in the Old Israelite Cemetery (back side)

Which is located on the southern cemetery wall Taharahaus of brick masonry. It was built in 1882 on the site of a much smaller previous building. The arched-style building shows a basilica cross-section. The higher central part has a facade with a gabled pillar portico . It was used as a mourning hall. On the sides are the side rooms, which each served as a morgue as well as a prayer room and a guard's apartment.

The grave fields are densely occupied with around 6,000 graves and, as usual in Jewish cemeteries, face Jerusalem (i.e. to the southeast when viewed from Munich). Alleged vacancies arose from weathering of the tombstones , bomb damage in World War II and the use of tombstones as building material during the Nazi era .

Protected architectural monument

In the list of monuments of the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments , the Old Israelite Cemetery is described as follows under the file number D-1-62-000-6842: “Established in 1816, later expanded; surrounding wall from 1881, with romanised raw brick gate in the east; The mourning hall in the south of the same construction, 1882. With mostly classical grave monuments from the 19th and 20th centuries ”.

planting

The relatively dense tree population consists mainly of conifers ( thuja , false cypress ), which is otherwise not common in Munich cemeteries. There is traditionally no planting of graves in Jewish cemeteries (there are exceptions).

Concentration camp graves and memorials for the victims

There are nine graves in the cemetery of victims of the Nazi persecution of Jews who were buried here between 1933 and 1940. They are maintained as concentration camp graves by the Bavarian Palace Administration. The buried are:

  • Karl Bick (1878–1940), businessman, suicide
  • Gustav Böhm (1880–1938), lawyer, murdered in Dachau concentration camp
  • Karl Feust (1887–1938), lawyer, died after being mistreated in the Dachau concentration camp
  • Bernhard Haas (1871–1938), landowner, murdered in Dachau concentration camp
  • Erwin Kahn (1900–1933), shot “on the run” in Dachau concentration camp and died
  • Max Luber (1869–1939), murdered in Dachau concentration camp
  • Albert Neustätter (1874–1938), merchant, murdered in Dachau concentration camp
  • Hans Schloss (1901–1938), merchant, murdered in Dachau concentration camp
  • Alfred Strauss (1902–1933), lawyer, murdered in Dachau concentration camp

In June 2008 a memorial in memory of the victims was inaugurated in the entrance area of ​​the cemetery. The memorial, consisting of several granite blocks, was created by the Munich sculptor Nikolaus Gerhart and financed from the legacy of the son of Bernhard Haas, one of the victims.

Others

The cemetery is not open to the public, only relatives of the buried are allowed to enter the cemetery. Guided tours of the Munich Adult Education Center are offered several times a year for those interested .

Graves of famous people

  • Old Israelite Cemetery 5325.jpg
  • Old Israelitischer Friedhof Muenchen-2.jpg
  • Old Israelitischer Friedhof Muenchen-4.jpg

literature

documentary

Web links

Commons : Alter Israelitischer Friedhof (Munich)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Helga Pfoertner: Living with history. Vol. 2, Literareron, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-8316-1025-8 , pp. 12-17 ( PDF; 3.8 MB ( Memento from December 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ))
  2. ↑ Constanze Werner: Concentration camp cemeteries and memorials in Bavaria . Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-7954-2483-1 , page 39ff.
  3. ↑ mvhs.de: Old Israelitischer Friedhof on Thalkirchner Strasse . Retrieved August 23, 2018.
  4. ↑ For Eternity: A production in collaboration with the Jewish Museum Munich and the Munich City Archives. In co-production with the HFF Munich. , feinshmekerfilm.de, 201

Coordinates: 48 ° 6 ′ 35 ″  N , 11 ° 32 ′ 45.2 ″  E