History of the Jews in Erfurt

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The history of the Jews in Erfurt begins in the High Middle Ages with the first settlement of Jewish merchants in Erfurt . In the following centuries the community developed into one of the largest and most important in the Holy Roman Empire .

In research, a distinction is made between the first and second medieval Jewish community in Erfurt. The beginnings of the first community date back to the 12th century, their dissolution was marked by the plague pogrom in 1349. The second community came into being after the first Jewish families were resettled in 1354 and lasted until the council abandoned the protection of Jews in 1453.

It was not until the 19th century that a new Jewish community was formed, from which today's Jewish State Community of Thuringia in Erfurt emerged.

The first medieval parish

The old synagogue

Beginnings

Erfurt was the most important Jewish settlement in Thuringia in the Middle Ages. The Jewish community of Erfurt is indirectly documented with the Erfurt Jewish Oath , which bears the Erfurt city seal but does not have a date. This oath of Jews was bestowed on the city by Archbishop Konrad I of Mainz . He held office until 1200, so it can be assumed that there was already a Jewish settlement in Erfurt during the life of Konrad I, but the exact beginning of the period is not known.

The Jews settled in a non-locked area in which Christians also lived. Most of the houses inhabited by Jews were located in the center of the city: between the town hall and the Gerafurt (later Krämerbrücke ), at the hospital in Krautgasse (today Kreuzgasse) and in the parishes of St. Michael and St. Benedikt, as well as across from Wenigemarkt , on the the Via Regia and the “Bohemian Street” met. Circumstances suggest that it was first and foremost a settlement of Jewish merchants that gradually grew. In the block between Fischmarkt , Allerheiligenstrasse and Michaelisstrasse was the synagogue, which has been preserved to this day and was recently rediscovered as the Old Synagogue . The old synagogue was first mentioned in 1287, but it is much older and its foundation walls date from the 11th century.

The first certain date is with regard to the mention of the Jews in Erfurt a letter Emperor Otto IV. Of 1212, in which he the archbishop of Mainz under a contract signed before the imperial coronation which Bede gives the Jews.

Jewish pogrom 1221

Hebrew sources as well as Latin chronicles report the persecution of Jews during the time of the Crusades on June 16, 1221 in Erfurt, during which 21 to 26 Jews were murdered or committed suicide. The reason for the pogrom was the ritual murder legend , the false accusation that Jews murdered a Christian and then drank his blood. The Christians stormed the synagogue , destroyed the Torah scrolls and forced the Jews present to renounce their faith. When they refused, the Christians set fire and killed the Jews. The Peterschronik reports that the persecution came from Frisian pilgrims. Possibly they were crusaders. Despite the persecution of the Jews, the Jewish community in Erfurt continued to exist.

Duties and lives before 1349

Probably as early as the beginning of the 13th century, the Jewish settlement was a fully developed community, which mainly included a cemetery . Several Jewish settlements in the area belonged to her as daughter settlements and had their dead buried in Erfurt.

At the beginning of the 13th century, the Archbishop of Mainz had jurisdiction over the Jews of Erfurt. He also had the right to tax and the right to grant privileges. He imposed an annual tax on the Jews, which was 80 marks of soldered silver and was later increased to 100 marks of soldered silver, to be paid at Martini . In addition, the Jews in Erfurt had to pay interest on their houses and for the New Year they had to pay the Archbishop's Court in Erfurt four pounds of pepper. In addition, if the archbishop's notary was present, they were obliged to provide the archbishop with parchment.

The protector of the Jews was the Archbishop of Mainz. However, this protection was repeatedly taken over by the city of Erfurt or exercised de facto.

Archbishop Siegfried III. von Mainz authorized the pleban of the Benedictine Church in 1240 to force the Jews who lived in his parish to pay the parish taxes levied on the houses if their Christian owners did not do so.

Little is known about the spiritual life of the Jews in Erfurt. Around 1271 several rabbis were resident in Erfurt, but their names have not been passed down. In contrast, several Hebrew manuscripts, some of which are elaborately designed, have survived. Rabbi Alexander Süsskind also came from Erfurt .

In 1292 the Aschaffenburg Council decided that all Jews must be externally recognizable. From now on they had to wear a yellow group of Jews as a badge in order to be distinguishable from the Christian citizenship. The Jews of Erfurt were able to exempt themselves from this obligation through a tax.

In 1309, Margrave Friedrich von Meißen besieged Erfurt. The Jews took part in the defense of the city on bulwarks and walls. In 1330, Ludwig the Bavarian gave Margrave Friedrich von Meißen sovereignty over all Jews in Thuringia. But nothing changed for Erfurt, where the council still had sovereignty.

In 1340 the Erfurt Council determined that Jews were only allowed to trade legally in the market and on the streets, but no longer in their homes, a regulation that was primarily aimed at making financial transactions more difficult for Jews.

The financial affairs of the Erfurt Jews are well documented. Borrowers were citizens from Erfurt and the surrounding area, Lübeck merchants, Thuringian aristocrats, the Landgraves of Thuringia , and religious institutions. Sometimes pledges are mentioned. In 1348 the city of Erfurt took over a loan from a Jewish society and in return received Kapellendorf Castle partly as a gift and partly through sale . Well-known Jewish money dealers at the beginning of the 14th century are Abraham Rotenburg and shortly before 1349 Jutta Kophelin and the owner of the treasure Kalman von Wiehe.

Jewish pogrom 1349

In 1349 there was a great persecution of Jews in Erfurt. Almost all Jews were killed or driven out. The Jews were accused of being responsible for the outbreak of the plague by poisoning the city's wells. The Council of Würzburg wrote to a number of cities, including Erfurt, and asked the Council of Erfurt whether they had observed and gained any knowledge on the matter. The Erfurt council announced that its Jews had not done anything of the sort and had remained inconspicuous. On the other hand, there were some former councilors as well as parts of the patriciate and some guild masters who hoped to overthrow the city council through the unrest in connection with the pogrom and to come to government themselves.

On March 21, 1349 they armed themselves and assured their people that the council secretly wished the Jews to be killed, and thus had called for the “beating of the Jews”, and they gathered in front of the synagogue. The council heard of this incident and sent a councilor to stop the gathering. But he did nothing of the kind, but encouraged the assembled and ordered the craftsmen to cordon off Wallgasse so that the Jews could not escape. The conspirators incited the mob, local residents and other people so much that they would not prevent anyone from attacking the Jews. The Jews in the synagogue were also armed. About 100 Jews died in the synagogue during the escalation. In the end, many Jews were so desperate that they set fire to their houses and burned them inside or otherwise killed themselves to forestall another violent death.

As a consequence of the incidents, the council of Erfurt saw its power shaken and had to restore it. Three of the conspirators were executed, but those behind them went unpunished. Even the councilor who had opposed the council's orders and who agitated and acted against the Jews remained unpunished. The new archbishop, who had sovereignty over the Jews, was recognized by Erfurt and thereupon renounced all legal claims that he had against the council from the murder of the Jews (for example through lost tax revenues). The legacies of the Jews, the estate and the outstanding debts fell to the city and were collected by the city, but the debts of the citizens and of Erfurt, which they owed to the Jews, were canceled.

The second medieval parish

In 1354 two families again settled in Erfurt and founded the second Jewish community. Jakob von Schweinfurt , who was one of the new founders of the second community in 1357, was probably a survivor of the pogroms . The community developed at times into one of the largest in the German-speaking area. This is also thanks to many Jewish immigrants from Bohemia , Moravia and Silesia . The council made houses available to the Jews, which they could rent for life. In addition, the council had two rows of smaller houses and a new synagogue built in the first few years. All of this indicates that the council had an interest in the resettlement of Jews. Some of the Jewish houses were also buildings that had been in Jewish possession before 1349 and that had passed to the city after the persecution.

As before 1349, several wealthy money dealer families were resident in Erfurt. They often granted their loans in societies, sometimes together with Jews from other places. Her debtors included the Margraves of Meißen , the Landgraves of Thuringia , the Deutschordensballei Thuringia, the Bishop of Würzburg, aristocrats in Thuringia, but of course also citizens from Erfurt and the surrounding area. Several other professions are also attested within the Jewish community, such as butchers, a midwife, clerk, bookbinder, cantor , house and community servants and two craftsmen who made shofarot . A used clothing trade was also operated. The “Jewish debt repayment” carried out by King Wenzel in 1391 meant an economic turning point . On the basis of this debt repayment, u. a. Landgrave Balthasar of Thuringia and his subjects waived all or part of the debts to Jews and interest. Part of the money went to King Wenceslaus. As a result, several Jewish families emigrated from Erfurt. However, other, partly wealthy Jewish families moved to Erfurt.

At the head of the Jewish community in Erfurt were several community leaders ( Parnassim ). Her duties included overseeing community employees, managing community property, and settling disputes within the community. The Parnassim elected the rabbi , but also represented the community externally, for example to the Erfurt council. They were also responsible for taxing Jews and upholding Jewish citizenship. Disputes within the community board were settled by the Erfurt council. The rabbi, also known as the Jew Master, not only took on the ritual tasks, but also sat in court with other scholars and worked as a teacher. Further municipal offices are mentioned in a document from 1414: At that time the Erfurt council allowed the Jewish community to employ the Jew master, two singers, three butchers, a Schammes , a man and a woman responsible for the mikveh (the Jewish bath) and a man for the cemetery and the support of five alms recipients. However, these conditions are likely to have existed before 1414. In 1436, the municipal council had the city council confirm the old ownership rights to the municipal facilities, namely the synagogue, mikveh, cemetery and the so-called dance house. The dance house can be understood as a community hall. Between 1416 and 1421 a rabbinical meeting took place in Erfurt, at the Lipman Mühlhausen, Jechiel b. Abraham Semelman and Abraham Katz took part. A resolution was passed at the synod regarding the contamination of priests by approaching corpses. The well-known Rabbi Jom-Tov Lipman Mühlhausen was living in Erfurt at the time. Rabbi Jakob Weil later resided in Erfurt.

The coexistence of Jews and Christians was regulated in several ordinances, most of which were based on regulations that are customary elsewhere. A dress code was introduced in 1389 and yellow rings were ordered to be worn in 1452. In 1375 and 1377 the Jews paid contributions to the construction of new ramparts and walls for the city and in 1377 the sum of 100 pounds for the manufacture of guns. In 1447 they paid £ 400 to build the city's outer wall. Furthermore, the city received the regular taxes of the Jews, which were passed on to the archbishop, the official patron.

The end of the Jewish community in Erfurt

In the 1430s economic crises, but also multiple tax demands from the empire led to a gradual economic disadvantage of the Jewish families. In 1436 all Jews were expelled from the neighboring Landgraviate of Thuringia. The emigration of Jewish families from Erfurt began in the 1440s. After a visit by the preacher Nikolaus von Kues , the council asked Jews in 1452 to wear yellow rings on their clothes for identification.

In 1453 the council announced to the archbishop of Mainz, the lord of the city, that it would withdraw protection from the Jews. As a result, the Jewish families lacked legal security, which forced them to emigrate. As early as the summer of 1454 there were no more Jews living in Erfurt and the council took back their houses. In the years that followed, several Jews tried to settle their real estate and outstanding loans from their new places of residence. At the same time the city had to deal with the archbishop of Mainz, but also with the emperor, who demanded the payment of the taxes demanded by the Erfurt Jews. The unfulfilled tax demands of the emperor even led to a process at the Reich Chamber of Commerce . However, after support from individual bishops and the Pope as well as their city lord, the Archbishop of Mainz, this process was abandoned. The city reached an agreement with the archbishop in 1458. He received an advance payment for the now missing Jewish tax. In return, the archbishop allowed the city to no longer tolerate Jews.

Only when Erfurt was occupied by the French from 1806 to 1813 were Jews allowed to move into the city again.

The modern Jewish community

Erfurt, New Synagogue (1952, Willy Nöckel)

After Erfurt had become Prussian at the beginning of the 19th century , Jews settled in the city again. In 1840 they built the first church, the Small Synagogue . After the city and the community had grown rapidly due to the influx of many Jews from rural regions, the community built a new church with the Great Synagogue in 1884 on the Kartäuserring (today Juri-Gagarin-Ring ). This was destroyed in the Reichspogromnacht in 1938. At the same time, the National Socialists deported the Erfurt Jews to concentration camps, where they became victims of the Holocaust .

After the end of the war, a small Jewish community formed again in Erfurt, which in 1952 received the New Synagogue (architect: Willy Nöckel), the only synagogue built in GDR times. After reunification, the community grew significantly due to the influx of contingent refugees from the former Soviet Union .

reception

After reunification, the Jewish history of Erfurt was widely recognized in research. Interest was increased by the discovery of the Erfurt Jewish Treasure in 1998 and the reconstruction of the oldest completely preserved synagogue in Central Europe in the 2000s. In the Old Synagogue you can see the exhibition of the treasure find and important medieval manuscripts. The city administration is committed to the recognition of medieval Jewish heritage as UNESCO World Heritage . The "Erfurt Synagogue Evenings", organized by the city and association for the history and archeology of Erfurt , with lectures and music, have been taking place once a month in the Old Synagogue since 2010 .

literature

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  • Document book of the city of Erfurt. 2 vols., Arr. by Carl Beyer, Halle 1889–1897.
  • Arthur Süssmann: The Erfurt Jewish Book (1357-1407). Source edition, published in Leipzig in 1915 ( available online ).

Secondary literature

  • State capital Erfurt: history made of stone and parchment - the old synagogue Erfurt. Jena and Quedlinburg 2016.
  • State capital Erfurt, University of Erfurt (Hrsg.): Erfurt writings on Jewish history.
    • Volume 1: The Jewish community of Erfurt and the ShUM communities. Cultural heritage and networking. Quedlinburg 2012.
    • Volume 2: The tombstones from the medieval Jewish cemetery in Erfurt. Quedlinburg 2013.
    • Volume 3: On image and text in the Judeo-Christian context in the Middle Ages. Quedlinburg 2014.
    • Volume 4: The Erfurt Jewish community in the field of tension between the city, archbishop and emperor. Quedlinburg 2016.
  • Sven Ostritz (ed.): The medieval Jewish culture in Erfurt.
    • Volume 1: The Treasure Find. Archeology - art history - settlement history. Weimar 2010.
    • Volume 2: The Treasure Find. Analyzes - manufacturing techniques - reconstructions.
    • Volume 3: The Treasure Find. The coins and bars.
    • Volume 4: The Old Synagogue. Weimar 2009.
    • Volume 5: Contributions to the Colloquium.
  • Reinhold S. Ruf-Haag: Jews and Christians in late medieval Erfurt. Dependencies, scope for action and shaping of Jewish life in a central European city. Trier 2007.
  • Maike Lämmerhirt: Jews in the Wettin territories. Law, Administration and Economics in the Late Middle Ages. Böhlau Verlag, Cologne, Weimar 2007.
  • Olaf Zucht: The history of the Jews in Erfurt from re-naturalization in 1810 to the end of the German Empire; a contribution to the German-Jewish history of Thuringia. Erfurt 2001, ISBN 3-9807764-5-X .

Web links

Commons : History of the Jews in Erfurt  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Old Synagogue and Mikveh in Erfurt. Published by the state capital Erfurt, Jena 2009, ISBN 978-3-932906-97-8 . Page 27
  2. ^ Alemannia Judaica / Synagogue in Schweinfurt. Retrieved December 18, 2018 .