Great Jüdenhof

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Great Jüdenhof 1930

The Große Jüdenhof in old Berlin was a medieval residential complex that consisted of several loosely grouped half-timbered buildings. It was in the 13th century near the whey market -based Jewish families built. After the first expulsion of Jews in the 16th century, some of the simple houses from the Middle Ages were replaced by new buildings, which were grouped around a courtyard as a closed development of twelve houses and were used by German craftsmen. However, the name Jüdenhof was retained. The building ensemble did not survive the Second World War and the GDR era . After the rubble was removed and demolished, the leveled area became a parking lot in the 1960s. Archaeologists have been uncovering the remains of the medieval city here since 2010. The excavations will continue beyond 2012 and will certainly provide further information about the Große Jüdenhof.

history

Trunk of the acacia from 1938 as well as stone paving patterns and the rest of the old curb of the first gas lamp, April 2011

The Molkenmarkt, Berlin's oldest market square, was also the center of the medieval city of Alt-Berlin , in the immediate vicinity of which the first residential buildings developed around the Nikolaikirche, later also northeast of the Molkenmarkt. The residents included immigrant Jews , who built not only residential buildings but also buildings for Jewish community life. It is believed that there was a synagogue and a mikveh , a ritual bath, in addition to the residential buildings . Some sources assume that the first houses of the Großer Jüdenhof were built around a small enclosed courtyard that was named after the residents and its size. It was located between Jüdenstrasse, Parochialstrasse and Klosterstrasse and is said to have had a single access to the courtyard between the house numbers Jüdenstrasse 46 and 47. Another source has determined that the first development did not form a closed courtyard. As a result, there were free entrances between houses Jüdenhof 1 and 2 as well as 9 and 10, numbers 11 and 12 were added a little later. The Jüdenhof cannot be seen on the Memhardtplan from 1652 and a map from 1688 , for which there is no answer yet.

The Berlin host-abuser trial in 1510 resulted in the expulsion of the Jews from the Mark Brandenburg and thus also from Berlin. In the time until the eviction order was withdrawn in 1539, Christian craftsmen had settled in the Großer Jüdenhof. They renewed some buildings and two to four storey half-timbered and massive stone houses were built, which contained workshops or shops on the ground floor. There were passages to the courtyards behind. At the beginning of the 18th century, the craftsmen planted an acacia tree in front of the Großer Jüdenhof 9 , which was cut down in 1938. A first gas lantern in the center of the courtyard was removed at the same time and replaced by a young false acacia . This tree is currently the only surviving relic of the Großer Jüdenhof, but it is severely crippled.

For the construction of the fire society , the houses Jüdenhof 1–5 were demolished in 1937/38, houses number 6–12 were renovated and the house Großer Jüdenhof 5 was rebuilt in a historicizing way. The square was a particularly popular photo motif in old Berlin. Its partial preservation was due to the personal wish of Mayor Julius Lippert not to remove the last medieval courtyard in Berlin. The ensemble suffered severe damage from bombs at the end of the Second World War . The damaged house no. 6 was demolished after 1950, the undamaged and listed house no. 5 in 1968. The leveled area served as a parking lot until the beginning of the 21st century.

First uncovered foundations on the area of ​​the Großer Jüdenhof, October 2011.

In connection with the planned redesign of the Berlin center , excavations have been carried out on the area since 2010 on behalf of the City of Berlin , which will go beyond 2012 and cost a total of more than 150,000 euros . The archaeologists hope to find more detailed evidence of the former Jüdenhof after the first foundation walls have been uncovered. The first excavations on the east side of the Jüdenhof, for example, brought 20 melting pots from the 17th and 18th centuries. Century, from which it is concluded that potters, iron foundries and blacksmiths obviously lived and worked here. On the north side of the courtyard, historians suspect the remains of a synagogue and a ritual bath. The scientists demand from the Berlin Senate that when the streets are redesigned and the planned development of the monastery district, the medieval traces remain visible to posterity.

literature

  • Uwe Aulich: Searching for traces on old walls. Archaeologists are excavating the Große Jüdenhof in Mitte. They want to find a synagogue and a ritual bath from the Middle Ages . Article in the Berliner Zeitung of August 17, 2011, p. 19
  • Dieter Hoffmann-Axthelm: The Great Jüdenhof. A place in Berlin and the relationship between Jews and Christians in the German city of the Middle Ages . 1st edition, Lukas Verlag für Kunst- und Geistesgeschichte, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-936872-46-5 .

Web links

Commons : Großer Jüdenhof  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Aulich: Searching for traces ...
  2. ↑ a b Großer Jüdenhof on the website of the Gesellschaft Historisches Berlin: Sketch of the situation
  3. ↑ For the history and planning, see Christian Spath and Thomas Nagel (Spat + Nagel): Molkenmarkt and Klosterviertel (PDF), section “Jüdenhof”, pp. 34–36
  4. ↑ Hans Müther mentions Berlin's building tradition. Small introduction . In: Das Neue Berlin , Berlin 1956 in the register of historic Berlin urban development and architectural monuments in the Mitte district (with two plans) , p. 99, as the construction period “end of the 18th century”, according to Erika Schachinger: Old houses in Berlin. A tour of the city center . Bruno Hessling, Berlin 1969, p. 24 “in essence from the end of the 18th century”.
  5. ^ Benedikt Goebel: The conversion of old Berlin to the modern city center. Planning, building and ownership history of the historic Berlin city center in the 19th and 20th centuries . Braun, Berlin 2003, ISBN 978-3-935455-31-2 , p. 246 f., Illustrations from 1936, 1939, 1945/46 and 1960, notes on the individual abstracts in the appendix
  6. ^ Monument protection with Hans Müther: Berlins building tradition. Small introduction . Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 1956, p. 99; Condition and use before the demolition by Erika Schachinger: Old houses in Berlin. A tour of the city center . Bruno Hessling, Berlin 1969, p. 24.

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 '2.7 "  N , 13 ° 24' 39.2"  E