Jewish cemetery (Hanau)

Jewish cemetery in Hanau, view from the entrance area. Older sandstone tombstones on the left, younger part of the cemetery on the right of the path.

The Jewish cemetery in Hanau is a historical, no longer used cemetery in the city of Hanau .

history

Little is known about the history of the medieval Jewish community in the city of Hanau. A Jewish community in Hanau was destroyed in the plague pogroms of 1349. But already in 1351 King Charles IV awarded Ulrich III. von Hanau the Judenregal , which only makes sense if there were Jews in the Hanau rulership at that time . In any case, in the 16th century there was no longer any Jewish community in Hanau. The exact location of the medieval Jewish cemetery in Hanau is unknown. The field name "Alter Judenkirchhof" suggests the approximate location one kilometer southeast of the preserved one.

Oldest part in the north with badly weathered and sunken gravestones

View from the southeast

heavily ingrown tombstone

In December 1603, Count Philipp Ludwig II issued a privilege to settle a Jewish community in Hanau as part of his economic development policy for the County of Hanau-Munzenberg . The Judengasse (today: Nordstraße ) was built between the old and new towns in the area of the Zwinger of the old town fortifications . The community was directly subordinate to the count's administration, not one of the two city administrations of the old or new town of Hanau. This community founded the cemetery that is still preserved today. The first written evidence of its existence comes from 1616, the oldest surviving tombstone dates from 1637. In 1758 there was considerable destruction by French soldiers who built entrenchments from tombstones in the course of the Seven Years' War .

The last burial took place in the summer of 1938. In the November pogrom of 1938, the morgue on Mühltorweg was destroyed by arson . Otherwise the cemetery survived the Nazi era largely unscathed.

investment

In 1712 and 1856 the cemetery was expanded, and in 1856 it was enclosed with a massive wall. The area is almost rectangular and is now in the middle of the built-up urban area. With its old trees, it forms a green island in the northeastern part of the city center. The cemetery has been owned by the city since 1940. It is not open to the general public, but can be visited on an occasional guided tour.

meaning

1261 grave monuments are still preserved today. A specialty of the Hanau cemetery are the older tombstones with "house signs". As a figural relief, they often show a symbol for the respective home of the buried person. The cemetery is a cultural monument according to the Hessian Monument Protection Act .

Gravestones with house signs (selection)

Jehuda Löb Wetzlar (1772), Haus zum Krebs
Frumet, daughter of Jakob Schlomo, wife of Perle (1705), Haus Zum Karpfen
Sara Sonneberg, née Flörsheimer (1846), Haus Zum Bären
Jutle, daughter of Naftali ha-Levi, wife of Sussle (1730), Haus Zur Waage
Meir Bacharach (1733), House of the Golden Ship

literature

The Jewish cemetery in Hanau [anthology] = Hanauer Geschichtsblätter 42. Hanau 2005 u. Commission for the history of the Jews in Hessen Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 978-3-921434-25-3 .
Carolin Krumm: Cultural monuments in Hessen - City of Hanau. Published by the State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen , Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-8062-2054-9 (= monument topography Federal Republic of Germany - cultural monuments in Hessen ), p. 245.
Eckhard Meise : Hanau's Jewish cemetery. In: Stadtzeit 6. 700 years of city rights, 400 years of Jewish existence. Hanau 2003, ISBN 3-9806988-8-2 , pp. 261f.
Eckhard Meise: A court of death for every community. Historic cemeteries in Hanau. In: KulturRegion Frankfurt RheinMain gGmbH (Hrsg.): Garden RheinMain. From the monastery garden to the regional park. Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt 2006 ISBN 3-7973-0981-3 pp. 180f.

Web links

Commons : Jüdischer Friedhof (Hanau) - Collection of images, videos and audio files

State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen (Ed.): Jüdischer Friedhof In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hessen
Hanau Jewish cemetery near Alemannia Judaica

Individual evidence

↑ Krumm, p. 245.
↑ "Wetzlar, Jehuda Löb (1772) - Hanau". Jewish graves in Hesse (as of March 19, 2015). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on September 3, 2015 .
↑ "Frumet, daughter of Jacob Shlomo, wife of Pearl (1705) - Hanau". Jewish graves in Hesse (as of June 18, 2015). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on May 5, 2016 .
^ "Sonneberg, Sara, born Flörsheimer (1846) - Hanau". Jewish graves in Hesse (as of June 16, 2016). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on May 5, 2016 .
↑ "Jutle, daughter of Naftali ha-Levi, wife of Süssle (1730) - Hanau". Jewish graves in Hesse (as of March 19, 2015). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on May 5, 2016 .
↑ "Bacharach, Meir (1733) - Hanau". Jewish graves in Hesse (as of January 21, 2016). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on May 5, 2016 .

50.134196682046 8.9249324798584Coordinates: 50 ° 8 ′ 3.1 ″ N , 8 ° 55 ′ 29.8 ″ E

[1] Krumm, p. 245.

[2] "Wetzlar, Jehuda Löb (1772) - Hanau". Jewish graves in Hesse (as of March 19, 2015). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on September 3, 2015 .

[3] "Frumet, daughter of Jacob Shlomo, wife of Pearl (1705) - Hanau". Jewish graves in Hesse (as of June 18, 2015). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on May 5, 2016 .

[4] "Sonneberg, Sara, born Flörsheimer (1846) - Hanau". Jewish graves in Hesse (as of June 16, 2016). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on May 5, 2016 .

[5] "Jutle, daughter of Naftali ha-Levi, wife of Süssle (1730) - Hanau". Jewish graves in Hesse (as of March 19, 2015). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on May 5, 2016 .

[6] "Bacharach, Meir (1733) - Hanau". Jewish graves in Hesse (as of January 21, 2016). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on May 5, 2016 .