Jewish community of Warburg

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Letter of protection from the city of Warburg for Simon von Cassel from 1559 (StA Warburg)

The Jewish community of Warburg existed in Warburg from the 15th century to 1943 and was one of the most important Jewish communities in Westphalia . From 1686 to 1806 their rabbis were also regional chief rabbis .

history

The beginnings

There were Jewish residents in Warburg as early as the Middle Ages and early modern times. In 1426 a "Johann de Jude" was named as a witness in a document from the Dominican monastery. On January 3, 1559, the mayor and council of the cities of Warburg issued a letter of protection to the Jews, Simon von Cassel and Moses zu Calenberge , after they were allowed to live in the city “ with wife and children and household servants ” against payment of 25 thalers “residents' allowance” per year . In 1565 the Jew Heinemann was allowed to trade in Warburg and in 1587 the Jew Sötekind received permission to settle in Warburg with his son. Due to their special status, the Jews also had to pay extra road usage fees and double the calibration fees as the Warburg citizens, but were exempt from military service. Obviously it was primarily the economic interests of the city to issue such letters of defense. This policy was supported by the sovereigns, the prince-bishops of Paderborn , who wanted to strengthen the economic power of their city. However , the Jews were denied full civil rights , in particular the acquisition of real estate or the exercise of guild craft trades , which meant that they were particularly forced into commercial professions . In 1603, Jewish merchants leased the right to trade in salt. Other business areas were the trade in hops and rapeseed, wine, tobacco and textiles.

A well-known German-Jewish family was the Warburg family , from which u. a. the bank MMWarburg & CO, which still exists today, emerged .

The former Obere Straße on a postcard (approx. 1905), in front the Goldschmidt House (no. 28), which was inhabited by Jewish families from 1722–1943 , behind it the rabbi ’s house , which no longer exists (no. 26), behind which the synagogue is still preserved found.

The development of the community under the rule of the prince-bishop

There is evidence of a rabbi in Warburg since 1619. The times of need during and after the Thirty Years War led to a relative strengthening of the Jewish community. While the Warburg population decreased from approx. 4000 to approx. 2500 and the city had to give up more and more self-government rights to the sovereign, the Jewish community grew to the largest within the bishopric of Paderborn . Trading in grain, cattle and other agricultural goods from the fertile Warburg stock exchange as well as the credit business was added to the areas of activity . The numbers illustrate the size and economic strength of the community. In 1651, for example, the Warburg Jews had to pay 41 Reichstaler and 24 Groschen to Paderborn, while the Paderborn Jews only brought a total of 24 Taler. For the years 1675–1678, 12 Jews in Paderborn had 1532 thalers, 29 Jews in Warburg had to pay 13,242 thalers. The collection of the taxes took place since 1660 by a head, who had to appoint the Jews of the bishopric since 1660. In 1675 the Prince-Bishop Ferdinand von Fürstenberg claimed the sole right to grant escort protection to Jews and to be charged with taxes and duties for the bishopric. In times of crisis, the levies were increased and others introduced. During the Seven Years' War , for example, there was an increase in head treasure trove by a third. Half of the fines of the Jewish courts had to be paid to the sovereign.

Incidentally, the Jews in Warburg enjoyed greater freedom than in other cities. Their homes were scattered around the city, they could manage their own legal affairs and were not forced to listen to missionary sermons. A Jewish religious community developed with great influence far beyond the city. One rabbi was mentioned in 1644, and two in 1649. Since 1686 at the latest, Warburg was the seat of the Higher Regional Rabbinate of Westphalia. The only yeshiva in Westphalia was founded in Warburg under Samuel ben Gerson Steg . Steinhardt brought in Abraham Sutro , the later rabbi of the province of Westphalia , to fill the Rabbi adjunct position in Beverung , and Moses Friedheim for the Bielefeld position , both of whom come from his home town of Bruck near Erlangen . The Warburg State Rabbinate enjoyed transnational authority. The Warburg rabbi was also responsible for the County of Rietberg and the Principality of Corvey . When the county of Lippe and the duchy got their own rabbis, they retained the title of vice-rabbi, because they formed a fictitious college of rabbis with the Warburg superior.

In 1687, a separate burial site was leased in the Mollhauser Graben in front of the northwestern city wall of the Warburg Neustadt.

In 1786, most of the Jewish households were counted in the files, namely 53 households with an average of four people. During this time, a mikvah, discovered in February 2011, was set up in the so-called bell foundry house in the old town, Bernhardistraße 23, which the Jewish families Seligmann Calmen, Schaft Ostheim and Jakob Flechtheim lived in succession .

Under Prussian administration

The west facade of the synagogue after the renovation in 1855

When the Kingdom of Prussia took over the Paderborn Monastery in 1805, 43 Jewish families with a total of 197 people were recorded in the core city of Warburg. In 2011 residents in total, they made up 9.8% of the population. The total of the protection money tax paid was 1037 Reichsthaler and 19 silver groschen. Mandel Steinhardt became rabbi, who now tried to regulate the school system, which had previously been handled individually. He was the last Warburger Oberlandesrabbi and was replaced by Mordechai Steeg in 1806.

In 1808, as part of the Napoleonic reforms, all Jews had to adopt a family name. In 1812 Friedrich Wilhelm III. Finally, the " Edict concerning the civil conditions of the Jews " ( Prussian Jewish edict of 1812 ), through which the Warburg Jews were granted full equality as Prussian citizens. The Jews also played a key role in the economic boom that followed.

After the final transfer of the Paderborn bishopric to the new Prussian province of Westphalia after the Congress of Vienna , the state rabbinate passed to Abraham Sutro in Münster . The Warburg rabbinate, however, remained the center of the communities in the newly formed Warburg district , which in 1821 had by far the largest number of Jews in a district in the province of Westphalia with 1,125 people.

In the years that followed, a half-timbered synagogue was built behind the rabbi's house on Oberen Straße (today Joseph-Kohlschein-Straße 26) in the old town , with a gallery and a dome inside and accessible from the alley at An der lower Burg .

In 1829–1832 a new Jewish cemetery was built on the Burgberg, directly adjacent to the municipal cemetery, which was also created within the Burgberg walls.

The Villa Hugo Berg, Kasseler Strasse 26

In 1847 the Prussian Jewish law was passed. As a result, the Warburg synagogue district was founded in 1855 , which extended far beyond the actual city area. In addition to the Warburg synagogue community with the Jews from Warburg, Dössel , Germete , Hohenwepel , Welda and Wormeln , the branch communities Herlinghausen , Rösebeck , Ossendorf and Rimbeck also belonged to it. The legal obligation to give religious instruction was met in 1861 by the teacher and cantor Juda Oppenheim by setting up a public one-class Jewish school. It was located directly at the synagogue. Oppenheim was seen as a figure of spiritual integration who, although maintaining the orthodox orientation of the community, also allowed reformist tendencies through his work. In 1909 a school building with a teacher's apartment was built on Menner Straße.

Many of the leading businesses in Warburg were Jewish family businesses, but Jewish families were also successful and socially integrated in the professions and crafts.

In 1890 there were 299 Jewish inhabitants in the core city, with 5043 inhabitants this still resulted in a share of 5.8%. However, a migration to larger cities like Berlin and abroad could already be observed, with the small rural communities in the surrounding area losing even more members. Therefore, the Warburg synagogue community reorganized towards the end of the century. The places Welda , Wormeln , Germete , Dössel and Hohenwepel were added to it. As a branch with its own synagogue, but without a rabbi, Herlinghausen (with Dalheim and Calenberg ), Rösebeck (with Daseburg ), Ossendorf (with Nörde and Menne ) and Rimbeck (with Scherfede ) were looked after from Warburg. In 1912 Julius Cohn came to Warburg as a teacher and cantor and was committed to the interests of the community in public meetings. He was a member of the Central Association of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith and was elected to the Warburg city council.

Arrest of the teacher and cantor Julius Cohn in 1933 in the street "Zwischen den Stadt"

The destruction of the community under National Socialism

Before the “ seizure of power ” by the National Socialists , there were 160 Jews in the core city of Warburg, with a total of 6814 inhabitants. On April 30, 1933, the SA's first intimidation measures were smearings on Jewish shops, calls for boycotts and harassment of community members, which led to a drop in sales and requests to leave the country. The Jewish school was closed in the same year. Julius Cohn was arrested several times and finally sent to the Esterwegen concentration camp near Papenburg in 1934 . He died in Łódź in 1941 .

The first business and house sales followed. Five Jews completed training in preparation for immigration to Palestine ( Hachshara ), while others emigrated to other European countries, the United States and South America . During the November pogrom of 1938 , the Warburg SA and SS members, supported by forces from the Germania Arolsen SS Division , stormed the synagogue, destroyed the interior, transported the sacred objects to the Old Town market square and set them on fire. Most of the Jewish shops were also destroyed and many homes were damaged. Some of the male Jews were sent to the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps and only released a few weeks later. In 1939 only 96 Jews lived in the city center.

The first mass deportation from Warburg took place on December 10, 1941 , during which more than 50 were "resettled" from the city and the Warburg-Land office via Bielefeld to the Riga ghetto . They did not arrive there until 6 days later, 36 of them died there.

The next transports directly from Warburg took place on March 28, July 28 and August 27, 1942. They went via Bielefeld to Minsk , Theresienstadt and Auschwitz and mostly resulted in death.

Other places where parishioners from Warburg were arrested and murdered were Buchenwald , Bergen-Belsen , Łódź, Warsaw , Gurs and Sobibor .

Only five Jews from Warburg and seven from Rimbeck survived and initially returned in 1945. Three stayed in Warburg and built a new life for themselves, the others emigrated to the United States and Palestine.

The synagogue was renovated in 1945 and briefly used for church services. However, due to a lack of community members, it was later sold and initially converted into a sweet cider factory and later into a residential building.

The Jewish cemetery in Warburg

In spite of the demolitions during the Nazi era, 265 tombstones were still preserved in the Jewish cemetery. In 1945, at the instigation of the military government, a memorial in memory of the murdered Jews was erected from destroyed gravestones.

rabbi

  • Community and regional rabbis
    • 1686 - ???? Mathias Hirsch
    • 1733–1739 Aron Leiffmann
    • 1755–1779 Ruben Oppenheimer
    • 1779–1805 Samuel ben Gerson Steeg
    • 1805–1806 Almond Steinhard
  • Teacher and cantor
    • 1806 - ???? Mordechai Steeg
    • 1848-1891 Juda Oppenheim
    • 1912-1934 Julius Cohn

Known parishioners

Individual evidence

  1. ^ WUB Dominican Monastery Warburg Certificate No. 74 of March 12, 1426
  2. ↑ Sandra Wiemers: With the divining rod to the ritual bath , in: Neue Westfälische February 11, 2012
  3. ↑ http://www.xn--jdische-gemeinden-22b.de/index.php/gemeinden/uz/2039-warburg-nordrhein-westfalen
  4. ↑ Heiko Bewermeyer 2011 (see below) p. 14

Web link

literature

  • Heiko Bewermeyer: From Warburg to the Lodz Ghetto: The fate of Julius Cohn (1880-1942) and his family in: Die Warte, No. 151, 2011, pp. 14-18
  • Heiko Bewermeyer: Hermann Oppenheim - a founder of neurology , Schattauer Verlag , Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-7945-3177-6
  • Martha Evers: History of the Jews of the city of Warburg at the time of the prince-bishop. Diss. Uni Münster, 1920 (reprint with foreword by Franz Mürrmann and an updated bibliography. Hermes, Warburg 1978, ISBN 3-922032-01-X ( Warburger Schriften 1)).
  • Hermann Hermes: Deportation destination Riga. Fate of Warburg Jews. Hermes, Warburg 1982, ISBN 3-922032-03-6 .
  • Hermann Hermes: Excerpts from the history of the Jews in Warburg. In: Franz Mürmann (ed.): The city of Warburg. 1036-1986. Contributions to the history of a city. Volume 2. Hermes, Warburg 1986, ISBN 3-922032-07-9 .
  • Emil Herz : I think of Germany at night. The history of the house of Steg. Verlag des Druckhauses Tempelhof, Berlin 1951 (supplemented and illustrated reprint. Hermes, Warburg 1994, ISBN 3-922032-32-X ( series of publications by the Museumsverein Warburg eV 8 = Warburger Schriften 10)).
  • Carsten L. Wilke : The unloved tradition: Rabbis in Westphalia 1619-1943. In: Westphalia. 84, 2006, ISSN  0043-4337 , pp. 9-25.

Coordinates: 51 ° 29 ′ 7 "  N , 9 ° 8 ′ 45.9"  E