Orczy House (Budapest)
The Orczy House ( Orczy-ház in Hungarian , also called Judenhof ) was a former building in Budapest , the significance of which is that it was the cradle of the Jewish community in Pest . It was located on today's Madách tér in Budapest's VII district Erzsebetváros.
history
The building was owned by the Hungarian aristocratic Orczy family . It was started in the first half of the 18th century and, after several renovations and extensions, was given its later shape by János Orczy (1746–1804). The house was just outside the Pest city walls on the corner of Landstrasse 569 and Königsgasse 570-571 and was at times the largest building in Pest.
Although the ban on Jews from settling in Hungary was actually lifted in 1783 as part of the tolerance patent issued by Emperor Joseph II , communities such as the city of Pest continued to forbid Jews to settle here. Only the nobility were allowed to decide autonomously who settled on their lands and estates, so that until 1840 the Jews lived exclusively on aristocratic property in Hungary. The Orczy family was also allowed to take in Jews in their house, and since they were very interested in settling at least near the cities because of their businesses, the Orczy house opened up a lucrative source of income for the owners. It almost exclusively rented the numerous apartments, business premises and storage rooms to Jews.
The huge two-story building complex with several courtyards developed into the cradle of the Jewish community in Pest. Over time, all the institutions that were necessary for a functioning Jewish life were here, so that the Judenhof gave the impression of a Jewish shtetl or an oriental caravanserai , as it was described by numerous contemporary chroniclers. The Cafe Orczy , which had existed since 1825, was of particular importance . The most important grain exchange in Central Europe was located in the hall of mirrors. The cafe was run kosher , various Yiddish newspapers were offered, there were playing cards with Hebrew letters, Jewish tutors looked for a job here, and cantors practiced their singing. Next to it was the König von Engelland inn, which housed non-local traders. This lively Jewish life was primarily made possible by the fact that the house was designed for traders and market-goers from the start. A kind of exchange for agricultural products and textiles was developed in the approximately 100 shops, which are said to have entered one ducat every hour for the landlord. In addition, he only rented the apartments and restaurants for three years, after which the conditions had to be renegotiated again.
The first synagogue was built in 1796, a "Polish temple" and a prayer house for the Sephardim in the house around 1800 . In 1814 the first public Jewish school was opened in the house, and in the years that followed, a ritual bath ( mikveh ) was built. After an extension in 1829, the synagogue offered 585 seats. Israel ben Salomon Wahrmann (1755–1826) also worked here, although he remained a citizen of Altofen (Óbuda), but is still considered the first rabbi of Pest. This first conservative Jewish community was not officially recognized until 1833. As early as 1828, another, reform-oriented community, Hesed ne'urim, was established, which called its meeting room not a synagogue but a temple of culture. It was led by Joseph Bach, also from Óbuda, who no longer preached Yiddish but German. For many years the Orczy House remained the religious center of the city. However, as the population increased rapidly, the various Jewish groups and faiths gradually left the building in the second half of the 19th century to build new, large and representative synagogues. While 1400 Jews were still living in Pest in 1833, there were 19,000 in 1848 and 45,000 in 1869. In 1859 the liberal community opened the Great Synagogue , in 1872 the status quo ante community opened the synagogue in Rumbach utca and, most recently, in 1913 the small Orthodox community opened the Orthodox synagogue in Kazinczy utca. Until then, the Orthodox had stayed in the Orczy house. All the newly built synagogues were built near the Orczy House.
In the 20th century the Orczy House lost its meaning for the Jews of Budapest. In 1936 the building was demolished for structural and aesthetic reasons and the modern Mádach houses were built.
reception
The eye-catching Orczy house and life in it has been repeatedly described by Jewish-Hungarian writers. József Kiss wrote in his novel The Secrets of Budapest in 1874 :
“We are in the liveliest district of Budapest and within this district in the liveliest and most populous street, in Király utca, Königsgasse [...]. This is the capital's artery, which never rests, where you can still hear the noisy din when the rest of the city has long since returned to deep silence. [...] Not so in Király utca. Here the traffic begins to roar, the noise comes from full throats when the whole city has long since retired. This is the nest of the proletariat and Judaism. Here oriental dirt, Constantinople roar, Jewish liveliness and Hungarian laziness merge into such a wonderful mixture that the tourist from the west who comes here for the first time cannot get enough of it. (Rudolf Szentesi [József Kiss]: Budapesti rejtelmek. In: Jüdisches Städtebild Budapest. Frankfurt am Main 1999, p. 61) "
Hermann Vámbéry wrote in his English memoir in 1884:
"As educational exchange, the Cafe Orczy [...] enjoyed in those days a special popularity. [It] was crowed then with town and country Jews of all sorts and descriptions [...]. In the afternoon, between two and four, [...] everybody of any importance was there, and on a bench at the side the eligible teachers were seated, anxiously watching the agent [...]. It was always a most painful scene, of which I have since often been reminded when visiting the slave markets in the bazaars of Central Asia [...]. With a heavy heart and deeply ashamed I used to sit there for hours many afternoons together [...]. (Arminius Vámbéry: The Story of my Struggles. The Memoirs of Arminius Vámbéry . 3rd edition. London 1905, pp. 77-78) "
Ludwig Hevesi dedicated a longer article to the strange house , as he called it, in Pester Lloyd and a separate chapter in one of his descriptions of the city. He wrote about the products offered here:
"The Hökerinnen not only sell" kosher "apples and pears, but also woodcut portraits of popular Jewish preachers, brochures with religious content, separate impressions of certain pulpit speeches and the like."
About the religious infrastructure of the house:
“In Orczy's house you will find everything that an orthodox Jew might need in any situation, from Easter flour and a savings bank to Jewish-made pocket watches, from Jewish bookstores to ritual slaughterers. Not even an orthodox church is missing, in fact the rabbi himself lived in the house before. (Pester Lloyd No. 204, September 2, 1871) "
literature
- Julia Kaldori: Jewish Budapest. Mandelbaum Verlag, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-85476-111-2 , pp. 86–87.
- Julia Richers : Jewish Budapest. Cultural topographies of a township in the 19th century . Böhlau Verlag, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-412-20471-6 , pp. 110-116. (Digitized version)
Web links
Coordinates: 47 ° 29 ′ 52.5 " N , 19 ° 3 ′ 26.5" E