City walk Schwerin

"Also the Jews are our subjects so well bored Mecklenburger, often even more bored Schweriner, ..." (Duke's letter to Schwerin merchants, 1795)
Under the protection of the Dukes of Mecklenburg established in Schwerin from 1671 an influential Jewish community - much to the displeasure of the magistrate and the merchants.

After the expulsions of 1492, Schwerin played an important role in the resettlement of Jewish families in Mecklenburg. The reason was the chronic financial shortage of the ducal treasury. Thus, in 1671, Christian Ludwig I granted Levin Saalman as the first Jew a letter of protection to trade in tobacco in the city - others followed. Until the middle of the 18th century, the family of the ducal court agent Michel Ruben Hinrichs (Hinrichsen) from Glückstadt was dominant. It also shaped the new Jewish community in Schwerin and Mecklenburg. On Michel's initiative, a first cemetery was established at the Pfaffenteich in 1696. Schwerin's first synagogue was located in his own house at the beginning of today's Schloßstraße - the "big Jewish house" as it was called at the time (around 1688). Michel's son-in-law, Jeremias Israel, served as rabbi. In 1749, the duke ended the monopoly of the House of Hinrichsen, and other families of Schutzjuden were admitted, who also engaged in the silver trade. Around 1763, there are said to have been as many as 25, and in 1794 as many as 50 - much to the displeasure of the magistrate. In view of the considerable income, however, the duke remained firm, and the Jewish community was able to hold its own. In 1763, Jeremias Israel was appointed the first state rabbi, and in 1773 the building of a synagogue of its own in Schlachterstrasse was approved.

"Beat the Jews out!" (1819)
In Stern's inn in the former Königsstraße 60 Schwerin's merchants - Jewish and non-Jewish met. In 1819, the anti-Jewish hep-hep riots emanated from here...

At the beginning of Puschkinstraße, to the left of Café Prag, was Carl Friedrich Stern's inn until 1848 - a popular meeting place for local and foreign merchants. In September 1819 it gained sad notoriety when pogrom-like riots against the Jewish population threatened to break out from there - as in all of Germany. However, they were quickly suppressed by the military. The so-called Hep-Hep riots, which had started in Würzburg on August 2, quickly spread northward. In Schwerin's old town, the situation was particularly delicate: There, the magistrate had already resisted the duke's liberal Jewish policy for decades - with little success. The Emancipation Edict of 1813 was also blocked - and then revoked after 1815. A flood of anti-Jewish pamphlets throughout Europe was followed by tangible riots in 1819: In Schwerin, the Crivitz merchant Levin Ladewig was chased out of Stern's inn with blows from a stick, a bawling crowd broke the windows of the Holländer family's house, and leaflets such as "Jud, Jud verreck!" circulated in the streets. There were no deaths. The whitewashing reactions, however, showed how little the ideas of enlightenment and tolerance had taken root so far - and how much the Jewish community continued to be perceived as "foreign."

"...made the equality of the Jewish inhabitants with the Christian ones the norm..." (Petition to the Schwerin Magistrate, 1845)
In the Great Moor 12 resided since 1840 the Grand Ducal Mecklenburg State Rabbi. The Jewish community, divided internally, achieved outwardly the civil equality.

Despite a lack of acceptance among the old Schwerin citizenry, the Jewish community continued to grow in the early 19th century. Many companies were founded during this period. Economically as well as religiously, the residential city thus became the center of Mecklenburg's Jewry. In 1830 there were already 314 members (around 1875 the peak was reached with almost 400). While the old backyard synagogue in Schlachterstraße [Ward 4] was replaced by a larger building as early as 1819, a residential building was erected at Grosse Moor 12 for the state rabbi, who was to have his official residence in Schwerin according to the grand ducal statute of 1839. The first to reside here was the Reform rabbi Samuel Holdheim (1806-60) in 1840-47, followed by David Einhorn (1809-79). In 1850 a small Orthodox congregation split off, but its last members rejoined the main liberal congregation after 1880. A more liberal spirit was now also blowing in the magistrate and citizenship: from 1869 at the latest, anyone who wanted to could live in Schwerin as a full city and state citizen - until 1933. All too painfully, the four Stolpersteine in front of House 12 are a reminder of the victims of the Nazi racial mania. On July 10, 1942, Leo Mann, the last cantor and teacher, and his wife Frieda, among others, were deported to Auschwitz.

Destruction and new beginnings
Since 1773, the synagogue and community center at Schwerin's Schlachtermarkt have been the center of Jewish life in the city - until today, beyond all catastrophes.

The first Schwerin community synagogue could be built in 1773 in the backyard of the property Schlachtermarkt 3/5. Quickly, the old temple became too small, and so it was replaced in 1819 by a representative building in half-timbered style, which was expanded and redesigned in 1866. The mikvah and community school were located in the front building. After 1875, membership declined from nearly 400 to 151 in 1932. In addition, a dispute over the status of "Eastern Jews" for many years led to the withdrawal of the Israelitische Gemeinschaft e. V. The deep division could only be overcome under National Socialist rule in 1925. On November 9/10, 1938, the synagogue was looted and vandalized, but not set on fire for the "protection of the neighbors*innen". Instead, it had to be demolished by the Jewish community itself. The remaining houses were converted into collective accommodations - until the deportation of the last eight residents in November 1942. In 1947/48, the building complex was transferred back to the new Jewish Community of Mecklenburg and a prayer room was set up, but after 1973, services were no longer held there. Only after the re-establishment of the Schwerin community in 1994 could a new synagogue be consecrated on December 3, 2008 at the old location by State Rabbi William Wolff.

"Kychenthals Rückkehr"
Since 1894 Louis Kychenthal operated his department store on Schwerin market - until the "Aryanization" in 1938/39. Only in 1996 the property was retransferred, in 2014 the grandson visited his birthplace.

The Kychenthal family of tailors was based in Goldberg, Mecklenburg. Louis Kychenthal was born there in 1863. In 1894, the merchant, together with his wife Anna née Marcus, took over the business F. W. R. Schultz at Schwerin's Markt No. 5. The trade in household goods, fabrics and clothes went well, and so the family expanded their residential and commercial building twice: in 1906 by the left neighboring property (Schusterstraße 1), in 1930 by the right one (Am Markt 4). The two sons Ludwig (born 1897) and Willy (born 1907) became co-owners. Until 1933, the department store and the family had their firm place in the life of the town, then the exclusion began: Despite the call for a boycott, the long-standing customers remained loyal to their "Kychenthal", but the NSDAP and the authorities pushed for a forced sale. On the morning of November 9, 1938, SS men devastated the private apartment and the department store. Louis Kychenthal and his sons - like all 16 Jewish men - were imprisoned in Neustrelitz and released only after signing a "purchase contract". The sons and their family managed to escape to Chile in 1939. The father stayed and was deported to Theresienstadt on November 11, 1942. His death in 1943 - a few days before his 80th birthday - is commemorated today by a Stolperstein. The family history has been available as teaching material since 2017.

"Sunny location in the middle of the castle park, surrounded by lakes and forests, 10 minutes from the city center" (Prospectus of the "Castle Park Sanatorium" Schwerin, 1930s)
. At Weinbergstraße 1, the doctor couple Rosenhain-Hammerstein maintained a private clinic for nervous patients since 1931 - until their escape to the U.S. in 1935/36, after which the Geheime Staatspolizei moved in.

Whoever wants to make a detour back to Schwerin Castle at the end of this walk will find Villa Hammerstein on the edge of the castle garden, at Weinbergstraße 1: built in 1907, the exclusive Castle Park Sanatorium for the mentally ill was established there in 1925. In October 1931, Dr. Gertrud Rosenhain-Hammerstein (born in 1887) and her husband Dr. Erich Rosenhain (born in 1888), took over the management of the private clinic - until November 1935. Previously, their license had been revoked by order of the police authorities. They took legal action before the regional administrative court - and won the case. But the verdict was ignored. Dr. Rosenhain had to flee to New York in December, followed by his wife and children in February. The daughter Gabriele (born in 1923) had already left in May 1935. By "purchase contract" of 1938, the property was transferred to the Geheime Staatspolizei (Secret State Police), which also organized the deportation of the Jewish population from its new headquarters. After 1945, the Soviet military administration and other institutions followed, and from May 1958 the children's clinic of the district hospital - until 1990. Briefly a home for asylum seekers, the villa stood empty from the end of 1992 and was only transferred back to the heiress Gabriele Hammerstein after a spectacular trial in 1996.

"...to give all Jews again places of worship, as they existed e.g. in Schwerin for 600 years, ..." ("Appeal to Jewish fellow citizens", January 8, 1947)
. In 1948, the new Jüdische Landesgemeinde Mecklenburg was founded - already in 1946, the Preparatory Committee met in the former Grenadierstraße 55.

Not even fifteen minutes' walk from the market, in the Paulsstadt, the former home of Hugo Mehler (1880-1967) can be found at Friedensstraße 55. Until 1938, he ran his own heating construction company there. Only through his marriage to an "Aryan woman" was he able to survive in Schwerin. On Mehler's initiative, the Preparatory Committee for the Formation of a Jewish Religious Association of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania met in 1946 in what was then Grenadierstraße. This committee not only worked for the revival of Jewish community life, but also - politically particularly sensitive - for the restitution of Jewish property. Despite massive resistance, in June 1948 it succeeded in gaining recognition as the Jüdische Landesgemeinde Mecklenburg (K.d.ö.R.). By order of the SMAD, it received back its assets, including the Schwerin cemetery and - already in 1947 - the community buildings. However, the number of members soon dwindled from 112 at the beginning (26 of them in Schwerin) to 39 in 1961, not least due to a continuing wave of refugees: in 1956, the first chairman and lawyer Dr. Franz Unikower (1901-97) also left for the West. Hugo Mehler took over the leadership again, until 1962. After 1972, the Landesgemeinde effectively dissolved. In 1989 it still had a whole three members - until immigration from the Soviet Union.

"In memory of the Jewish Cemetery, which fell victim to the Terror." (Memorial stone from October 1948)
The old Jewish cemetery on Bornhövedstraße - created in 1717, completely destroyed in 1945 - could be used again in the future.

Whoever asks today about the cemetery of the Jewish community Schwerin, will be referred to the forest cemetery in the south of the city, where on June 28, 2000, a separate burial ground was inaugurated. If it had gone according to the will of the community, which was newly founded in 1994, it would have returned to the historic site: a first cemetery was established in 1696 at Windmühlenberg near Pfaffenteich (today Schweinemarkt/Apothekerstraße). However, since sand was to be mined there, the cemetery was moved to the Schwälkenberg near Heidensee in 1717 and later expanded several times. At last (1940) it had a size of 6,000 m², but during the Second World War it was desecrated, developed into an anti-aircraft position and finally completely destroyed. From 1947, the community made efforts to restore it, so that - a few - funerals could be held there. The present area stretches along Bornhövedstraße, but has been intersected by it since 1950. The entrance is in the northern part (Am Heidensee 1), where a memorial stone was also placed in 1948. In the southern part (Bornhövedstraße 79) the historical celebration hall from 1899 with two memorial plaques inside is still preserved. The area right next to it was separated in 1953 for the construction of a sewage treatment plant.