History of the Jews in Hann. Münden
The history of the Jews in Hann. Münden began in 1397 with the first mention of protective Jews in the records of the Welfenschloss Münden . After Duke Erich II was expelled from the city of Münden around 1590, a Jewish community did not form again in the city until the middle of the 17th century . In 1834 it inaugurated a synagogue and from 1843 its members received full civil rights . All members of the former Jewish community were expelled, deported and murdered during the National Socialist era . Since then, there has been no more practicing community, but two former burial sites have been preserved, the Old and New Jewish Cemeteries. Today a memorial stone on the town hall of Münden reminds of the former Jewish community.
history
In Münden , like the city of Hann. Münden was called into the 19th century, Jews are first mentioned in 1397. In other cities in what is now Lower Saxony , they can be found as early as the 13th century, such as in Helmstedt (1240), Hameln (1277), Hanover (1292) and Braunschweig (1296). The first mention of 1397 is about three protective Jews. Their low legal status is shown, among other things, by the fact that from 1466 they were forbidden to own houses. In 1456 Jews in Münden had to pay a special Jewish tax of 1000 guilders. In the village there was a Jüdenstrasse for Jewish residents, Jodenstrate , which can be identified for the first time in 1520. This corresponded to the demand of the Catholic Church for the separation of the Christian from the Jewish population. In 1547 the Jewish community is mentioned as the Common Jewry in Münden . Nothing further is known about the number of its members, but it is assumed that there are several families. The expulsion of Jews by Duke Erich II in 1590/1591 meant the end of Jewish life in the city. Only after the Thirty Years' War did a Jew move to Münden, probably in 1654. The presence of four Jewish families is recorded from 1702, some of whom lived in the village for decades. It is known from this period that a Jew owned a house. Only in 1781 did a Jew regain property ownership, but he did not have civil rights. By a decree of 1723 many branches of business were closed to the Jews. In principle, they were left with the peddler trade and the activity as a fair feeder, junk dealer and pawnbroker. In their status they were still protected Jews who received a temporary sovereign letter of protection for an annual fee . When Münden belonged to the Electorate of Hanover between 1692 and 1806 , the letters of protection were standardized. During the French period during the existence of the canton of Münden at the beginning of the 19th century, Jews were also legally equated with the rest of the population in Münden. They had to get a family name, which contributed to their emancipation. Until then, they only had one personal name, to which the father's name was sometimes added. At the beginning of the 19th century, 18 Jewish family names can be found in the Münden registration register for Jews. The register was kept in the Kingdom of Westphalia between 1808 and 1812 by order of King Jérôme Bonaparte .
The Kingdom of Hanover reversed the equality of Jews in 1815 after the Congress of Vienna . It was not until 1842 that the legal position of the Jews improved through the Hanoverian Law on the Legal Relationships of the Jews , which was based on the liberal Jewish legislation in Prussia with the Prussian Jewish edict of 1812 . In 1843, encouraged by the law, eight Jewish merchants from Münden applied for the new citizenship granted to them or their fathers during the French era. This was awarded to them at a ceremony in Münden Town Hall . The Jews only got their full equality after the revolution of 1848 through an amendment to the state constitution of the Kingdom of Hanover.
time of the nationalsocialism
At the time of the seizure of power in 1933, 84 Jews lived in Münden. During the November pogroms of 1938, six to seven perpetrators committed serious damage to property in the Mündener synagogue on the night of November 9, 1938 , and the Torah scrolls , prayer books and robes were burned in public on the Tanzwerder . In October 1939, five SA members killed the 29-year-old community member Erwin Proskauer because of atrocities allegedly instigated by Jews in connection with the attack on Poland . They took him out of his apartment and drove him to the Werra near Wanfrieder Schlagd , where he drowned. The perpetrators were sentenced to one to four years in prison for manslaughter in 1940 , but were all released in 1941.
In 1942, the 22 remaining Jews, mostly older, were deported to concentration camps .
Places of remembrance
synagogue
The synagogue was built in 1834 in the inner courtyard of the property behind the city wall 23 . The interior of the building was destroyed in the November pogroms of 1938 . It was then used as a warehouse and was dismantled in 1973. In the front building on the street front, which was built at the end of the 16th century, there was a Jewish school from 1796 to 1938. In 1973, a barrel-vaulted room was uncovered in the cellar and a three-meter deep mikveh with groundwater was discovered in it. The Jewish community traditionally used the facility for ritual washing with groundwater . Because of its rarity, the mikveh is of great importance in religious studies. The building has corresponding information and reminder boards on the street front.
Information boards on the building behind the city wall 23 on the former Jewish school and the mikveh
Cellar vault with mikveh under the former Jewish school
The mikveh with groundwater
graveyards
The Jewish deceased from Münden and the surrounding area from around 1673 to 1932 were buried in the old Jewish cemetery on Vogelsangweg, measuring around 1100 m² . By the end of the 19th century, 291 burials had been carried out and the cemetery was largely occupied. In 1928 the Jewish community was able to acquire suitable land about 2 km from the city center for the New Jewish Cemetery . There are no more gravestones in the Old Jewish Cemetery , but a memorial stone for the Jewish deceased. The cemetery is owned by the State Association of Jewish Communities of Lower Saxony .
The almost 1,100 m² New Jewish Cemetery was inaugurated in 1932. Until the destruction of the Jewish community in 1942, 7 graves were dug on it.
literature
- Karl Brethauer : Jews in Münden in: Münden. Collected Essays. Second episode. Publisher Hans Fiedler, Hann. Münden, 1984, pp. 54-62
- Mikveh - Jewish ritual bath in: Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany . Monuments in Lower Saxony, District of Göttingen, Part 1, Volume 5.2, 1993, Editing Urs Boeck , Peter F. Lufen and Walter Wulf, CW Niemeyer Buchverlage , Hameln, pp. 136-137, ISBN 3-87585-251-6 , pp. 141-142.
- Johann Dietrich von Pezold: Jews in medieval Münden in: History on the three rivers. A glimpse into the past of the city of Hann. Münden on Werra, Fulda and Weser , Hann. Münden, 2001, p. 38-
- Johann Dietrich von Pezold: Jewish life in Münden in: History on the three rivers. A glimpse into the past of the city of Hann. Münden on Werra, Fulda and Weser , Hann. Münden, 2003, pp. 43-46.
- Johann Dietrich von Pezold: Münden. In: Herbert Obenaus (Ed. In collaboration with David Bankier and Daniel Fraenkel): Historical manual of the Jewish communities in Lower Saxony and Bremen . , Volume 1 and 2 (1668 pp.), Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-89244-753-5 , pp. 1072-1082
- Johann Dietrich von Pezold: Persecution of Jews in Münden. The devastation of the Mündener Synagogue in: History on the Three Rivers. A glimpse into the past of the city of Hann. Münden on Werra, Fulda and Weser , Hann. Münden, 2006, pp. 69-71.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Erwin May: Münden and surroundings. Hann. Münden, 1980. p. 95 ff.
- ↑ Building data sheet for previous owners