The university and "Otto City" of Magdeburg - named after Emperor Otto I (912-73) and Otto von Guericke (1602-86) - is today one of the three major centers in Saxony-Anhalt with a good 242,000 inhabitants and has also been the state capital since 1990. First documented in 805, the trading center on the Elbe was elevated to the status of archbishopric by Otto I in 968. It was from here that the colonization of the Slavic territories started in an easterly direction. Through the spread of the Magdeburg city law, the fair and Hanseatic city gained enormous importance. The first settlement of Jewish merchant families can be traced back to 965. They were under the protection of the archbishop and lived south of the city in their own "Judendorf" (Jewish village) - until their last expulsion in 1493. It was not until two centuries later, after the destruction of the Thirty Years' War, that a patron Jew was again admitted in 1705. After 1807, the Jewish community grew to become a center of the Reform movement in Prussia, reaching its peak in 1925 with 2,361 members. After 1933, the once-thriving Jewish life died out, and with January 16, 1945, the entire city sank into ruins. The scars have remained. Nevertheless: Both Magdeburg communities together count today again a good 800 members, a new synagogue building is planned.
Gröperstraße 1a
39106 Magdeburg
Germany
Gröperstraße 1a
39106 Magdeburg
Germany
"Built anno dom[ini] 1900"
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Since 1968, the Synagogue Community of Magdeburg K.d.ö.R. in the Gröperstraße 1a at home. Before 1990, it almost dissolved - today it has just under 500 members.
Whoever looks for Jewish life in Magdeburg today will find - apart from the historical traces - only in the outskirts. It may be a coincidence that the post-war community, which was always so marked by emigration and immigration, found a new home next to the Neustadt train station, of all places, at Gröperstrasse 1a. On the way to the main station, it is worth taking a detour to the striking building, which still looks like a makeshift from the outside. The first church services had already been organized in 1945, and a congregation was constituted on October 8, 1947, at that time with 83 members. The chairman was Horst Karliner (he fled to the West in 1953). With the Sudenburg Villa Wolf (Klausener Straße 11-13), a permanent domicile was finally acquired in 1950 - until the forced sale in 1965. Again, the Synagogue Community of Magdeburg was homeless until it moved to Gröperstraße in 1968. It almost disbanded; by 1980 it had only 20 members. Then immigration from the former Soviet Union began in 1990, but religious differences led to the secession of the liberal Jüdische Gemeinde zu Magdeburg (Markgrafenstraße 3) in 2005. From 2021, the New Synagogue at Julius-Bremer-Strasse 3 will hopefully provide space for both communities - then in the middle of the city.
Brandenburger Straße 2
39104 Magdeburg
Germany
"The first star pension of the state capital"
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In Brandenburger Straße 2, not far from the main train station, was one of nine Magdeburg "Jewish houses" from 1939. Today, in the pension Alte Wache tourists*innen go in and out...
Still today the reception building of the main station impresses, which was built in 1870/73 on the west front of the former fortress of Magdeburg. As early as 1838/39, the railroad had arrived in the old trading city on the Elbe. One could almost think that the development of the Jewish community was also firmly linked to the new means of transport: Just as the number of community members only grew noticeably from 1840 onwards, their fate - a century later - was sealed by the last deportation to Theresienstadt on January 10/11, 1944. A few hundred meters from the main train station, right next to the tradition-rich Hotel Grüner Baum, is the Gründerzeit house at Brandenburger Strasse 2: once owned by Jews, the rear section was converted into one of the first "Jewish houses" at the beginning of 1939. Deprived of their own apartments by the law on tenancies with Jews of April 30, 1939, mainly older residents of Magdeburg had to live together here in very cramped quarters. Not only the sanitary conditions were catastrophic. From the deportation lists of the years 1942-44, a total of 6 or 9 Magdeburg "Jewish houses" can be located - for many the last stop on the way to certain death. A memorial plaque is missing until today.
Kleine Münzstraße 1
39104 Magdeburg
Germany
"The Jews on the list are deported to the East on July 11, 1942." (Information from the GeStaPo Magdeburg to a forced auctioneer, 25.07.1942)
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In the Kleine Münzstraße 5 was once the first prayer room of the modern Jewish community. Remained are three stumbling blocks for family Wiesner two houses next door.
Along Ernst-Reuter-Allee, one reaches Kleinen Münzstraße on the left. In May 1953, the foundation stone had been laid for the new residential block, which was built there on the north side of the then Stalinallee on the ruins of the old Magdeburg. Despite all the destruction - before and after 1945 - the history of the city can still be read in the street names. For example, the state mint was located at Große Münzstraße 7/8 from 1683-1767. This period also saw the re-admission of Jewish families: in 1705, the "Schutzjude" Abraham Lieb(er)mann was granted his first trading concession. A larger congregation developed only after 1807, meeting in a prayer room here at Kleine Münzstraße 5 (later at Prälatenstraße 27) until the construction of the Magdeburg synagogue (1851). The numbering is deceptive: the old building stood directly on the street corner, today Ernst-Reuter-Allee 16. One trace can be found in the pavement: three Stolpersteine for the textile merchant Abraham Wiesner, his wife Frieda and their second daughter Lea (Lilly). From 1933-42 they lived at Kleine Münzstraße 3 (today 1). Only the older daughter Esther (born 1923) was able to escape to Great Britain.
An der Alten Synagoge
Julius-Bremer-Straße
39104 Magdeburg
Germany
"min-Géw jegarschú - From human society they were chased" (Job 30:5)
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At today's An der Alten Synagoge square, a memorial has commemorated the destruction of Magdeburg's house of worship since November 9, 1988 - and the basics of human coexistence.
About the parking area behind the department store Karstadt you get on a short way to Julius-Bremer-Straße, formerly Große Schulstraße. Just here, on the north-facing property 22c, the Jewish community was able to inaugurate its own synagogue on September 14, 1851 - "with extraordinary participation of the municipal authorities and population". The neighboring house 22b housed the congregation and school rooms as well as the apartments for the cantor and sexton. The liberal congregation grew, from a good 800 to over 1,800 members (1885), and so the neo-Gothic building was remodeled and expanded in Moorish style in 1897. In the November pogrom of 1938, Sturmabteilung, Schutzstaffel and Hitler Youth demolished the synagogue inside. Due to the narrow building it was not set on fire, but in early 1939 it was blown up. The community center to the right of it was declared a "Judenhaus". With the reconstruction of the war-destroyed city, the old location was forgotten - and was only marked again in 1988 with the memorial "50 Years of Pogrom" by Josef Bzdok. Further initiatives followed: In May 1999, the square was given the name An der Alten Synagoge, in 2005 the Magdeburgische Gesellschaft of 1990 donated - somewhat off to the side - a bronze relief, and four Stolpersteine commemorate the married couples Spier and Baer.
Breiter Weg 31
39104 Magdeburg
Germany
"Commemorate the extermination" (bronze model of the church St. Katharinen, 16.01.2000)
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The Breite Weg was and is Magdeburg's central residential and commercial street, including for Jewish families. The scars of destruction - before and after 1945 - are still visible today...
A few steps east from the synagogue memorial, Julius-Bremer-Strasse crosses Breite Weg, still the city's central residential and commercial street today. Here at Ratswaageplatz, where the bronze sculpture "Magdeburger Halbkugeln" can be found since 2002, the Krökentor once marked the northern city border. In 1236 it was moved to the level of today's Universitätsplatz and the northern section around the parish church of St. Katharinen (1230) was built on. It can only be guessed how Breite Weg may once have looked: be it in the Middle Ages, be it in its baroque form - and how Jewish businesses also shaped the cityscape here as a matter of course since the 19th century, until their "Aryanization" at the end of 1938. On the right hand side, in the area of the new building block Breiter Weg 27-30, once lived Ludwig Philippson (1811-89), Magdeburg's legendary rabbi, who also made a name for himself as the founder of the Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums (1837-1922).
On the Breite Weg also five stumbling blocks commemorate the Kreisel family.
Julius-Bremer-Straße 3
39104 Magdeburg
Germany
"Otto needs a synagogue" (banner of the Förderverein "Neue Synagoge Magdeburg" e.V., 2018)
On the property Julius-Bremer-Strasse 3 should find from 2021 both Jewish communities of Magdeburg a new home - in the heart of the city.
Through the passage at the Katharinenportal and the parking area behind it, around Margarethenstraße, one reaches a tree-lined open space at Julius-Bremer-Straße 3. The Apfelstraße once ran through here, and the Walhalla Theater stood on the plot between today's Hotel Ratswaage and the new building block on Weitlingstraße. There is still not much to see: "Otto needs a synagogue," demands a colorful banner that was first erected here at the end of 2015 by the Förderverein "Neue Synagoge Magdeburg" e.V. (founded in 1998). Since then, it has been damaged several times - in front of the eyes of the city administration opposite - and the word "synagogue" cut out. A first draft of the HS architects Hamburg is available since 2014. The sponsoring association, the city and the churches support the project. By 2021, the new synagogue should become a reality. In fact, both the synagogue community and the liberal Jewish community have been looking for a new home for years, but the different religious orientations will remain. So two congregations under one roof? The planning is underway.
Arthur-Ruppin-Straße
Breiter Weg 8-10
39104 Magdeburg
Germany
"We six Jewish student teachers ... had our meeting every Saturday evening in the Café Dom." (from the memoirs of Arthur Ruppin, Tel Aviv 1945)
Between Breiter Weg and Domplatz once lived and worked Arthur Ruppin, one of the founders of Tel Aviv. A century later, Hundertwasser set new urban accents here.
From Ratswaageplatz, Magdeburg's Green Citadel is a good ten-minute walk away. Even from a distance, the idiosyncratic building at Breite Weg 8-10 can be spotted. It is the last building project of the Viennese world artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser (actually Friedrich Stowasser, 1928-2000). Started in 1995, it could be completed only in 2003-05. Hundertwasser - son of a Jewish mother - narrowly escaped deportation before 1945.
In 2002, after controversial discussion in the city council, the cross street on the south side was named after the legal trainee and later sociologist Arthur Ruppin (1876-1943). Ruppin spent his school years in Magdeburg, here he completed his book The Jews of the Present in 1904, and last worked at the district court (Domplatz 6). His regulars' table met in the Café Dom. From Berlin, Ruppin emigrated to Palestine in 1908, where he was one of the leading figures of the World Zionist Organization. His literary legacy also includes various controversial statements on "race" and "eugenics".
Breiter Weg
Danzstraße
39104 Magdeburg
Germany
"...because of improper action against the holy church and archbishop's commandments and orders many times..." (Expulsion by Archbishop Ernst of Saxony, spring 1493)
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Under the protection of the archbishop, the medieval Jewish community lived in its own "Judendorf" south of the Old Sudenburg Gate - until the last expulsion in 1493.
Only a few steps away from Magdeburg Cathedral, at the Breite Weg / height Danzstraße, once stood the Old Sudenburg Gate. In the Middle Ages, it marked the southern city limits. A first double stone gate probably dates back to the time after the city fire of 1207. The foundations were uncovered in 2008/10. The area south of the city, around the old Sudenburg, was under the jurisdiction of the archbishop. Under his protection, the first Jewish families were able to settle here from 965 in their own "Judendorf", approximately in the area of today's Hasselbachplatz. A cemetery, the Judenkever Buckau, was located further south on the west bank of the Sülze, near the old mouth of the river Elbe. The oldest known gravestone dates from 1269. Several times the "Judendorf" was destroyed, its inhabitants killed or expelled - but with new letters of protection allowed again. Until the year 1493: Because of the alleged insult of two monks, Archbishop Ernst of Saxony ordered the expulsion of the entire community. On Sunday Jubilate, shortly after Easter, the exodus of a good 1,400 people began. None returned. The village was renamed Mariendorf, the old synagogue was rededicated as the Marienkapelle and the cemetery was dissolved. Even after 1945, individual gravestones were found in the rubble of the city. By the way, if you want to research Magdeburg's (Jewish) history even more deeply a visit to the nearby Museum of Cultural History at Otto-von-Guericke-Strasse 68-73 is recommended.
Fermersleber Weg 46-48
(Nordseite, zw. Hecklinger Straße / Innsbrucker Straße)
39112 Magdeburg
Germany
"Entering the cemetery for males only with headgear" (sign at the entrance)
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The Jewish cemetery Magdeburg was established in 1816 in the Sudenburger Feldmark. War and destruction he survived almost unscathed - and testifies to this day of a rich Jewish life.
Who has desire and time, a detour to the Jewish cemetery at Fermersleber Weg 46-48 is recommended. Except on Shabbat and other Jewish holidays, it is freely accessible. With a good 2,300 graves, the cemetery - like no other place in Magdeburg - bears witness to the rich history of the modern Jewish community, which now goes back more than 200 years. This only grew decisively from the Napoleonic period (after 1807), a burial ground was missing. A first application was rejected by the magistrate in 1815. But as early as 1816, the community was able to acquire a two-acre (approx. 5,000 m²) plot in the Sudenburg Feldmark, which was expanded in 1863 and 1912 to a total of two acres. A burial society (Chewra Kadischa) came together in 1838, and in 1864 a representative mourning hall including a staff apartment was built. It is still in use today. Miraculously, graves and buildings escaped desecration by the Nazis after 1933 From 1940, Allied air raids caused isolated damage. It took a long time until these could be repaired after 1945. Next to the grave of honor for the fallen of the First World War, two memorial stones commemorate the victims of the Shoah, especially the murdered children. Individual stones of the old "Judenkever Buckau" (before 1350) bear witness to the medieval community. They are among the oldest in Europe.
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