Judensau at the choir stalls of Cologne Cathedral

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Choir cheek with " Judensau " (left quatrefoil ) and representation with reference to the legend of the ritual murder (right)

The "Judensau" on the choir stalls of Cologne Cathedral is an anti-Jewish wood carving on one cheek of the medieval choir stalls in Cologne Cathedral . It was made in the period from 1308 to 1311 and is one of the oldest surviving depictions of the " Judensau " motif. Right next to her is another anti-Jewish motif, which can be interpreted as a reference to the legend of the ritual murder . This connection between “Judensau” and ritual murder legend is only documented in one other case, a wall painting from the 15th century on the old bridge tower in Frankfurt am Main that was destroyed in 1801 .

The “Judensau” and the desire to preserve it as part of an irreplaceable cultural monument were repeatedly the subject of public criticism of the Cologne cathedral chapter and the cathedral building administration at the beginning of the 21st century .

location

Floor plan of Cologne Cathedral, choir highlighted in color, location of the "Judensau" marked in red
North front row of seats, view of the inside of the choir cheek, gusset depicting pigs

The choir stalls of Cologne Cathedral consist of two double rows of wooden benches, which are set up on the north and south sides of the lower cathedral choir directly in front of the choir screens . The front rows are divided roughly in the middle to form a passage to the row behind. The depictions of the " Judensau " and the legend of the ritual murder are on the choir cheek on the right (eastern) side of the northern passage. This area is only accessible to visitors to Cologne Cathedral as part of special tours.

Emergence

The choir of Cologne Cathedral with 104 seats, the largest preserved medieval choir stalls in Germany. It was made in the period from 1308 to 1311 by wood carvers not known by name. The construction work on the inner choir of Cologne Cathedral was completed around 1300 with the completion of the roof vault. In the years that followed, up to the consecration of the choir on September 27, 1322, the splendid interior furnishings were made.

Numerous parallels in the execution of stone sculptures made around the same time prove that the same artists were both stonemasons and wood carvers. Of the roughly 500 figurative and ornamental carvings on the choir stalls, many were made by artists from the Paris or Lorraine region. Others show through their rough processing and the mixing of styles of masterly work that they can at best come from journeymen.

The “Judensau” and the two other reliefs indicate in the choice of motifs and in the rough execution of a Rhenish or at least German origin of the design and carver.

description

Quadruple with "Judensau" representation (retouched section of the cover picture)
Quadruple with ritual murder motif (retouched section of the cover picture)

The "Judensau" and the ritual murder motif are wooden reliefs that fill in four passports arranged side by side . The left quatrefoil shows three men who can be recognized as Jews by their Jewish hats and who are busy with a pig. One of the Jews holds up the pig, one feeds it, and a third kneels in front of him and sucks on a teat.

The right quatrefoil shows two Jews pouring out a bucket from which a dead sow with three piglets falls. At the same time, the right Jew introduces a boy who can be identified as a Christian by an implied halo.

A third relief can be easily associated with the "Judensau" because of its location and because of the motif. On the inside of the cheek cheek with the "Judensau" is a gusset depicting two pigs eating on the leaves of an oak. For this purpose, one of the two pigs stood on its hind legs and a third one was sucking on one of its teats. This includes the figure of a monk standing behind a volute looking at the scene .

Pictorial symbolism

The pig was in the early Christian iconography as a symbol of gluttony (the Gula ), generally of the truck , or even the devil . The transfer of this image to the Jews did not take place until the 9th century. The caricature of Jews as pigs and their portrayal of people sucking on the teats of a pig or consuming the faeces of a pig alludes to the fact that the consumption of pork is not permitted under Jewish dietary laws .

In 1909, the art historian Heribert Reiners attributed a relationship to the two depictions on the front of the choir cheek. The Jews depicted in the right-hand scene throw away the pork intended for consumption by others in order to create the appearance of orthodoxy. Their true excesses are expressed in the scene on the left in which they drink from a sow's milk. Bernhard von Tieschowitz described the scenes in 1930 with reference to their controversial interpretation. He mentioned both the relationship between the reliefs mentioned by Reiners and the interpretation of the right picture as a representation of the legend of the ritual murder.

The depiction of the ritual murder scene was later interpreted by the Israeli art historian Isaiah Shachar in his comprehensive monograph The Judensau in such a way that the Jews shown throw away the pork they are forbidden to eat and kidnap a Christian child for consumption. It could be an allusion to the alleged ritual murder of Werner von Oberwesel that was committed in 1287 . Shachar sees all three reliefs of the choir cheek as related representations of the vice of gluttony.

In many places in the choir stalls the depiction of vice is contrasted with virtue . In the case of the anti-Jewish reliefs, directly opposite, on the left side of the passage, there are two reliefs that are supposed to represent “Solomon's judgments” as symbols of justice. The left relief shows the well-known story of women fighting over a child. On the right is the lesser-known motif of shooting the dead father . This motif is of Jewish origin, it had its origin around AD 400 as an illustration of the “fair distribution of property” in the Talmud . Contrary to the portrayals related to Solomon in medieval Christian art, the “wise judge” was originally a rabbi .

Further anti-Jewish representations of Cologne Cathedral

"Judensau" as a gargoyle on Cologne Cathedral, around 1280

At the back of the Shrine of the Three Kings, built between 1190 and 1225, there is a scene in which the scourging of Christ is depicted by two henchmen in Jewish hats. The depiction is perceived as decidedly anti-Jewish not so much because of the Jewish hats of those involved, but because of its caricature-like distorted facial features. It is probably the earliest known example of the overemphasized hook nose as an anti-Jewish stereotype.

On the outside of Cologne Cathedral, there is a gargoyle depicting a crouching pig on the final cornice of the Axial Chapel . A small male figure, which undoubtedly represents a Jew, sucks on his teats. The gargoyle with the "Judensau" motif is dated to around 1280.

Similar implementations of the motif

Frankfurt am Main: Wall painting on the old bridge tower, late 15th century

The Old Bridge Tower in Frankfurt was located until its demolition in 1801, a mural that as Schandbild with the alleged 1475 committed ritual murder of the representation of a "Jewish pig" Simon of Trent combined. In addition to the reliefs on the choir stalls of Cologne Cathedral, this was the only known connection between the “Judensau” and the legend of ritual murder.

Breviary of Baldwin of Luxembourg , around 1336, fol. 436 (detail)
Breviary of Baldwin of Luxembourg, around 1336

One of the seven surviving illuminated manuscripts commissioned by the Archbishop of Trier and Elector Baldwin of Luxembourg in the 14th century shows a border illustration with the “Judensau” motif on one side, which is very similar to the Cologne reliefs. The breviary , created around 1336, was for Baldwin's personal use. He probably took it with him on trips and used it as a missal and breviary. The breviary consists of 513 sheets of 17 cm × 11.5 cm, 14 of which are illustrated.

In the Proprium de sanctis des Breviary, on Folium 436, there is an illustrated description of the death of Mary . At the lower edge of this folium, a “Judensau” scene is inserted between the writing surface and the tendrils. The scene on the right shows a bearded Jew, recognizable by his Jew hat , who is sucking a sow's teats. In the middle, a younger Jew pours out a bucket that has left a sow with several piglets. On the left is a dog in a Jewish hat, which strives to the left and turns back to the two Jews. Further to the left there is a face in the tendril decoration, the meaning of which is unclear.

The motif of the sow with her piglets poured out of the bucket is only known from the choir stalls of Cologne Cathedral and from Baldwin's breviary. The representation in the breviary lacks reference to the legend of ritual murder. Nevertheless, the similarity of the pictures suggests that the breviary was illustrated by Cologne artists who were familiar with the relief on the choir stalls. Today the breviary is located as Codex A 520 in the library of the Staatliches Görres-Gymnasium Koblenz Foundation .

Controversy about the "Judensau"

At the beginning of the 21st century, the Munich artists Wolfram P. Kastner and Günter Wangerin emphatically demanded the removal of the "Judensau", or at least an explanatory sign for the depiction. In addition, two swastikas carved into keystones at a height of around 50 m on the outside of the cathedral would have to be removed under all circumstances. Kastner repeatedly represented his cause with actions that regularly included defamation of the Christian churches and Christians. So he appeared in front of the Cologne Cathedral with the slogan “All Christians lie”.

The cathedral chapter as host, the cathedral building administration and the Cologne cathedral master builder Barbara Schock-Werner took the view that the anti-Jewish representations could not be removed from the choir stalls. A signage is excluded because the Cologne Cathedral is a church and not a museum. In addition, the choir stalls with the objected reliefs are not accessible to the public.

The controversy about the "Judensau in Cologne Cathedral" was the reason for the cathedral building administration to hold a symposium on the subject of Cologne Cathedral and "the Jews" in 2006 in cooperation with the Karl Rahner Academy . The Dombauverwaltung and the Zentral-Dombau-Verein zu Köln dedicated a complete edition of the Kölner Domblatt to this topic and the results of the conference in 2008 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulrike Bergmann: The choir stalls of the Cologne Cathedral, text volume, pp. 11-23.
  2. ↑ Ulrike Bergmann: The choir stalls of the Cologne Cathedral, text volume, pp. 59–66.
  3. ↑ Ulrike Bergmann: The choir stalls of the Cologne Cathedral, text volume, p. 107.
  4. ↑ a b Ulrike Bergmann: The choir stalls of Cologne Cathedral, text volume, p. 96.
  5. ↑ a b c d Isaiah Shachar: The Judensau, pp. 24–25, footnotes, pp. 78–79, plates 16b and 17.
  6. ↑ a b Heribert Reiners: The Rhenish choir stalls of the early Gothic. A chapter of the reception of the Gothic in Germany (= studies on German art history, 113th issue ). Heitz & Mündel, Strasbourg 1909, p. 64, panel XIX, digital versionhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3D~GB%3D~IA%3Dgri_33125006433185_0143~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3D~ double-sided%3D~LT%3D~PUR%3D , PDF 9.5 MB.
  7. ^ Bernhard von Tieschowitz: The choir stalls of the Cologne Cathedral, p. 10, plate 21b.
  8. ↑ a b c Ulrike Brinkmann and Rolf Lauer: Representations of Jews in Cologne Cathedral. In: Bernd Wacker and Rolf Lauer (eds.): The Cologne Cathedral and ›the Jews‹ , pp. 13–58.
  9. ↑ Marten Marquardt: Enmity against Jews in Christian art using the example of the Cologne Judensau. In: epd Documentation, No. 10 of March 3, 2003, pp. 40–45, online PDF ( memento of the original of September 30, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (entire volume), 1.1 MB. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.deutscher-koordinierungsrat.de
  10. ^ Bernhard von Tieschowitz: The choir stalls of the Cologne Cathedral, p. 9, plate 15.
  11. ↑ Isaiah Shachar: The Judensau, pp. 36–37, footnotes pp. 82–83, panels 41 to 45.
  12. ↑ a b c Verena Kessel: Archbishop Balduin of Trier (1285-1354). Art, domination and spirituality in the Middle Ages. Trier: Kliomedia 2012, ISBN 978-3-89890-144-4 .
  13. ↑ a b Susanne Gannott: Mess in the cathedral . In: the daily newspaper of November 19, 2005, p. 4.
  14. ^ Wolfram P. Kastner: All Christians lie. Leaflet, undated, approx. 2005, online PDF , 96 kB.
  15. ↑ Sandra Kiepels: Kölner Domblatt: The Cologne Cathedral and the Jews . In: Kölner Stadtanzeiger from December 19, 2008.

Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 28.9 ″  N , 6 ° 57 ′ 30.4 ″  E