Holy sand

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Holy sand
Rabbinental
Gravestone of Jakob ha-Bachur , one of the oldest gravestones (1076/77) in the cemetery

The Holy Sand in Worms was the cemetery of the Jewish community of Worms . He is the oldest in situ surviving Jewish cemetery in Europe. The oldest of the approximately 2500 tombstones date from the 11th century. Together with other sites of Ashkenazi Judaism from the two cities of Speyer and Mainz, it is part of an application by the ShUM cities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz for a place in the UNESCO World Heritage . The application was submitted to UNESCO in January 2020.

geography

The sacred sand extends over an approximately triangular area over approximately 1.6 hectares . It was originally located to the southwest outside the high medieval wall ring of the city of Worms. When a second rampart, encompassing the city, was drawn around Worms in the 14th century, it was located between the two fortifications. The number of tombstones is given as around 2500.

Due to the growth of the city in the second half of the 19th century, the cemetery is now on the edge of the city center, bounded to the west by the Mannheim – Mainz railway line , to the east by the Willy-Brandt-Ring and to the north by Andreasstrasse.

history

Development history

The oldest surviving tombstones date from the 11th century. It is not known whether they document the beginning of the occupation of the cemetery or whether it is even older, although assumptions have been made about it again and again. On the oldest surviving tombstone, the name of the person buried - it is definitely a male person - can no longer be read due to damage. According to today's knowledge, it dates from the year 1058/59. For a long time, the tombstone of Jakob haBachur from 1076/77 was considered the oldest.

Around 1260 the cemetery was surrounded by a solid wall. In the 15th or 16th century, as part of the new external fortification, an underground passage was dug through the cemetery, which connected the inner and outer Andrea Gate and during the construction of which numerous tombstones of the cemetery were walled up. The corridor was 36 meters long, 1.50 meters high and 80 centimeters wide. It was excavated in 1930 and the tombstones were recovered. On other occasions, too, it happened again and again that tombstones were stolen.

The way of the funeral processions led around half the city, from the northeast corner, where the Jewish quarter was, around the inner wall in the southwest of the city, to the cemetery. Since the late Middle Ages, the aristocratic Dalberg family had the right and duty to protect the corpses processions on the way from the Jewish quarter to the Jewish cemetery. The Jewish community paid a levy for the protection of Jews, which at the end of the 15th century amounted to 80 malter grain. There is a fabulous story about the creation of this escort , which was passed down by Juspa Schammes . After that - at least in the 17th century - two Dalberg officials always went with the funeral procession.

The cemetery shortly after the city was destroyed in 1689; on the right in the picture the damaged "Luginsland" tower of the inner city wall

The cemetery was also the target of vandalism during the pogrom of 1615: gravestones were knocked over and damaged. The community was weakened by the pogrom and in 1618 the Thirty Years War broke out. In 1620 the south-west corner of the city ​​fortifications was reinforced, whereby 2/3 of the cemetery area should have been covered by entrenchments . After this intervention, the cemetery complex was comprehensively renovated in 1625, donated by David Oppenheim, which he also did during the reconstruction of the synagogue , which was badly damaged in 1615 . The entrance area of ​​the cemetery got the entrance gate that is still preserved today, as well as the Tahara house . The surrounding wall was also renovated. But in 1661 it was damaged again.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was mainly the higher part of the cemetery that was occupied. This part is a remnant of the outer city fortifications, which were destroyed in 1689 during the Palatinate War of Succession by the troops of King Louis XIV . In the 19th century, the style of the tombstones was similar to that of Christian cemeteries, and inscriptions were now often written in two languages: Hebrew and German.

In 1902 the city of Worms opened the new Hochheimer Höhe main cemetery . In 1911, a new Jewish cemetery was laid out immediately afterwards , as the “Holy Sands” no longer offered any space and could not be expanded due to the now complete renovation. The last burials were carried out in the 1930s. It is said to have been hereditary funerals.

During the November pogrom in 1938 , the roof structure of the Tahara House was set on fire in the cemetery, but nothing else was damaged. In 1941/42, Worms city planning officer Walter Köhler developed plans that also included leveling the cemetery area and building buildings for the NSDAP district leadership here. The then city archivist Friedrich Maria Illert is said to have spread the rumor that the Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler was interested in maintaining the cemetery that he had visited during a stay in Worms. Even with plans to build over the cemetery that emerged again in 1941, this claim protected the cemetery.

However, the cemetery suffered considerable damage during the air raids on Worms . Among other things, the tombstone of Rabbi Baruch (d. 1281) was destroyed. Other stones could later be restored from fragments. However, there were also cases in which previously unknown stones had been buried in bomb craters. In 1956, the Tahara House was restored and the entrance area renovated.

Since the Second World War, gravestones in the cemetery have been repeatedly damaged in mostly anti-Semitic attacks, for example in 1952, 1980, 1993 and 2020.

Research history

When a modern bourgeois-urban culture emerged in Worms, the discovery of one's own history was an important element, also in the Jewish community. From the middle of the 19th century, there were several attempts to document the existence of the complex and the inscriptions, to make them more visible and to preserve them. In 1854 Ludwig Lewysohn recorded a selection of inscriptions on the gravestones, published them and numbered them for the first time. Encouraged by David Kaufmann , who supported the two, the cantor Julius Rosenthal (1863–1934) and the teacher and archivist Samson Rothschild (1848–1939) copied the inscriptions on tombstones from around 1893. They numbered the tombstones again, but differently, did not record them completely and did not leave a plan. This documentation is very valuable today, because back then it was still possible to read text that is damaged or destroyed today. The documentation is in the Worms city archive . On the occasion of this work, restorations were also carried out: fallen stones were straightened up, sunken stones were lifted. The Viennese rabbi and folklorist Max Grunwald carried out further documentation of 880 gravestones in 1938 , published them in the form of lists of names sorted alphabetically and according to the year, but was only able to publish them in France. For the first time in 1984 the tombstones (1244 in total) were systematically recorded by the German Documentation Center for Art History - Photo Archive Photo Marburg . Here, too, a new numbering system was introduced, the Hebrew-language inscriptions documented and translated into German . In the meantime, the specialist literature has also spoken of the “mess of all kinds of numbering”.

The Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute is currently taking care of the recording of the inscriptions - but only completely until the beginning of the 16th century, beyond that there is no funding. It has compiled a concordance of all the information available to date on these stones and has assigned a further - again different - numbering. Modern, scientific methods are also being used for the first time in order to perhaps still be able to decipher previously unreadable texts. With the support of the Center for Scientific Computing at the University of Heidelberg , a strip light scanner was used, from whose recordings a three-dimensional image of the surface of a stone can be calculated, in which even the smallest surface differences can be made visible. Archaeological excavations are forbidden because religious regulations contradict this and this would be seen as disturbing the peace of the dead.

investment

Gravesites

Gravestones of Rabbi Meir ben Baruch, called von Rothenburg (left) and Alexander ben Salomon Wimpfen (right)
Gravestone of Rabbi Jakob ben Moses haLevi Molin, called MaHaRil, 1427, in the Rabbinental. At his request it is free-standing and the only east-facing grave in the cemetery
Gravestone of Rabbi Naphtali Hirsch Spitz, Rabbinental

The cemetery has a total of around 2500 graves. Almost all of them are - contrary to common practice - not facing east, but roughly north.

Other well-known gravestones are in the so-called "Rabbinental" and its surroundings. Among other things, the graves of

  • Rabbi Nathan ben Isaak († 1333). He was a rabbi in Worms. Otherwise nothing is known about him. The inscription on the tombstone is special because it is written in rhyme. The stone was badly damaged in an air raid in 1945. The tombstone bears the number 343 according to the old inventory by Rosenthal and Rothschild, and the number 190 according to the numbering of the Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute.
  • Rabbi Jakob ben Moses haLevi Molin , called MaHaRil , († 1427). It is the only grave in the cemetery that faces east, as is customary. The upper part of the tombstone is damaged so that the first lines of the inscription are missing today. The tombstone bears the number 374 according to the old I inventory by Rosenthal and Rothschild, and the number 1253 according to the numbering of the Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute .
  • Rabbi Meir ben Isaak († 1511). He was also a rabbi in Worms. The tombstone was badly damaged in 1945, the inscription almost completely destroyed. According to the old inventory by Rosenthal and Rothschild, the tombstone bears the number 27. It is not (no longer) listed in the list of the Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute .
  • Elijahu ben Mosche Loanz, called Baal-Shem († 1636). He was a rabbi, a Kabbalist and left behind a number of literary works. His tombstone has long been damaged and is held together by iron clips. The tombstone bears the number 1027 according to the old inventory by Rosenthal and Rothschild, and the number 1228 according to the numbering of the Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute .
  • Juspa Schammes († 1678) was Schammasch and scribe of the Jewish community and became known for his posthumous writings, which are an important source for the life of the community in the 17th century. His gravestone has not been preserved and was probably destroyed in the Second World War.
  • Naphtali Hirsch Spitz († 1712) was rabbi of the community in Worms from 1704 until his death in 1712. His tombstone is adorned with a “talking coat of arms”, a jumping deer. According to the old inventory by Rosenthal and Rothschild, the tombstone bears the number 721. It is not listed in the list of the Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute .
  • Menachem Mendel Rothschild († 1732) had been the rabbi of the community in Worms since 1712. He had previously held the office in Prague and Bamberg and had been a regional rabbi in Hesse . According to the old inventory by Rosenthal and Rothschild n, the tombstone bears the number 358. It is not listed in the list of the Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute .

The inscriptions on the stones appear exclusively in Hebrew until the 19th century . The design of the tombstones differs stylistically according to the epoch. The oldest, from the Romanesque period , only have writing. The only addition are horizontal lines above the characters. In the early 13th century, around the beginning of the Gothic period , these “guiding lines” no longer exist. For this, a mirror is now sunk into the stone, the surface of which bears the lettering. The design is constantly being expanded: tracery, like Gothic church windows, appears in the 13th and 14th centuries. From the 16th century, during the Renaissance , figurative representations appear for the first time. The oldest express a spiritual status of the deceased: blessing hands with Aaronites and priests or a jug with Levites . From the 17th century, in the Baroque era , it became customary to depict the symbols for the name of the house from which the deceased came on the tombstone. In a further stage of development, in those cases in which a name could be converted into a picture, a "talking coat of arms" was displayed. In Naphtali Hirsch Spitz († 1712), for example, a jumping stag. From the 19th century onwards, the design of the gravestones was increasingly similar to bourgeois ideas: some of the stones were artistically elaborately designed in all conceivable styles of historicism , the inscriptions were increasingly bilingual and now also appear in German .

Infrastructure

Guard house and main entrance
Tahara house and hand basin
Funeral prayer on the cemetery wall

Since grave care according to Jewish custom does not take place, the cemetery has a traditional appearance: trees and grass surround the tombstones. In addition, a traditional footpath is maintained. There are only two additional structures: the entrance to the cemetery and its enclosure.

There is a two-story guard house in the entrance area. It was built by the architects Georg Rohr and Ludwig Bruckmann in Worms using forms of Art Nouveau and Expressionism in 1913 or shortly before. Particularly noticeable were the "round corners" and the position of the windows on the upper floor, namely precisely in these round corners. The building was restored in simplified forms after the Second World War. In the entrance area there was also the Tahara house for washing the dead, a basin for washing hands after leaving the cemetery, the inner gate to the burial ground and the inscription with the great funeral prayer.

An enclosing wall had existed since the Middle Ages. Since then, it has been damaged several times and renovated again.

Martin Buber view

Holy sand, “ Martin Buber ” view of the Worms Cathedral

The line of sight over the older part of the cemetery to the Worms Cathedral is known as the Martin Buber view .

Martin Buber , who lived in Heppenheim and had family ties to Worms, described in his conversation with the Protestant theologian Karl Ludwig Schmidt on January 14, 1933, a walk through the Jewish cemetery in Worms to illustrate the continuing election of the people of Israel . The Romanesque cathedral, “harmony of the limbs that has become visible” and a symbol of the Ecclesia , contrasted Buber with the Jewish cemetery made up of “crooked, chipped, shapeless, directionless stones”, through which he connected himself to the forefathers and entered the “God's time of Israel “Felt involved. Buber concluded his reflection with the words "but the covenant has not [...] been terminated", a formulation that was taken up repeatedly by Pope John Paul II , among others .

The line of sight, which is to be included in the ShUM cities' application for the World Heritage List, was marked by an information stele in 2018.

Stoning place

Juspa Schammes reports that when he came to Worms in 1623, he was shown a place at the southern end of the cemetery where stonings had previously been carried out. Whether that was actually the case is doubted today.

present

The cemetery is a cultural monument due to the monument protection law of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate . It belongs to the Jewish community of Mainz and is horticultural from the city of Worms.

The state of Rhineland-Palatinate has prepared an application from the ShUM cities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The Holy Sands are one of the cultural monuments that are the subject of this application. The application was submitted to UNESCO in January 2020 . UNESCO will decide on inclusion in the World Heritage List one year later at the earliest.

literature

in alphabetical order by authors / editors

  • Altertumsverein Worms (ed.), Claus Reisinger (photos): Heiliger Sand (photo calendar for 2016). Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms 2015, ISBN 978-3-88462-359-6 .
  • Otto Böcher : The old Jewish cemetery in Worms (= Rheinische Kunststätten . Volume 148). 7th edition. Neusser Verlag und Druckerei, Neuss 1992, ISBN 3-88094-711-2 .
  • Michael Brocke : Let commemoration have its say. For exploring the medieval cemetery of Worms. In: Kalonymos . Volume 13, 2010, No. 4, pp. 10-14, ISSN  1436-1213 (PDF)
  • Michael Brocke: The medieval cemetery in Worms. In: Rashi and his legacy. International conference of the University for Jewish Studies with the city of Worms. (= Writings of the Heidelberg University for Jewish Studies. Volume 10). Winter, Heidelberg 2017, ISBN 978-3-8253-5396-4 , pp. 199-226.
  • Max Grunwald : Le cimetière de Worms. In: Société des Études Juives (ed.): Revue des études juives. Volume 104, 1938, pp. 71-111.
  • Fritz Reuter : Warmaisa: 1000 years of Jews in Worms . Jewish publishing house at Athenaeum, Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-610-00405-3 .
  • Fritz Reuter: German-language inscriptions on the old Jewish cemetery in Worms. Observations on the language used and on the content of statements. In: Gudrun Marci-Boehncke , Jörg Riecke (eds.): “From myths and mars”. Medieval cultural history as reflected in a scientist's biography. Festschrift for Otfrid Ehrismann on his 65th birthday. Georg Olms, Hildesheim 2006, ISBN 3-487-13179-X , pp. 451-476.
  • Fritz Reuter, Ulrike Schäfer: Miracle stories from Warmaisa. Juspa Schammes, his Ma'asseh nissim and the Jewish Worms in the 17th century . Warmaisa, Worms, n.d. [2005].
  • Fritz Reuter, Christa Wiesner: The Jewish cemetery in Worms. In: A noble stone is its canopy. Jewish cemeteries in Rhineland-Palatinate. Published by the State Office for Monument Preservation Rhineland-Palatinate , Mainz 1996.
  • Irene Spille: Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany : City of Worms (= cultural monuments in Rhineland-Palatinate. Volume 10). Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms 1992, ISBN 3-88462-084-3 .

Web links

Commons : Holy Sands  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ In doing so, Max Grunwald made a few mistakes or they arose when the material was transferred into French . B. all evidence of the female name Sara under the frequently occurring male name Samuel has disappeared (Brocke: The medieval cemetery. P. 207, note 11).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ I. Spille: City of Worms. 1992, p. 176.
  2. ↑ Epidat: Worms Jewish Cemetery .
  3. ↑ O. Böcher: The old Jewish cemetery in Worms. 1992, p. 3.
  4. ↑ Epidat: Worms Jewish Cemetery. Inv no. wrm-9008 .
  5. ↑ Epidat: Worms Jewish Cemetery. Inv no. wrm-9009 .
  6. ↑ O. Böcher: The old Jewish cemetery in Worms. 1992, pp. 3, 6.
  7. ↑ O. Böcher: The old Jewish cemetery in Worms. 1992, p. 4.
  8. ↑ a b c d e O. Böcher: The old Jewish cemetery in Worms. 1992, p. 5.
  9. ^ Friedrich Battenberg: The imperial knighthood of Dalberg and the Jews. In: Kurt Andermann (Hrsg.): Ritteradel in the Old Kingdom. The chamberlain of Worms called von Dalberg. (= Work of the Hessian Historical Commission NF. Volume 31). Hessian Historical Commission, Darmstadt 2009, ISBN 978-3-88443-054-5 , pp. 155-184 (169).
  10. ↑ Juspa Schammes: The story of the Dalberg family. In: F. Reuter, U. Schäfer: Wundergeschichten. 2005, p. 5.
  11. ↑ Juspa Schammes: The destruction of the synagogue in 1615. In: F. Reuter, U. Schäfer: Wundergeschichten. 2005, pp. 21-24 (24).
  12. ↑ Juspa Schammes: The entrenchments of the cemetery. In: F. Reuter, U. Schäfer: Wundergeschichten. 2005, p. 32.
  13. ↑ Juspa Schammes: The cemetery. In: F. Reuter, U. Schäfer: Wundergeschichten. 2005, p. 30.
  14. ↑ Stephanie Zibell: Worms from 1945 to the present . In: Gerold Bönnen (ed.): History of the city of Worms . Theiss, Stuttgart 2005. ISBN 3-8062-1679-7 , p. 637.
  15. ↑ Georg Illert: Worms, as it was . Droste , Düsseldorf 1976, ISBN 3-7700-0432-9 .
  16. ↑ M. Brocke: Commemoration. 2010, p. 11.
  17. ↑ Ronen Steinke: Terror against Jews. Berlin Verlag, Munich 2020, ISBN 978-3-8270-1425-2 .
  18. ^ Historical gravestones smeared , Jüdische Allgemeine, July 10, 2020. Accessed July 13, 2020.
  19. ↑ M. Brocke: The medieval cemetery. 2017, pp. 205ff.
  20. ↑ Ludwig Lewysohn : Nafshot tsadiḳim: Sixty epitaphs of grave stones of the Israelite cemetery of Worms, regressive until the year 905 Übl [Icher] Zeitr [echnung] , along with biographical sketches and an appendix . Baer, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1855. ( Online . Accessed January 11, 2018).
  21. ↑ M. Brocke: The medieval cemetery. 2017, p. 205.
  22. ↑ M. Brocke: Commemoration. 2010, p. 10.
  23. ↑ M. Brocke: The medieval cemetery. 2017, p. 206.
  24. ↑ Reuter, Wiesner: The Jewish cemetery. P. 163.
  25. ↑ See bibliography.
  26. ↑ Reuter, Wiesner: The Jewish cemetery. P. 164.
  27. ↑ M. Brocke: The medieval cemetery. 2017, p. 213.
  28. ↑ Epidat : Worms Jewish Cemetery.
  29. ↑ M. Brocke: Commemoration. 2010, p. 11.
  30. ↑ M. Brocke: Commemoration. 2010, p. 14.
  31. ↑ Epidat: Worms Jewish Cemetery. Inv no. wrm-794 .
  32. ↑ Epidat: Worms Jewish Cemetery. Inv no. wrm-793 .
  33. ↑ O. Böcher: The old Jewish cemetery in Worms. 1992, p. 8; see section research history .
  34. ↑ Epidat: Worms Jewish Cemetery. Inv no. wrm-190 .
  35. ↑ O. Böcher: The old Jewish cemetery in Worms. 1992, p. 8; see section research history .
  36. ↑ Epidat: Worms Jewish Cemetery. Inv no. wrm-1253 .
  37. ↑ O. Böcher: The old Jewish cemetery in Worms. 1992, p. 8; see section research history .
  38. ↑ Epidat: Worms Jewish Cemetery .
  39. ↑ O. Böcher: The old Jewish cemetery in Worms. 1992, p. 8; see section research history .
  40. ↑ Epidat: Worms Jewish Cemetery. Inv no. wrm-1228 .
  41. ↑ F. Reuter, U. Schäfer: Wundergeschichten. 2005, p. 80; a photograph has been preserved: Shlomoh Eidelberg: R. Juspa, shammash of Warmaisa (Worms). Jewish Life in 17th Century (Worms) . The Magnes Press, Jerusalem 1991, ISBN 965-223-762-0 , p. 113.
  42. ↑ O. Böcher: The old Jewish cemetery in Worms. 1992, p. 8; see section research history .
  43. ↑ Epidat: Worms Jewish Cemetery .
  44. ^ Reuter: Warmaisa. 1000 years. P. 139.
  45. ↑ O. Böcher: The old Jewish cemetery in Worms. 1992, p. 8; see section research history .
  46. ↑ Epidat: Worms Jewish Cemetery .
  47. ^ I. Spille: City of Worms. 1992, p. 178.
  48. ↑ M. Brocke: Commemoration. 2010, p. 12.
  49. ↑ M. Brocke: Commemoration. 2010, p. 12.
  50. ↑ O. Böcher: The old Jewish cemetery in Worms. 1992, p. 9; I. Spille: City of Worms. 1992, p. 176.
  51. ↑ O. Böcher: The old Jewish cemetery in Worms. 1992, p. 10.
  52. ^ I. Spille: City of Worms. 1992, p. 178.
  53. ^ Waldner: New buildings in Worms. In: Deutsche Bauhütte. 17, 1913, p. 610. [Photography without text].
  54. ↑ Heinz-Günther Schöttler : “Connected on the level of their own identity” (John Paul II.) - Theological considerations on a new relationship between Church and Israel and on Judeo-Christian dialogue . In: Max Peter Baumann , Tim Becker, Raphael Woebs (eds.): Music and culture in contemporary Jewish life . Frank & Timme, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-86596-024-5 , pp. 51 f .
  55. ↑ information column "Buber's view" . In: ShUM cities on the Rhine. Jewish heritage for the world . No. 1 , November 2017, p. 7 ( schumstaedte.de [PDF]).
  56. ↑ F. Reuter, U. Schäfer: Wundergeschichten. 2005, pp. 28-30.
  57. ^ I. Spille: City of Worms. 1992, pp. 176-179.
  58. ^ Homepage of the Jewish community in Mainz .
  59. ↑ O. Böcher: The old Jewish cemetery in Worms. 1992, p. 6.
  60. ↑ Entry of the ShUM cities in the tentative list of UNESCO .

Coordinates: 49 ° 37 ′ 47 ″  N , 8 ° 21 ′ 20 ″  E