Jewish cemetery (Grünstadt)

Grünstadt, entrance to the Jewish cemetery

Vandalized gravestone of medical officer Dr. Julius Fey, 1916 (20th Bavarian Field Artillery Regiment, 10th Royal Bavarian Infantry Division )

The Grünstadt Jewish Cemetery in Grünstadt in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate is located in the "Sandtkaut" north of Obersülzer Strasse. It has been a protected cultural monument since 1989 .

history

Grünstadt had an old and large Jewish community . The city's first register of residents, dated December 12, 1608, names three Jewish families. In a collection book in favor of the reconstruction of the Worms synagogue , which was burned down by the French in 1689, a Jewish community in Grünstadt is mentioned for the first time in 1698; in the 19th century it was one of the most important in the Palatinate . In 1804 there were 165 Jewish residents, in 1848 there were 85 families with a total of 473 people. After that, the number decreased due to emigration and emigration. In 1875 there were 348 Jews in Grünstadt, in 1900 there were 182 and in 1925 only 144 Jewish people. The cultural center of the community was the synagogue (Östlicher Graben 19), which was built in the 18th century and has now been converted into a commercial building.

The cemetery was occupied from around 1700 to 1969. The Jews in Asselheim , Altleiningen, Bissersheim, Kirchheim, Lautersheim, Neuleiningen, Obersülzen, Obrigheim, Sausenheim and Wattenheim also used the association cemetery . The oldest surviving tombstone dates from 1743. In 1881 the cemetery was expanded. Although it is a contiguous area, the literature sometimes differentiates between "old" and "new" cemetery.

Particularly noteworthy is the tombstone of the royal Bavarian medical officer Julius Fey, who perished in the First World War. He wears a Star of David with an iron cross in the center and was desecrated during the Nazi era. The inscription was willfully smashed.

Among the older graves is the tombstone of the Alsatian Leopold Roos (1768–1838), Talmud teacher and rabbi in Grünstadt for over 30 years.