Nordstrasse (Hanau)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Southern leg of Nordstrasse with a view of the former synagogue site

The Nordstrasse in Hanau , the former Judengasse , is the location of the city's early modern Jewish ghetto .

History of the Jews in Hanau

City map Hanau with Judengasse 1655
Hanau Ghetto Wall
Moritz Daniel Oppenheim : The Bleichgarten (1842), possibly depicting a backyard scene of the Hanau ghetto

In 1344 all Jews of the Hanau Jewish community were murdered due to the plague pogroms . From 1603 Jews settled in Hanau again. On December 28, 1605, Count Philipp Ludwig II of Hanau-Münzenberg issued a privilege for this, the so-called " Jewish seat ".

Ghetto 1605–1806

Since 1528 the medieval fortifications of the city of Hanau had been surrounded by a then modern Renaissance fortification. The medieval fortifications were largely left untouched. The ghetto was established in the south-east in a street that already existed in 1540. The Judengasse was lockable with gates at both exits. During Sunday the residents were not allowed to leave the ghetto. In 1609 there were 26 houses (in 1837 there were 79). The new community was directly subordinate to the count's administration, not one of the two city administrations of the old or new town of Hanau, even if its residents had to pay poll tax opposite the old town . Between 1610 and 1630 there was a Hebrew print shop in Hanau, one of the first of its kind. During the " Fettmilch uprising " in Frankfurt in the summer of 1614, around 250 Jews from Frankfurt's Judengasse found temporary refuge in Hanau. The Hanau painter Moritz Daniel Oppenheim recorded many of the conditions in Hanau's Judengasse in his work . It was not until 1806 that Napoleon lifted the restrictions on living and access to Jews. The residents could now live anywhere in Hanau and accommodate non-Jewish Hanau residents there. The Judengasse only found its final end as a ghetto with the gradual legal equality of the Hanau Jews in the 1830s.

Memorial to the victims of National Socialism

The south side of the properties in the southern section of Nordstrasse were bordered by a ghetto wall opposite Hanauer Neustadt. This ghetto wall is one of the few that have been preserved in Germany. The wall is now a memorial. Its former function as a ghetto wall is probably secondary, the original function has not been clarified. It may be the last renaissance remnant of the Hanau city fortifications .

Renaming to Nordstrasse 1898

At the request of residents and house owners, Judengasse was renamed Nordstrasse on February 25, 1898 , because the name was perceived as discriminatory and depreciative for the property there.

buildings

Nordstrasse is part of the entire Old Town with Freedom Square as a cultural monument according to the Hessian Monument Protection Act .

synagogue

Location of the synagogue until 1938

There has been a synagogue in Judengasse since 1608 at the latest. The building, which was destroyed on November 9, 1938 during the November pogrom, came from this year . The synagogue was at Nordstrasse 40 (previously: Judengasse 52).

Rabbinical houses

At Nordstrasse 29 (previously: Judengasse 35) there was a former rabbi's house . Nordstrasse 44 (previously: Judengasse 56) is also mentioned as such. In the latter there was a mikveh for women and the Jewish school. The rabbi's apartment and the parish hall were moved to Nürnberger Straße 3 in the 19th century .

Mikveh

The mikvah for men was located in the basement of Nordstrasse 25 (previously: Judengasse 31, also: the house “ The Black Bear ”) . The moat of the medieval city walls, in the course of which the street extends, was arched here and a corresponding system was set up.

memorial

Memorial stone for the destroyed synagogue

Opposite the former location of the synagogue there has been a memorial stone since 1964, which commemorates the extinct Jewish community. He is accompanied by a blackboard that gives explanations of the historical background. Behind this memorial are the remains of the wall of the “witch tower” or “thief tower”, part of the medieval fortification of the old town of Hanau. In this tower was the first temporary synagogue of the community from 1605-1608.

literature

  • Heinrich Bott: The old town of Hanau. A memorial book for the 650th anniversary of the old town of Hanau. Ed .: Hanau History Association. Hanau 1953.
  • Martin Hoppe: Hanauer street names. Hanau 1991. ISBN 3-87627-426-5 .
  • Monica Kingreen: The Hanauer Judengasse. In: Stadtzeit 6. 700 years of city rights, 400 years of Jewish employment. Hanau 2003, pp. 245-250.
  • Carolin Krumm: Cultural monuments in Hessen - City of Hanau . Ed .: State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen. Wiesbaden 2006. ISBN 3-8062-2054-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ City map Hanau around 1540 with the later Judengasse
  2. ↑ Hoppe, p. 181; Bott, p. 151ff lists 80 buildings. The difference presumably results from whether the synagogue is counted or not.
  3. ^ History of the Jewish communities
  4. ^ History of the Judengasse in Frankfurt
  5. ↑ Eckhard Meise : The path of the Hanau Jews to civil legal equality. and Monica Kingreen: The Hanauer Judengasse. In: Stadtzeit 6. 700 years of city rights, 400 years of Jewish employment. Hanau 2003, pp. 243-250.
  6. ↑ Krumm, p. 247.
  7. ↑ Krumm, pp. 80ff.
  8. ↑ Bott, p. 158, No. J 50½.
  9. ↑ Bott, p. 154, No. J 20.
  10. ↑ Bott, p. 157, No. J 49A.
  11. ↑ Angelika Cipa and a .: Hanau city guide. Thirty sites of democratic history and anti-fascist resistance. Frankfurt 1983, p. 38.
  12. ↑ Bott, pp. 29, 153.

Coordinates: 50 ° 8 ′ 10.1 ″  N , 8 ° 55 ′ 12.1 ″  E