The emergence of Jewish life in Dresden can be dated back to the 12th century, that is, to the period of the city's foundation. At the time of the Middle Ages, Jews*Jews in Saxony were forbidden to own or sell land. Many professions were denied to them because of their Jewishness, for example entry into the Christian guilds. This often left them only with the field of money trading, since the canonical prohibition of interest by the church did not apply to them. The restricted choice of profession from the Christian side led to the fact that Jews soon found themselves confronted with accusations of usury. In addition, they were accused of being "plague tempters," as was the case throughout the Roman-German Empire. These accusations led to waves of persecution, which not infrequently ended in burnings of Jews, as in 1349 in the royal city of Dresden.
In1430, the settlement of Jews in Dresden finally ended under the rule of Elector Frederick II the Meek, who, with the support of the city council, expelled the Jewish population.
It was not until 1700 that the first Jewish families returned to the city. With the financial help of court Jews, the foundation stone for a Jewish community and a Jewish cemetery was laid. The rapidly growing Jewish community in Dresden still numbered over 4,600 members in 1933. The heyday of the Jewish community was abruptly over when the National Socialists seized power. The persistent anti-Semitism and the targeted persecution and murder of the Jewish population between 1933 and 1945 left their mark - until today.
Today's Jewish community strives to set signs of remembrance for the Jewry that once existed in Dresden. In addition, the Jewish life of the community is again located in the center of the city through the New Synagogue and the new community center.
Augustusstraße 1
01067 Dresden
Germany
Augustusstraße 1
01067 Dresden
Germany
The first synagogue of Dresden stood here at the Jüdenhof and was already mentioned in 1377. Later, at about the same place, the Johanneum, the electoral stable building, was built, which today houses the Museum of Transport.
At the beginning of the 13th century, the legal situation of the Jewish population in Dresden seemed to be on a good way: The Jewish decree of Margrave Henry the Illustrious of Meissen granted the Jews*Jews in 1265 the legal equality with the Christians as well as the exemption from Gleits- and customs duties. In addition, he wanted to "protect, protect and defend the same [...] Their oath they should swear on the Book of Moses."
.However, in the course of the Jewish burnings of 1349, Jewish life in the city was increasingly suppressed and made more difficult. Only between 1386 and 1393 are there again mentions of Jewish women*Jews, who are said to have lived in the Great and Small Judengasse. The Judengasse retained its name even after the synagogue and other properties there were demolished in 1411 and the assets of the Dresden Jews were confiscated. The building, which had been converted into a Gewandhaus with a brewery, was partially demolished in the 16th century in order to build a stable house near it, where the electoral carriages were also to be kept - the Johanneum.
During the period of National Socialism the name "Jüdenhof" was erased and the square was incorporated into the Neumarkt.
Only since 1992 the square is called again Jüdenhof.
Innere Altstadt
01067 Dresden
Germany
The Semper Synagogue, named after its architect Gottfried Semper (1803-1879), was designed on a square area as a central building with a tent-roof dome over the central room for 500 people (300 men and 200 women). Through the special design of the synagogue, Gottfried Semper wanted to express the connection between the Oriental and the West German area: He combined Neo-Romanesque round-arched portals and windows with Moorish-Byzantine decorative forms in the interior. As the first modern synagogue to combine both styles, it thus served as an example for numerous other synagogues. Moreover, at the time of its completion, the synagogue was the largest in Germany, and its domed structure was an important feature in Dresden's cityscape.
The laying of the foundation stone, on June 21, 1838, was attended by numerous ministers and distinguished Dresden citizens*. The consecration of the synagogue took place on May 8, 1840. Here the Jewish community of Dresden came together for prayer until the house of worship was violently destroyed by the National Socialists on the night of November 9 to 10, 1938.
On the eastern side of the Brühlschen Garten a stone stele in the form of a six-branched (instead of seven-branched) menorah commemorates the synagogue destroyed in 1938 and the victims of the Nazi persecution of the Jews. The stele was inaugurated by the sculptor Friedemann Döhner on April 22, 1975. However, it does not stand at the exact location of the Semper Synagogue, today also called the Old Synagogue. It is commemorated by the metal rail embedded in the ground in the courtyard of the Jewish Community Center. It reproduces part of the ground plan of the Old Synagogue. Some preserved sandstones from the construction of the Semper Synagogue are embedded in the wall of the New Synagogue.
Almost exactly on the historic site of the Semper Synagogue, which burned down in 1938, stands the New Synagogue today. The solemn inauguration of the house of worship took place symbolically on November 9, 2001, 63 years after the destruction of the Old Synagogue. Next to the synagogue, a center was built for the steadily growing community, whose membership has increased especially due to the influx of Jews from the former Soviet Union. Due to its multifunctional character, the community center offers space for various needs of the community's everyday life: thus, the building contains a library, a café, classrooms, a community hall and a roof terrace, and at the same time serves as a "house of encounter with Judaism". Accordingly, it is open to the public and regularly hosts events and concerts.
An interesting aspect of the story concerns the two golden Stars of David that once adorned the towers of the Semper Synagogue. One of the two stars was rescued and hidden from the ruins of the destroyed synagogue by Dresden fireman Alfred Neugebauer. In 1950 he returned the Star of David to the Jewish community. Subsequently, the star was restored and placed on the dome of the synagogue at Fiedlerstraße 3 in Dresden in 1988. Finally, the original piece was integrated into the entrance area of the New Synagogue, where it can be seen to this day.
Güntzstraße 28
01307 Dresden
Germany
The Henriettenstift was founded in 1852 as an asylum for poor Jewish families. The founder of the institution was the banker Wilhelm Schie, who bought the house at Eliasstraße 24 (today Güntzstraße) and named it after his wife Henriette. Over time, the Stift developed into a home for the elderly, inhabited mainly by single ladies. Therefore, it was also affectionately called 'Alter Damenstift" by the Dresden population.
In 1939, the charitable institution was dissolved by a decree of the Reich Ministry and in 1940 was converted by the National Socialists into a collection camp for the Jewish inhabitants* of Dresden and the surrounding area. On July 14, 1942, the residents were deported from here to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. In the same year, the NSDAP took over the house and used it from then on for training purposes of the Hitler Youth.
In 1945, the building was destroyed in the course of the bombing raids on the city. On the site of the Henriettenstift is now the student dormitory 'Güntzpalast". Since 1966, a memorial plaque at the main entrance of the dormitory commemorates the former asylum house.
Fiedlerstraße 3
01307 Dresden
Germany
On Fiedlerstraße is the New Jewish Cemetery with a mourning hall. From 1950 to 2001, the rebuilt mourning hall served as a synagogue for the Jewish community. It was built as a post-war synagogue in 1949/50 on the ruins of the former mortuary, which had been destroyed during the bombing raids in 1945. The Jewish house of worship in Fiedlerstraße was thus the first new synagogue building on the territory of the GDR. The synagogue building of the small post-war community was not spectacular, but served as the religious center of the community for over several decades.
On June 18, 1950, the synagogue was inaugurated and continued to be used as a mourning hall when needed. On the dome of the synagogue was the golden Star of David, which was recovered from the rubble of the Semper Synagogue by fireman Alfred Neugebauer after the November pogrom in 1938. Today, a copy of the Star of David is mounted on the dome, while the original adorns the entrance to the New Synagogue.
In front of the former synagogue entrance is what is believed to be Germany s first memorial to the fallen Jewish soldiers of the city of Dresden during the First World War. The dedication of the monument took place in 1916 and was performed at that time by Rabbi Jakob Winter. At that time, the building still functioned exclusively as a mourning hall.
Before World War II, the place acted as a defense against anti-Semitic hostility. As late as March 3, 1938, it was reported in the newspapers of the time that the Reichsbund, together with members of the Jewish community, had marched past the memorial and laid wreaths.
The monument was designed by architect Wilhelm Haller. It was initiated and financed by Jewish community leader and later honorary chairman Max Elb. On the front of the monument there is a Star of David and a Hebrew inscription, as well as the names of the 60 Dresden Jews who fell in the war years of 1914 and 1918.
Fiedlerstraße 3
01307 Dresden
Germany
With the closure of the Old Jewish Cemetery in Dresden-Neustadt, a new cemetery was established in 1867 in Fiedlerstraße (formerly Trinitatisstraße). It still serves as a burial place for the Jewish community and is one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in Saxony. The cemetery, which is a listed monument, contains almost 4,000 graves. In 1920 it was extended to the north. The new cemetery area is partially occupied, and burials continue to take place here.
During the Nazi period, the cemetery remained open and was an important meeting place for the Jewish community at that time. In 1945, however, the cemetery was severely damaged during the air raids on Dresden and was not restored until after the war, along with the mourning hall. Immediately behind the rebuilt mourning hall, in the old part of the cemetery, there are two memorial stones. A memorial stone, erected in 1951, contains names of women and men who were murdered in Dresden during the Nazi period and whose urns were buried at this site in 1950. Right next to it is a Torah scroll grave, which was created in 1975 with the participation of many rabbis from Eastern European countries.
Pulsnitzer Straße 12
01099 Dresden
Germany
The Old Jewish Cemetery in Pulsnitzer Straße is the oldest surviving Jewish cemetery in Saxony. After the persecution of Jews in the Middle Ages, there was no longer a single Jewish cemetery at the beginning of the 18th century. Dresden Jews had to bring their dead for burial over the Ore Mountains to the distant Teplice or Soborten.
The court Jew Berend Lehmann addressed Friedrich August I as early as 1715 with the request "to have a place chosen in Lehmann's garden or in another place which is not infamous" to bury the dead. An answer was not long in coming: "Except for the resident Lehmann and [a few], no Jews are to be allowed to stay here or elsewhere in our lands." The situation was therefore difficult, as there were voices in the council who announced that they did not want any Jews in the city at all. In fact, it was only the successor of the Elector, August II, who gave permission to establish a Jewish cemetery in 1751. In this, the new Elector yielded to the Minister Count Heinrich von Brühl, from whom the Jew Michael Samuel had also inquired. The approval of the Elector cost the community a large sum of money. However, the decision was long overdue, because in 1745 there were already 166 Jewish families living in the town.
During the Nazi era, the cemetery was largely spared, so that most of the gravestones have been preserved to this day. During the GDR period, the cemetery was not given any attention. He increasingly decayed and was only at the end of the 20th century as a historically significant place rediscovered.
.Nowadays, the cemetery functions as a cultural monument and is voluntarily cared for by the educational and meeting place HATiKVA e. V., which has its headquarters in the immediate vicinity of the cemetery at Pulsnitzer Straße 10. Requests for tours or
Pulsnitzer Straße 10
01099 Dresden
Germany
Since its founding in September 1992, the Education and Meeting Center for Jewish History and Culture Saxony e.V. has been concerned with providing detailed information about Jewish history and culture in the past and present.
The association emerged from the "Community of Interest for Jewish History and Culture of Saxony", in which several people had come together who wanted to deal with Jewish history and Jewish thought.
The name HATiKVA (Hebrew for 'hope') was chosen deliberately. On the one hand, the association wants to set a sign of hope on the other hand, the members of the association want to look to the present and the future with hope.
Since its founding, HATiKVA e.V. has made an important contribution in the field of research, education and culture with a focus on Saxony. However, the offer of the educational and occupational facility extends beyond the city limits of Dresden and has an impact on educational and cultural institutions, especially in the focus area of extracurricular youth education.
From October to November, the Jewish Music and Theater Week takes place in Dresden, not far from HATikVA e.V., at Bautznerstraße 20. The Jewish cultural festival was founded in 1997 and offers for a week "encounters with Jewish life" with concerts, exhibitions, guided tours, films, documentaries, theater performances, readings, language courses, and much more.
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