Old Jewish cemetery at Rat-Beil-Strasse

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Entrance portal to the old Jewish cemetery
Tomb of Mayer Carl and Louise von Rothschild
Königswarter grave
Grave of Nobel Prize winner Paul Ehrlich
Tombs of Samson Raphael Hirsch and his wife
Gravestone of Leopold Sonnemann
Grave of Emma and Henry Budge
Grave of Israel from Stolin, Der Frankfurter

The Old Jewish Cemetery on Rat-Beil-Strasse is the largest of a total of twelve Jewish burial places in Frankfurt am Main . It was built together with the main cemetery far outside the city limits at that time and opened in 1828 after the old burial ground near the former Frankfurt Judengasse, which had been in use since the Middle Ages, was closed. The last burial took place there on September 18, 1928.

By 1928, almost 40,000 dead were buried in the cemetery. Because of its numerous magnificent tombs and the famous personalities who found their final resting place here, the cemetery is an important cultural monument. In 1929 it was closed and a new Jewish cemetery was opened on Eckenheimer Landstrasse .

location

The cemetery is on Rat-Beil-Straße in the Nordend district . In the west it borders on the crypt wall of the main cemetery. The original area was nine Frankfurt Feldmorgen (about 18,000 square meters). In the 1850s and 1890s, it was expanded several times to the last 73,831 square meters and completely enclosed by a cemetery wall. The cemetery is now enclosed on three sides by the main cemetery to the west, north and northeast. In the east it borders on Friedberger Landstrasse .

Access

The original entrance to the cemetery was designed by city architect Friedrich Rumpf and is a completely white portal with Doric columns , which was designed in the classical style. The following inscription in Hebrew in the architrave is placed above the entrance portal :

"Those who walk the straight path, move in peace to where they rest on their beds"

- ( Isa 57,2  LUT )

The portal borders the crypt hall of the main cemetery, which is located immediately next to it. The cemetery is no longer accessible via the main portal, but via an iron gate about 50 m further east.

history

In 1821 the city commissioned Senator Johann Adam Beil to plan a new cemetery outside the city. Both the Peterskirchhof and the old Jewish cemetery on the former Judengasse had become too small, which, due to the chronic overcrowding, led to unsustainable hygienic conditions. The new cemetery on what is now Eckenheimer Landstrasse was to have a Christian and a Jewish section. The architect Friedrich Rumpf and the city gardener Sebastian Rinz were commissioned with the execution . In 1828 the two new adjacent cemeteries were opened.

Over time, the original area was expanded again and again. The first expansion of the Jewish cemetery took place in the 1850s, and another in the 1890s. In 1876, the Orthodox Israelite Religious Society, led by Samson Raphael Hirsch, separated from the more liberal Jewish community in Frankfurt and had its own burial site set up east of the cemetery. Today, after the last enlargement of the cemetery in 1923, this cemetery is located in the middle of the cemetery.

Since the cemetery was finally surrounded on all sides by the main cemetery, it could no longer be expanded. In 1929, after almost a hundred years of existence, the New Jewish Cemetery on Eckenheimer Landstrasse, north of the main cemetery, was inaugurated.

Type of grave sites

The design of the tombs in the old Jewish cemetery differs in part greatly from the conventional design of other Jewish cemeteries. At the beginning of the burials, most of the tombs were designed in a plain and simple style. In the course of the 19th century, the gravestones, as in the neighboring Christian cemetery, were designed increasingly lavish and splendid.

Only the Orthodox Israelite Religious Society continued to pay attention to the traditional design of the graves. Your separate cemetery area, established in 1876, has merged with the rest of the cemetery over the years, but its location is still clearly recognizable today due to the design of the different tombstones.

Todays use

Today the grave monuments of around 40,000 deceased can be found on the cemetery grounds. Burials took place there regularly until 1928, when the area of ​​the new Jewish cemetery on Eckenheimer Landstrasse was occupied. Even today there are still occasional funerals taking place on the old part, although these are only relatives or relatives of those who have already died.

Personalities

See also

literature

  • The Jewish cemeteries in Frankfurt. With photos by Klaus Meier-Ude and texts by Valentin Senger . Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1983. ISBN 3-7829-0298-X .
  • Victor von Brauchitsch, Helga von Brauchitsch: In memory - tombs in Frankfurt am Main . Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-7829-0354-4 .
  • Peter Braunholz, Britta Boerdner, Christian Setzepfandt : The Frankfurt main cemetery . Illustrated book. Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-7973-1147-4 .
  • Cemetery Administration of the City of Frankfurt am Main - Green Space Office - Department of Cemetery Affairs: The cemetery guide - information, references, locations, history, addresses, advertisements . Ed .: Mammut-Verlag (= this  side and the other side ). 1st edition. Mammut-Verlag, Leipzig March 2012.
  • Isidor Kracauer: History of the Jews in Frankfurt a. M. (1150-1824). 2 volumes, J. Kauffmann, Frankfurt am Main 1925/27.
  • Eugen Mayer: The Frankfurt Jews. Look into the past. Waldemar Kramer publishing house, Frankfurt am Main 1966.
  • Valentin Senger (author), Klaus Meier-Ude (photographer): The Jewish cemeteries in Frankfurt. Verlag Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1985, ISBN 3-7829-0298-X , pp. 10-20 (3rd revised edition under the title: The Jewish cemeteries in Frankfurt am Main. Fachhochschulverlag, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3- 936065-15-2 .)

Web links

Commons : Old Jewish Cemetery Rat-Beil-Straße  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 7 ′ 56.4 "  N , 8 ° 41 ′ 22.2"  E