Jewish cemetery Ottensen

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Memorial plaque for the former cemetery in the basement of the Mercado shopping center

The Ottensen Jewish Cemetery is a former Jewish burial site in today's Hamburg district of Ottensen , which was set up from 1663 on an area between today's Ottenser Hauptstrasse and Grosse Rainstrasse . The last burial took place in 1934 - this was followed by several overbuilding, as had already happened in some cases in the 19th century.

history

founding

On October 22nd, 1663, the Hamburg Ashkenazim received permission from the Pinneberg government of the Duchy of Holstein, which was subordinate to the Danish Crown , to set up a burial ground. In the same year they acquired a piece of land on Hahnenkamp in the village of Ottensen, which later became Bismarckstrasse and is now Ottenser Hauptstrasse. The background was the endeavor to break away from the close association with the Sephardic community recognized in Hamburg and also to be independent of the Altona Ashkenazi community . The people of Hamburg were not recognized as an independent community because they did not have their own cemetery for this status. Her dead have been buried in the Jewish cemetery in Altona on Königsstrasse. Since the Altona people had no interest in the independence of the Hamburgers, a dispute arose over the burial rights in the following years, which was settled on May 3, 1666. Afterwards the Altonaer recognized the German-Israelitische Gemeinde zu Hamburg, in return they received a participation in the Ottenser Friedhof. The founding of the cemetery is therefore also considered the date of the independent Ashkenazi community in Hamburg.

Expansion and limitation

Until 1805, the cemetery was constantly enlarged through the purchase of land, but the site was not precisely surveyed. The complete fencing was completed in 1810, and in 1812 the High German Israelite Community of Altona took over the rear part of the property on Grosse Rainstrasse. In 1819 the community built a chapel with a vestibule on Bismarckstraße, today Ottenser Hauptstraße. Like the Altona cemetery on Königsstraße, the Ottensener received a special status as the burial place of famous rabbis and community leaders. The funeral of the banker Salomon Heine in December 1844, which is described as a silent demonstration of his unifying popularity, attracted much attention . Thousands of Hamburgers, Jews and Christians alike, accompanied him on his last trip to Ottensen .

In the course of the 19th century, the village of Ottensen grew into an important industrial location, so that the cemetery, which was formerly on a Feldmark , now took up space in the center of a densely built-up district and the property boundaries were required for necessary road developments. In 1897 - Ottensen had meanwhile been incorporated into Altona - negotiations between the German-Israelite community and the city of Altona came to a conclusion, after which the Jewish community ceded an approximately three-meter-wide strip on Bismarckstrasse without transferring ownership to the city. The tombstones of the hundred or so graves in this strip were laid flat, the terrain was vaulted with a space of about 20 centimeters and then the road was built over. In the same way, in 1898, Große Rainstraße was expanded to include a three-meter-wide strip of cemetery grounds and an unknown number of graves.

Expropriation during National Socialism

From 1935, during the Nazi era , the Altona building authorities looked for ways of expropriating the cemetery grounds and, in 1937, pushed through the demolition of the chapel and morgue. But it was only after the Jewish communities in Greater Hamburg had merged to form the Jewish Religious Association in 1939 that the National Socialist government forced the cemetery property to be handed over piece by piece. First a tower bunker, later a box bunker, was built on the site. In 1942, the Jewish Association succeeded in moving 175 historically significant gravestones, of the former around 9000 stones, to the Ilandkoppel cemetery in Ohlsdorf . The bones of a few outstanding personalities could also be reburied. After the complete dissolution of the religious community in 1943, the city of Hamburg also took over the remaining parts of the cemetery, the other gravestones, except for those vaulted by the road extensions, were destroyed.

In 1950 the Jewish Community in Hamburg, together with the Jewish Trust Corporation (JTC), enforced the right to a refund against the city of Hamburg and sold the former cemetery grounds to a subsidiary of the Hertie Group . The preserved graves under the vaulted street were moved to Ohlsdorf before the construction of a department store began on the site in 1952.

Construction of the Mercado shopping center

In 1988 Hertie sold the site to the construction company Büll & Liedke , and the Altona district granted permission to build a new shopping center at this location. During the demolition of the old building and the excavation work for the new building in summer and autumn 1991, the traces of the former cemetery became visible, fragments of gravestones and human bones came to the surface. International Jewish communities became aware of the building project and protested against the further destruction of the sacrosanct area. The ultra-orthodox group Athra Kadisha , which fights for the preservation of Jewish tombs worldwide, occupied the building site and achieved a temporary construction freeze .

In May 1992 the Jerusalem chief rabbi Itzhak Kolitz was called on to mediate the conflict. Kolitz uttered the following line:

"1. We forbid the clearing of the graves or the soil of the cemetery, even if it was brought into the land of Israel.
2. We do not prevent building over the cemetery, ie on it. But it must not be excavated.
3. A supervisor appointed by us will constantly supervise the construction work. "

- Rabbi Itzhak Kolitz : Statement of May 21, 1992

With this expert opinion, he made the construction of the Mercado shopping center possible under limited conditions: Instead of an underground car park, a parking garage was built on the roof of the building and a concrete slab was poured over the ground where graves and bones were suspected.

After the completion and inauguration of the Mercado on October 5, 1995, memorial plaques were attached to the stairs leading to the basement , which provide information about the history of the cemetery and give the names of a total of 4,500 dead buried there. The boards also leave space for other names that could be identified in the future.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bernhard Brilling: The dispute over the Ottensen cemetery. A contribution to the early history of the German-Israelite community in Hamburg ; in: Ulla Hinnenberg: The Jewish cemetery in Ottensen , Hamburg 1992, pp. 9-17
  2. ^ Michael Studemund-Halévy : Friedhöfe ; in: The Jewish Hamburg. A historical reference work , published by the Institute for the History of German Jews, Hamburg 2006, p. 76
  3. ^ Susanne Wiborg: Heine, Salomon ; in: The Jewish Hamburg. A historical reference work , published by the Institute for the History of German Jews, Hamburg 2006, p. 110
  4. ^ Report on the municipal administration of the city of Altona in the years 1863 to 1900, third part, Altona 1906, p. 562; quoted from: Ulla Hinnenberg: The Jewish cemetery in Ottensen , Hamburg 1992, p. 37
  5. ^ Hans W. Hertz: Memorandum on the former Jewish cemetery in Ottensen , March 12, 1951; quoted from: Ulla Hinnenberg: The Jewish cemetery in Ottensen , Hamburg 1992, p. 37
  6. ^ Arie Goral-Sternheim: Der fatal Hamburger Friedhofskonflikt , Spiegel Special on February 1, 1992 , accessed on January 9, 2011
  7. ↑ Itzhak Kolitz: Statement of May 21, 1992; quoted from: Ulla Hinnenberg: The Jewish cemetery in Ottensen , Hamburg 1992, p. 129

Coordinates: 53 ° 33 '9.4 "  N , 9 ° 55' 54.7"  E