Jewish column
| Jewish column | ||
|---|---|---|
 left the Rhine, right the old Rhine arm |
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| Waters | Upper Rhine | |
| Geographical location | 47 ° 36 '49 " N , 8 ° 14' 31" E | |
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| length | 240 m | |
| width | 80 m | |
| surface | 1.08 ha | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
 The arrows mark the fairway for the Weidlinge (Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe) north is below |
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The Jewish column is an island in the Rhine near Waldshut .
geography
The Jewish column was a Rhine island known for centuries. It was in the Waldshut district of the town of Waldshut-Tiengen, a little above the Swiss village of Koblenz and opposite the somewhat larger Swiss island of Grien (Mühlegrien) on the left bank of the Rhine . The size is about 1.1 hectares.
In the district plan of the city of Waldshut from 1775, a smaller size was specified with a Jauchert and 17 rods, which corresponds to 3750 m². Documented from the 2nd half of the 17th century, it was used as a burial place by the Swiss Jews. When the Tagsatzung allowed Jews to set up a cemetery between Lengnau and Endingen in 1750 , the Jewish column was used less and less for burials. After the arm of the Old Rhine was closed by building a wall in March 1850, the island silted up more and more and was forgotten. 2002–2004 it was renatured.
The Jewish column as an island
According to Florence Guggenheim-Grünberg, the historical island was about 150 m long and 40 m wide. The east-west position was only slightly shifted over the centuries due to erosion and landings. On a map preserved in the General State Archives in Karlsruhe, the island is shown much larger with a navigable northern arm of the Rhine and has an almost rectangular format. The flood of 1750 may have caused a greater loss of substance than assumed. The largest human intervention, the silting up of the 30 m wide western arm of the Old Rhine by a wall from 1850, was reversed by a renaturation measure from late 2002. Today the island is a protected biotope in the floodplain landscape of the Rhine and is not accessible to visitors. It can only be viewed from a viewing platform next to Bundesstrasse 34.
The Israelite burial place on the Jewish column
In the 17th century, the Surbtal Jews leased the lower part of the Jewish column from the German town of Waldshut as a burial place, as burials were not allowed in the Confederation. The first lease note received is dated July 27, 1689. A list of a lease of 4 florins for the current year for the "common Jews zuo Lenglaw and others ... dene grebtnuss unden am pointed in the Meltem Kessel Eüwlin" is in 1663 in the town's land register Waldshut listed. The year 1603, given in Birkenmayer's Brief History of the City of Waldshut, is not supported by sources. The effort involved in bringing a deceased person from the villages of Lengnau and Endingen to the cemetery was great. First of all, it was necessary to travel around three hours by cart to the Rhine near Koblenz . After that, the funeral company had to cross over to the German bank and from there could get to the Jewish column. Since the island was repeatedly affected by floods , the Surbtal Jews asked the Diet in 1750 for permission to build a cemetery between their villages.
The Jewish column from 1750
After the establishment of the Jewish cemetery in Endingen, the Jewish column was hardly used as a burial place, but remained important for honoring the dead. The Aargau Jews visited the island on the day of the death of their deceased and later before the Jewish holidays in autumn. On November 29, 1813, the island was bought by the communities of Lengnau and Endingen “for everlasting times”. According to the contract, however, the island remained in the district and under the jurisdiction of the city of Waldshut for all time. Dealing with the Jewish column also shows the difficult situation for the Jews at that time. When the Zurich rabbi Alexander Kisch tried to restore the overgrown burial site around 1880, neither the Baden nor the Aargau government declared itself responsible. Both regarded the island as not belonging to their territory. In 1850, the arm of the Rhine, which separated the Jewish column from the banks of Baden, was sealed off so that the channel silted up and the island was connected to the opposite land.
But the graves and some old tombstones were still there. When in 1899 a new land registry was created for the city of Waldshut, which escaped contingent of the Israeli side. The island therefore fell to the Baden tax authorities. In 1925 large parts of the cemetery were damaged by vandalism and the theft of tombstones for building purposes, so the cemetery was placed under the protection of the district office . A planned regulation of the Rhine and the construction of a port for a nearby industrial plant threatened the island in 1953. In 1954/1955 the dead from 85 graves were finally transferred to the Jewish cemetery in Endingen and 14 of the tombstones that could still be assigned to burials were placed there along the cemetery wall. The oldest surviving tombstone of Mrs. Mirjam, daughter of Josef from 1674 today also in Endingen / Lengnau was initially kept in the museum of Aarau . Further fragments can be found in the Waldshut local history museum "Alte Metzig".
The Jewish column was restored as an island as part of a renaturation project from 2003 to 2004. A 400 m long arm of the old Rhine separates the island from the German bank of the Rhine today.
The Jewish island in the St. Verena saga
Based on the excavations, Florence Guggenheim-Grünberg assumes that the coffins were sunk very superficially to a depth of around 0.5 to 0.8 m due to the high groundwater level. This is also indicated by a section in the local St. Verena saga, which is printed in Rochholz. The population of Koblenz asks the saint, who is traveling up the Rhine on a millstone, to free them from an epidemic caused by Jews from all over Germany who were badly buried on the island: “The bodies alone were so badly buried, and only slightly buried in the river, that the air had been polluted by it and a plague raged all around the area. ”The arrival of the saints stopped the plague immediately. The origin of the legend is therefore not to be placed in the lifetimes of the saints in the 4th century, but in the 17th to 18th centuries.
The Jewish island and the shipwreck of Koblenz
On September 24, 1770 at 2 p.m., the Koblenz wagon ferry with 80 passengers who came from the market day in Waldshut capsized. Only 4 passengers were able to save themselves. Among the dead were 14 Jewish men from Endingen and Lengnau. Due to the difficult identification of the corpses, the Surbtal rabbi commissioned the Fürth scholar and rabbi Josef Steinhard to provide a legal opinion, as the remarriage of the widows had to be regulated. The rabbi and writer Meyer Kayserling wrote the memorial sheet Die Judeninsel and the shipwreck of Koblenz to disaster in 1871 .
The excavation campaigns of 1954 and 1955
Florence Guggenheim-Grünberg believed that the existence of the entire Jewish island was endangered by a planned regulation of the Rhine and the intended construction of an industrial port. Therefore, a first excavation was carried out from November 25 to December 2, 1954 under the direction of the Aargau canton archaeologist Reinhold Bosch . Seven, partly fragmentary, tombstones and their graves were recovered. The graves were at a depth of up to 1.10 meters. Assuming that a sediment layer of 30 cm had accumulated in the meantime, the coffins were only buried at a depth of 50 to 80 cm during the original burials because of the groundwater level . The remains were transferred to Endingen and reburied on December 19, 1954 in the Endingen-Lengnau Jewish cemetery. However, soundings had revealed evidence of around 40 other graves without tombstones. In a second excavation campaign from June 20 to July 8, 1955 and a third campaign from September 19 to 22, 1955, a further 74 graves were found and recovered. Six more tombstones were found. The predominant lack of gravestones gave rise to the assumption that, as demonstrated in the Jewish cemetery in Gailingen, wooden grave monuments were also in use. The final burial at the Endingen-Lengnau cemetery took place on September 29, 1955.
The burial ground found lay exclusively on the western tip of the island and had an extension of 36 m with a base of 18.5 m. With one exception, the graves were strictly east-facing, with the headstone and head to the west. In the head area there were glazed ceramic shards from the 17th and 18th centuries, which were placed on the eyes and mouth of the dead according to old Jewish custom. On the southern bank, at a depth of 30 cm, at the level of the 18th century, the paved cemetery path made of Bollen stones with a width of 1.60 m was discovered. An iron pick from around 1700, three Malet locks and a few coffin nails were found on artefacts .
The individual tombstones preserved
- I der Mirjam, daughter of Josef Sel., Died on the 21st Kislew 435 according to the small count (= 20th December 1674 today) before the Aarau City Museum, today the Endingen-Lengnau Jewish cemetery
- II des Nathanael, son of Samuel Blessed, died on 9th Cheschwan 436 (= 29th October 1675), today the Jewish cemetery Endingen-Lengnau
- III (fragments) of Jakob Guggenheim…, died around 1690, today the Endingen-Lengnau Jewish cemetery
- IIIa fragments, unknown, whereabouts unknown
- IV (fragments) of Bathschewa Mirjam, daughter of Elischa Isaak, died on the 2nd holiday Schawuoth 450 (= 15 May 1690), today the Jewish cemetery Endingen-Lengnau
- V of Joseph's son of Rabbi Isaak Pikart, died on the holy Sabbath, Nissan 12, 459 (= April 11, 1699), today the Endingen-Lengnau Jewish cemetery
- VI der Edel, daughter of Moses Menachem, died on the 15th from 468 (= 1st August 1708), today the Jewish cemetery in Endingen-Lengnau
- VII fragments, unknown, son of Joseph Sel., Dating not possible, today Jewish cemetery Endingen-Lengnau
- VIII of Sarah, daughter of Rabbi Isaak Pikart Sel., Died on the holy Sabbath, 8th Tamnus 476 (= 28 June 1716), today the Jewish cemetery Endingen-Lengnau
- IX of Lea, daughter of Rabbi Moses Samuel Weil, died on Ijar 23, 490 (= May 10, 1730), today the Endingen-Lengnau Jewish cemetery
- IXa fragment, the Kela, daughter of Rabbi Meir sel., Dating not possible, today Museum Alte Metzig Waldshut
- X des Menachem, the son of Josef (Guggen) heim, died on 12 Chesch (wan) 493 (= 31 October 1732), today the Jewish cemetery in Endingen-Lengnau
- XI fragment, unknown, wife of Parnes Baruch, died on Kislew 11, 495 (= December 6, 1734), today the Endingen-Lengnau Jewish cemetery
- XII fragment, the Kela, wife of Parnes Moses Guggenheim, died on Ijar 494 (= April / May 1734), today the Jewish cemetery in Endingen-Lengnau
- XIII badly damaged, Parnes Rabbi Jakob Saul, son of Parnes Rabbi Mahram Guggenheim, died on the 2nd new moon day Tamnes 501 (= June 15, 1741), today the Jewish cemetery in Endingen-Lengnau
- XIV of Samuel, son of Isaak blessed Weil von Lengnau, died on 16 Nissan 508 (= 14 April 1748), today the Jewish cemetery in Endingen-Lengnau
- XV fragments, unknown, today Museum Alte Metzig Waldshut
- XVI weathered, illegible, today the Endingen-Lengnau Jewish cemetery
A plaque was placed next to the gravestones set up on the wall north of the entrance to the Endingen-Lengnau cemetery: “In this row of graves rest the bones of Aargau Jews who were buried on the 'Judeninsel' in the Rhine near Koblenz (around 1650–1750). They were transferred to this site in 1954/55. "
See also
literature
- Ernst Adolf Birkenmayer : The Jewish column. In: Brief history of the city of Waldshut. Radolfzell 1890, p. 10.
- Florence Guggenheim-Grünberg : The cemetery on the Jewish island in the Rhine near Koblenz (= contributions to the history and folklore of the Jews in Switzerland. Issue 5). Zurich 1956.
- Edith Hunziker, Ralph Weingarten: The synagogues of Lengnau and Endingen and the Jewish cemetery (= Swiss Art Guide GSK. Volume 771/772). Bern 2005, ISBN 3-85782-771-8 .
- B. K .: The Jewish island in the Rhine. In: Jüdisches Volksblatt, 1862, again in: Israelisches Wochenblatt, 1925, No. 45.
- Alexander Kisch: A sovereign Jewish island in the Rhine. In: Jeschurun, organ for the intellectual and social interests of Judaism, 1, 1st half volume, 1901, pp. 79–80.
- Ernst Ludwig Rocholz: Swiss legends from Aargau. Aarau 1856, Volume I, p. 12.
- Andreas Steigmeier : Jewish column. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
Web links
- Jewish cemetery in Endingen
- BUND and NABU Lebendiger Hochrhein [1]
Remarks
- ↑ padlock
Individual evidence
- ↑ Johann Huber: The collatur parishes and houses of worship of the Zurzach Abbey, F. Bürli, 1868, p. 159 (number of victims incorrectly stated as 50 instead of 80).
- ↑ Maletschloss / Mauetschloss. Retrieved November 1, 2018 .