Introduction

Jews lived in Germany already in the Late Roman era. The first authentic proof of their presence is from Cologne in 321. It is assumed that Jews also then lived in the other cities along the Rhine. The collapse of the Roman Empire and the decline of the urban lifestyle that went with it also dispersed the Jewish communities. There is no firm evidence of the continuity of Jewish presence along the Rhine in the 1st millennium.

The rule of Charlemagne allowed many Italian and French Jews to settle north of the Alps, where they took jobs of finance and commerce, including money lending and usury. This marked the beginning of a relatively peaceful period for Jews. Their profession, however, created an ambivalent attitude towards them: their capital was needed, but their business was seen as disreputable.

Along the Rhine, the presence of Jews is first attested in Mainz, in the first half of the 10th century. The Jewish community here was established by the members of the Kalonymos family from Italy, who later played a significant role in the development of Jewish learning in German lands. At the end of the 10th century an influential yeshiva was established in Mainz by Gershom ben Judah. Known among his followers as the ‘light of the exile’, he is widely considered to be the founder of a new tradition of Judaism, independent of those promoted by the Babylonian Talmud schools. His yeshiva was one of the main centres of the Jewish world at the time, attracting many students.

In the second half of the 10th century a Jewish community also existed in Worms. In around 1000 a rabbinical synod was held here, where Gershom adopted various groundbreaking laws, such as the prohibition of polygamy and the requirement of consent by both parties to a divorce. One of Gershom’s followers, Yaakov ben Yakar, established a yeshiva in Worms in the middle of the 11th century. It was here that Rashi, today widely considered as the greatest commentator of the Torah and the Talmud, studied in the 1050s and the 1060s.

Since the 1070s there are also records of Jews in Speyer. Many had escaped from Mainz and Worms after antisemitic pogroms. Others arrived after 1084, following the call of Bishop Rüdiger Huzmann, who had promised them a wide array of rights, which went well beyond the common practice anywhere in the Holy Roman Empire. The idea that Jews had the knowledge and capacity to enlarge trade and improve revenues was a major factor here.

The Jewish communities of Mainz, Worms and Speyer were the most important north of the Alps in the High Middle Ages. They formed a federation known as Kehillot ShUM (the ShUM communities), after the initials of the Hebrew names of three cities: Shpira (Speyer), Warmaisa (Worms), and Magenza (Mainz). The three communities enacted a body of regulations known as Takkanot ShUM, by affirming the decrees adopted by French Jews at a synod in Troyes in around 1160 and adding their own (in 1196, 1220, and 1223). These decrees addressed the relations within the Jewish community as well as with the Gentiles and came to be seen as binding by other Jewish communities in German lands. This made the three ShUM cities the central authority for German Jews in religious and legal matters. They have often been collectively called the Rhenish Jerusalem.

The ShUM cities are considered to be the cradle of Ashkenazi Judaism. It was in these cities that the traditions carried from the Holy Land, the Babylon, and the Mediterranean were amalgamated with the particularities of the European environment. A new culture was born, affecting not only the practice of religion and the administration of justice, but also fields such as architecture and literature. Yiddish emerged as a distinct language here, merging the various Jewish languages spoken in the 1st millennium with the medieval vernaculars of High German. The name ‘Ashkenaz’, which comes from the Hebrew Bible, was, in the Middle Ages, used to designate France and Germany, and later only Germany.

Jewish culture, however, flourished in the Holy Roman Empire only as much as it was allowed to, and discrimination of Jews was commonplace. The ShUM cities were not exempt from this, as shown by the Rhineland massacres in 1096, in which hundreds of Jews from Mainz and Worms lost their lives. Mainz, consequently, never regained its former status as the centre of Jewish learning and culture. Antisemitic pogroms also took place during the later crusades. The worst were the persecutions of Jews during the Great Plague in 1348-1351, which affected the Rhineland especially harshly and wiped out entire Jewish communities here. This, together with the later waves of expulsions, forced Jews to flee to the east, to the more tolerant Poland, where already in the 15th century the Jewish communities were counted as the largest of the diaspora. That area remained the heartland of Ashkenazi Judaism until the 20th century. Of the ShUM cities only Worms had a continuous Jewish presence through the early modern age.

Another city where there was a regular Jewish presence was Frankfurt am Main. Jews had lived here since at least the mid-12th century and their community increased significantly since the 15th century. The city soon gained importance as a financial centre, as the municipal authorities only allowed prosperous Jews to settle in, following their expulsion from other cities. Living conditions were, nonetheless, hard here, too. Jews, including rich ones (such as the Rothschilds), were forced to live in the ghetto and were subject to humiliating regulations by the generally antisemitic authorities.

The 19th century changed many things for the better for German Jews: they achieved equal rights with the rest of the citizens, became better integrated in the society, and had an increasing economic and political power. The split between Reform Judaism and Orthodox Judaism also took place in the 19th-century Germany. The new heyday of Jewish life that started was abruptly ended by the access to power of the Nazis in 1933.

Sites

Below I will list the most important Jewish sites in Mainz, Worms, Speyer, and Frankfurt. The portfolios cover the time span from the 10th century to today. In case of the Mainz, Worms and Speyer I will emphasise the medieval heritage, whereas in case of Frankfurt most of the sites that I will mention are from the 19th and 20th centuries. Only for the sites in bold there are photos in the portfolios.

Speyer

Jewish quarter in Altspeyer
Jewish Courtyard | Kleine Pfaffengasse 22
- Synagogue | 1104; reconstruction – c. 1200; modification – c. 1250
- Mikveh | 1110-1120
- Synagogue courtyard | c. 1200
- Women’s synagogue | c. 1250; first half of 14th century
- Yeshiva | first half of 14th century
Museum SchPIRA | Kleine Pfaffengasse 20
Old Jewish Cemetery | ceremonial hall – St.-Klara-Kloster-Weg 10; eastern wall – Am Nonnengarten | 1828-1888
New Synagogue | Heydenreichstraße & Hellergasse | August von Voit, 1836-1837; expansion – 1866
New Jewish Cemetery | Alter Postweg | 1888
Beth Shalom Synagogue | Weidenberg 3 | Alfred Jacoby, 2009-2011

Worms

Synagogue | Synagogenplatz
- Men’s synagogue | 1034; 1174/1175; renovation – 1355; reconstruction – 1956-1961
- Women’s synagogue | 1212/1213; renovation & vestibule – 1616-1620; reconstruction – 1956-1961
- Rashi Yeshiva | 1623/1624; reconstruction – 1956-1961
Mikveh | 1185/1186; renovation – late 1950s
Rashi House (Klaus Synagogue, Jewish Museum Worms) | Hintere Judengasse 6 | 14th century; reconstructed – 1980-1982
New Synagogue (Levy Synagogue) | Judengasse 29 | 1870-1875; destruction – 1945-1947
Judengasse | 1349-1792
Jewish Cemetery Holy Sands | Willy-Brandt-Ring 21 | 11th to 20th century
New Jewish Cemetery | Eckenbertstraße | Georg Metzler, 1911

Mainz

Medieval Jewish quarter
Judensand (Old Jewish Cemetery) | Mombacher Straße & Paul-Denis-Straße | 10th/11th century to 1888; memorial cemetery – since 1926
Jewish ghetto
- Old Main Synagogue | Vordere Synagogenstraße & Klarastraße | 1684; enlargement – 1715-1717; reconstruction – Ignaz Opfermann, 1853; last service – 1912
- Orthodox Synagogue | Margaretengasse & Flachsmarktstraße | architect Albert – 1856; Eduard Kreyßig, 1877-1879; destruction – 1938-1942
Weisenau Synagogue | Wormser Strasse 31 | 1737-1738
New Jewish Cemetery | Untere Zahlbacher Straße & Xaveriusweg | Eduard Kreyßig, 1881
New Main Synagogue | Synagogenplatz & Hindenburgstraße 44 | Willy Graf, 1911-1912; destruction – 1938
New Synagogue | Synagogenplatz & Hindenburgstraße 44 | Manuel Herz, 2008-2010

Frankfurt

Medieval Jewish quarter
Old Jewish Cemetery | Battonnstraße | first mention – 1180; closure – 1828
Judengasse | from Konstablerwache to Neuer Börneplatz | 1462-1811
- Main Synagogue | Kurt-Schumacher-Straße & Allerheiligenstraße | Old Synagogue – 1462, 1711; Main Synagogue – Johann Georg Kayser, 1855-1860; destruction – 1938
- Börneplatz Synagogue (Horovitz Synagogue) | Siegfried Kusnitzky, 1881-1882; enlargement – 1901; destruction – 1938
- Museum Judengasse | Battonnstraße 47 | 1992
- Neuer Börneplatz Memorial | Nikolaus Hirsch, Wolfgang Lorch & Andrea Wandel, 1996
Rothschild Palace (Jewish Museum Frankfurt) | Untermainkai 14-15 | Johann Friedrich Christian Hess, 1820-1821; enlargement (Untermainkai 15) – Friedrich Rumpf, 1845-1846; Jewish Museum Frankfurt – 1988
Old Jewish Cemetery | Rat-Beil-Straße Friedrich | Rumpf & Sebastian Rinz, 1826-1828; closure – 1929
Schützenstraße Synagogue | Schützenstraße & Rechneigrabenstraße | original building – 1852-1853; enlargement – 1872-1873; last service – 1907; destruction – 1938
Friedberger Anlage Synagogue | Friedberger Anlage 6 | Peter Jürgensen & Jürgen Bachmann, 1905-1907; destruction – 1938; memorial – Jeannette Garnhartner, 1988
Westend Synagogue | Freiherr-vom-Stein-Straße 30-32 | Franz Roeckle, 1906-1910
Philanthropin | Hebelstraße 15-19 | foundation – 1804; current building – Georg Matzdorff, 1907-1908; closure – 1942; I. E. Lichtigfeld School – since 2006
Baumweg Synagogue | Baumweg 5-7 | kindergarten – 1906-1938; synagogue – since 1947
New Jewish Cemetery | Eckenheimer Landstraße 238 | Fritz Nathan, 1928-1929
Großmarkthalle memorial site | Philipp-Holzmann-Weg | Großmarkthalle – Martin Elsaesser, 1926-1928; memorial site – Tobias Katz & Marcus Kaiser, 2011-2015
Anne Frank’s house of birth | Marbachweg 307
Anne Frank’s childhood house | Ganghoferstraße 24
Anne Frank Educational Centre | Hansaallee 150