Memorial stone for Nathan the headmaster

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Memorial stone for Nathan the headmaster

The memorial stone for Nathan the head of Heilbronn is a 21 × 50 cm large sandstone block with the Hebrew inscription נתן הפרנס ( Nathan ha Parnas ). The stone was used to close a grave niche in the cellar of Lohtorstrasse 22, where the second Heilbronn synagogue was once located. As the oldest evidence of Jewish settlement in Heilbronn, the stone is part of the permanent exhibition in the House of City History .

history

The stone was located in the cellar of the “Zur Fischerstube” inn , which was destroyed in the air raid on December 4, 1944 , at Lohtorstrasse 22, where there were other walled-in burial niches. It was recovered during the rubble clearance after the Second World War and given to the Heilbronn City Archives . The Second Heilbronn Synagogue was probably located at Lohtorstraße 22, and there was also an underground connection with Kieselmarkt 1, which once housed a mikveh .

The head of a Jewish community is called Parnas . The Hebrew inscription on the stone translates as Nathan the (community) ruler and thus testifies that there must have already been a Jewish community in Heilbronn at the time of Nathan's burial .

The burial of the dead in underground catacombs, in which the burial niches were closed with inscription stones, goes back to an old Jewish custom. In southern Italy and Sicily, such burial niches are documented from the 9th century. From there this burial rite has spread with the oldest German Jewish communities. In the 11th century there was a change to burials, whereby the oldest surviving tombstones usually already contain honors and pious wishes.

The IRGW dated the Heilbronner Stein to the 9th century due to its written form and the lack of honors. The Leo Baeck Institute , however, dated it to the second half of the 11th century. The more recent literature follows the later dating.

literature

  • Wilhelm Steinhilber : The health system in old Heilbronn 1281-1871 , Heilbronn 1956, p. 356/357.
  • Helmut Schmolz and Hubert Weckbach : Heilbronn - history and life of a city . 2nd Edition. Anton H. Konrad Verlag, Weißenhorn 1973, p. 27, no.12 ( memorial stone for Nathan )
  • Wolfram Angerbauer , Hans Georg Frank: Jewish communities in the district and city of Heilbronn. History, fates, documents . District of Heilbronn, Heilbronn 1986 (series of publications of the district of Heilbronn. Volume 1)
  • Christhard Schrenk , Hubert Weckbach: The past traced - pictures of Heilbronn's history from 741–1803. Heilbronn 1993, No. 63.
  • Christhard Schrenk , Hubert Weckbach , Susanne Schlösser: From Helibrunna to Heilbronn. A city history (=  publications of the archive of the city of Heilbronn . Volume 36 ). Theiss, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-8062-1333-X .
  • Peter Wanner et al. a .: Heilbronn historically! Developing a city on the river . The exhibitions in the Otto Rettenmaier House / House of City History and in the Museum in the Deutschhof (=  small series of publications from the Heilbronn archive . Volume 62 ). Stadtarchiv Heilbronn, Städtische Museen Heilbronn, Heilbronn 2013, ISBN 978-3-940646-11-8 (further series: Museo. 26. Further ISBN 978-3-936921-16-8 ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christhard Schrenk , Hubert Weckbach , Susanne Schlösser: From Helibrunna to Heilbronn. A city history (=  publications of the archive of the city of Heilbronn . Volume 36 ). Theiss, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-8062-1333-X , p. 30 .
  2. ↑ Memorial stone for Nathan on: stadtgeschichte-heilbronn.de
  3. ↑ Oberrat der Israelitische Religionsgemeinschaft Württembergs (ed.): Jewish houses of God and cemeteries in Württemberg , Stuttgart 1932 (quoted from Steinhilber 1956).
  4. ↑ Angerbauer / Frank 1986, p. 11.
  5. ↑ Christhard Schrenk , Hubert Weckbach , Susanne Schlösser: From Helibrunna to Heilbronn. A city history (=  publications of the archive of the city of Heilbronn . Volume 36 ). Theiss, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-8062-1333-X (p. 16 (“from the 11th century”) and p. 30 (“probably from the 2nd half of the 11th century”)).
  6. ↑ Heilbronn Historically 2013, p. 16 ("2nd half of the 11th century").