Judenbühel
The Judenbühel is a small elevation on the slope of the Nordkette below the Hungerburg in Innsbruck ( Mühlau district ). The Jewish cemetery of Innsbruck was located on it until 1864 and is now a memorial. The former cemetery is a listed building .
History of the cemetery
Presumably the first Jewish families settled in Innsbruck in the 13th century, but the community always remained relatively small. In the early 16th century, a Jewish burial site was built on today's Judenbühel, which was first mentioned in 1503. In 1598, Samuel May, a Jew living in Innsbruck, received permission to bury his descendants on the Buehel, where "the Jews' old grave was". For centuries, the city's Jewish residents were buried there. It was a remote place far outside the city at the time and difficult to access in winter. The dead were brought in a cart to the bath house in Mühlau, from where they were carried over a narrow dirt road to the Judenbühel.
The cemetery was desecrated twice in 1861 and 1863 and the tombstones were overturned or destroyed. The Israelite religious community thereupon asked the authorities for a better located area for a cemetery, which was made available to them in 1864 at the city's Westfriedhof . Since the Jews, like all other citizens, had to pay a cemetery tax, the city paid for the construction of the new Jewish cemetery. In 1864 the last deceased were buried at Judenbühel, and the graves were subsequently moved from the old to the new Jewish cemetery. In 1880 the wall of the old cemetery was torn down and the square was leveled, its importance gradually being forgotten. The hill was finally renamed Spitzbühel under the National Socialists .
From 2007, on the initiative of former Bishop Reinhold Stecher , among others , the old Jewish cemetery was researched and a memorial was built. Archaeologists determined the exact location of the cemetery by excavating the original surrounding walls. The new memorial was blessed on July 16, 2009 by Chief Rabbi Paul Chaim Eisenberg in the presence of Reinhold Stecher, Bishop Manfred Scheuer , State Parliament President Herwig van Staa and Mayor Hilde Zach .
memorial
The memorial, inaugurated in 2009, was designed by Vorarlberg architects Ada and Reinhard Rinderer. Reddish-brown steel plates with stars of David mark the course of the old cemetery wall. The slabs encompass the square on three sides, on the west side the terrain merges into a slight slope. In the place of the former entrance on the south side there is a symbolic door. A plaque indicates the history of the cemetery.
See also
literature
- Silvia Perfler: Memory of the old Jewish cemetery in Innsbruck. In: David. Jewish cultural magazine, issue 82, 09/2009 ( online )
Web links
- Israelite religious community for Tyrol and Vorarlberg: cemetery
- Alemannia Judaica: Jewish cemeteries in Innsbruck
Coordinates: 47 ° 16 '50.2 " N , 11 ° 24' 4.5" E