New Jewish Cemetery (Nuremberg)

New Jewish Cemetery, 2011

Children's graves in the New Jewish Cemetery on Schnieglinger Strasse, 2011

The New Jewish Cemetery is one of two surviving burial sites of the Israelite religious community in Nuremberg . The cemetery has been occupied since 1910.

location

The cemetery is located at Schnieglinger Straße 155 in the Schniegling district on the south-east adjoining Westfriedhof . In the northwest, the cemetery is bounded by the dam of the Nuremberg Ringbahn . The Pegnitz river valley runs southwest of the cemetery .

history

Mourning Hall of the New Jewish Cemetery, 2011

Alley in the New Jewish Cemetery, 2011

Ornamental fountain, 2011

War memorial, 2011

Grave of Ludwig von Gerngros , 2011

In 1850 the ban on Jews in the city of Nuremberg, which had been in force since 1499, was lifted. The Jewish community in Bavaria's second largest city grew rapidly, and industrialization attracted many Jewish merchants from the rural areas of Franconia and the Upper Palatinate . They settled in to enjoy the benefits of modern metropolitan life and to invest their fortunes in expanding industry and wholesale. In 1855, 21 Jewish families lived in Nuremberg, in 1864 there were already 936 and in 1867 there were already 1254 Jewish residents.

The deceased of the Jewish community in Nuremberg were initially buried in the old Jewish cemetery in Fürth . Some of the deceased children of Nuremberg Jews were buried in the city cemeteries. This practice was banned by the Protestant church leadership in 1857. On February 28, 1864, the Old Jewish Cemetery was inaugurated on Bärenschanzstrasse in the Gostenhof district . Around 2,225 people were buried here until it was closed in 1922.

After it became clear that the capacity of the Old Cemetery was no longer sufficient, the Nuremberg Israelite Cemetery acquired a plot of land northwest of the Central Cemetery , which opened in 1880 and which was renamed West Cemetery in 1904 . The area, located on the slope of the Pegnitzau, had to be filled with earth by up to two meters due to the high groundwater, which resulted in high costs. On February 4th and 5th, 1909, however, a large flood destroyed parts of the new cemetery grounds. On May 10, 1910, the New Jewish Cemetery was inaugurated with the burial of Henriette Levy. The consecration speech was given by Rabbi Max Freudenthal . After further land purchases in 1916, the area of the cemetery comprised a total of 4 hectares.

In the Second World War, many graves and the administration building were badly damaged during the Allied air raids . The cemetery also had to endure desecration and devastation. Repairs began immediately after the end of the war. The cemetery is still used by the Jewish Community as the final resting place for their dead.

investment

Administration building and mourning hall

The administration building and the mourning hall were designed by the architect Emil Hecht. The hall was decorated by Ferdinand Adler. Since 1970 four gravestones from the cemetery destroyed in 1367 have been exhibited in the mourning hall, which were built into the south tower of the Lorenz Church as steps .

Ornamental fountain

The ornamental fountain, located in a central location behind the mourning hall, was created in 1913 by the sculptor Philipp Kittler .

War memorial

On November 12, 1922, a war memorial designed by the Munich architect Fritz Landauer was inaugurated for the 178 members of the Jewish community who died in the First World War . After the Second World War , a granite plaque was attached to the monument. It bears the inscription:

"IN REMEMBRANCE OF ALL THOSE WHO FULLY DEATHED VIOLENTLY FOR THE WILL OF THEIR FAITH FROM 1933–1945"

A copper capsule is embedded in a hollow in the stone behind the plaque containing a list written on parchment with the names of the at least 1626 members of the Nuremberg Jewish Community who were victims of the Holocaust .

Two rows of soldiers' graves from the First World War are to the right of the morgue, including two gravestones for the Jewish-Russian prisoners of war who died in Nuremberg.

Graves of famous people

Rudolf Benario (1908–1933), an economist, is considered to be the first Jew to be murdered in a National Socialist concentration camp, together with Ernst Goldmann and Arthur Kahn
Ludwig von Gerngros (1839–1916), merchant, founder a. a. of the second casting of the Neptune Fountain , honorary citizen of the city of Nuremberg
Adolf Hamburger (1900–1974), Honorary Chairman of the Israelite Religious Community in Nuremberg
Sigmund Held (1860–1926), lawyer, chairman of the Israelite Religious Community in Nuremberg
Martin Jacobowitz (1889–1961), director of the Mars works , second chairman of the Israelite religious community in Nuremberg
Hans-Joachim Schoeps (1909–1980), national conservative German-Jewish religious historian and religious philosopher
Carl Marschütz (1863–1957) founder of the Nuremberg “Hercules” factory
Karl Amson Joel (1889–1982) textile merchant and grandfather of the US musician Billy Joel