Judengasse (Cologne)

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Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 15.2 "  N , 6 ° 57 ′ 31.7"  E

Judengasse in 2006

The Jewish quarter is a 60-meter-long street in the old town of Cologne . It runs parallel to Unter Goldschmied Street from Obenmarspforten Street in a northerly direction to Portalsgasse. Originally, before the development of the Rathausplatz in front of the historic town hall and the renaming of its northern section as Bürgerstraße, it extended to Kleine Budengasse and covered a total length of around 180 meters. The Judengasse forms the eastern side of the former Jewish quarter and the Archaeological Zone of Cologne and also ran along the Roman city wall .

history

The Judengasse formed the eastern border of the 14,000 square meter area of ​​the medieval Jewish quarter. It is mentioned in the shrine books from 1135 onwards. With the help of cadastral plans from 1863, a width of 3 to 3.50 meters could be reconstructed for the alley. While the medieval buildings on the east side were destroyed during the construction of the new town hall wing after the Second World War, the cellar walls of the high-medieval houses on the west side of Judengasse could be recorded in the course of archaeological studies. They had been filled with rubble from the 1349 pogrom and never restored.

The excavations made it possible to reconstruct the stratigraphy of the street from the time of the praetorium over several walking horizons up to the leveling in the 14th century. Limestone building sculptures from the 6th to 7th centuries, ceramic finds from the 9th to 10th centuries and shards (almost stoneware) from the 12th century helped with the assignment . The findings were documented by the excavation technician Marco Hocke for the Department for Art and Culture, Archaeological Zone of the City of Cologne.

Excavation zone Cologne, 2015

After the Second World War, the Judengasse lost its independence as a street due to the design of the previously built-up area between Rathausplatz / Portalsgasse, Judengasse, Obenmarspforten and Unter Goldschmied into a free square, but the name was retained. Since the excavations began in 2011, it has been part of the archaeological zone.

In 2010, police patrolmen from Cologne prevented young right-wing extremist offenders from tearing down the street sign on Judengasse. Of the around 20 perpetrators who also attacked the police officers who had arrived, six were later arrested. They had to answer for breach of the peace , resistance , threats, insults and attempted damage to property .

literature

  • Peter Glasner: The legibility of the city. Lexicon of medieval street names Cologne , Du Mont Literature and Art Verlag, Cologne 2002, ISBN 3-8321-7815-5 , p. 120 f.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Katja Kliemann: The Judengasse in Cologne. Stratigraphy of a street from the early to the late Middle Ages. In: Archeology in the Rhineland 2013 , published by the LVR Office for Land Monument Preservation in the Rhineland / Römisch-Germanisches Museum der Stadt Köln 2013, Theiss Verlag, Darmstadt 2014, ISBN 978-3-8062-2986-8 , pp. 178-181.
  2. ^ Katja Kliemann: The Judengasse in Cologne. Stratigraphy of a street from the early to the late Middle Ages. In: Archeology in the Rhineland 2013 , published by the LVR Office for Land Monument Preservation in the Rhineland / Römisch-Germanisches Museum der Stadt Köln 2013, Theiss Verlag, Darmstadt 2014, ISBN 978-3-8062-2986-8 , p. 178.
  3. ↑ Kölner Stadtanzeiger of October 11, 2010 , accessed on May 19, 2017.