City walk Eberswalde

From village to city
. Street names tell the story of Eberswalde - including that of its Jewish inhabitants.

800 years of town history is a long time. But despite all the wars and fires, decay, destruction and reconstruction: If you take a look at the city map of Eberswalde, you will clearly recognize the small medieval town center around the marketplace and town hall south of the Finow Canal - to the right and left of Breite Straße. Thus, the street names still tell the story of Eberswalde: from the unfortified village at the foot of the "Ebersburg" (around 1213) to the granting of the town charter (around 1275). Soon a ring-shaped town wall with ramparts and ditches offered protection. Its course can be seen along Bollwerkstrasse, Mauerstrasse, Schneiderstrasse and Goethestrasse. And in the middle of it, between the market and the wall, the Jüdenstraße. It testifies to the presence of Jewish trading families at the latest since the end of the 14th century.

The history of the Jewish community Eberswalde
. The beginnings of Jewish life in Eberswalde are in the Jüdenstraße - between the market and the wall.

In the oldest, today unfortunately lost city book of Eberswalde, the first Jewish families are already mentioned for the late 14th century, for the year 1407 then also a Jodenstraße. According to this, the city council confirmed that the "Haus bei den Steinen" there was the property of Hans Rosenthal. In the immediate vicinity, perhaps the first "Eberswalde beef sausages" were already processed at that time, because for the year 1400 there are already references to the kosher slaughtering of animals. Whether, on the other hand, the first Eberswalde Jew was granted citizenship as early as 1439 remains questionable. As a rule, expensive concessions had to be acquired just to reside in a city. The persecutions and expulsions from the Mark Brandenburg in the years 1510 and 1571/73 also put a temporary end to Jewish life in Eberswalde. Despite the Electoral Edict of 1671, it took another quarter of a century until a Jewish family was allowed to settle in the city again in 1696 with a letter of protection. Since then, the small community grew, which in 1751 was finally allowed to establish its own cemetery on Oderberger Weg, but not a public synagogue...

"On the wall on the right ... the Royal Privilegium"
. The first prayer room of the Eberswalde community was located in a backyard building at Rosenstraße 3, where the first public synagogue could also be consecrated in 1820.

Parallel to Jüdenstraße, on the other side of the town hall, is Kreuzstraße, formerly Rosenstraße. This is where most Jewish homes were found since the 18th century. Since public synagogues were forbidden, people initially met in private. Then, from 1720, there was talk of a common prayer house, for which - according to community records from 1776 - a backyard building at Rosenstraße 3 (today Kreuzstraße 28) was rented. The number of members grew, and as early as 1802 negotiations were held with the city and the king about an extension to the synagogue. In 1819 the Jewish community finally acquired the property. In 1820, a new half-timbered building could be inaugurated in the backyard, with room for 28 men and 20 women. "On the wall to the right," the chronicler Bellermann reported in 1829, "is written in Hebrew on a large tablet the Royal Privilegium; on the other walls the ordinary Hebrew prayers; ..." The front building housed the teacher's apartment and ritual bath, and the inner courtyard was ideally suited for celebrating. After the establishment of the synagogue districts in 1847, however, this location also proved to be too small. Finally, in 1889, a new location was found on Schleifmühlenberg.

"...for my house is called a house of prayer for all nations." (Isaiah 56:7)
In December 1891, the New Synagogue on Schleifmühlenberg was consecrated. Its destruction during the November pogrom in 1938 is commemorated since 2011/12 by a regrowing memorial...

The synagogue community of Eberswalde grew. At the end of the 19th century, it already had about 200 members from 28 different localities. Plans for a new place of worship had long existed, but it was not until 1889 that the city approved the building application for a new synagogue on Schleifmühlenberg at Bismarckstrasse 9 (now Goethestrasse). From October 1890, a neat three-domed building in Moorish-Byzantine style rose there - similar to the New Synagogue in Berlin. Already on December 30, 1891 it could be solemnly inaugurated and shaped the townscape of Eberswalde for almost 47 years. "For my house is called a house of prayer for all nations" (Isaiah 56:7) was emblazoned in Hebrew letters above the entrance. And indeed, when lightning struck the synagogue on Sunday, August 16, 1931, setting fire to the dome, Christian neighbors also helped extinguish the fire. When members of the Eberswalde Sturmabteilung and Schutzstaffel deliberately set fire to the synagogue in the early morning of November 10, 1938, no one helped put it out, not even the fire department. The ruins of the fire were forcibly sold and cleared already in December. Since 1966 a first commemorative plaque on site reminded of the fate of the Jewish community and its synagogue. It was not until 2011/12 that the old foundations were uncovered. Since then, the monument "Wachsen-mit-Erinnerung" of the artists Horst Hoheisel and Andreas Knitz rises up there.

"My dear city of Eberswalde"
. In 1927, Eberswalde awarded honorary citizenship to the city councilor Ludwig Sandberg (1857-1936). Since 1946, a street name commemorates him - and since 2014 also a stumbling block in the Weinbergstraße 1.

Judicial councilor Ludwig Sandberg was one of the Eberswalde citizens who were often ostracized, disenfranchised, deprived of their professional livelihood, forced to emigrate or ultimately driven to their deaths within just a few weeks of the National Socialists coming to power. Born in Breslau in 1857, after studying law he settled as a lawyer in Eberswalde in 1893, where he quickly made a name for himself. As a member of the Freisinnige Volkspartei, he fought a famous speech duel with August Bebel (SPD) in 1897. From 1908 on, he was a member of the Eberswalde city parliament, for a long time as the only lawyer. Respected by all, Sandberg rendered great services to "my dear town of Eberswalde," as he wrote in 1927 on the occasion of being awarded honorary citizenship. Less than six years later, in March 1933, he lost his office as a town councilor, in April his license to practice law, and had to give up his house at Weinbergstraße 1. Forgotten and lonely, Sandberg took his own life on January 29, 1936 in his apartment at Moltkestraße 21 (today Schillerstraße). The 37th Eberswalde Stolperstein has commemorated this since 2014. Already in 1946 - a few steps up the hill, beyond Rudolf-Breitscheid-Strasse (formerly Kaiser-Friedrich-Strasse) - the old Augustastrasse had been renamed Ludwig-Sandberg-Strasse. The honorary citizenship was only awarded to Sandberg again in 1991.

"The first servant of his community"
Eberswalde's last rabbi Josef Wolff (1885-1977) lived at Kirchstraße 18. The house has disappeared - the former location has been marked by four Stolpersteine since 2013.

Whoever looks for Kirchstraße 18 in Eberswalde today has to look twice, because a piece is missing in the area of the new Paul Wunderlich House (2007). At the entrance to the courtyard, on the corner of Friedrich-Ebert-Strasse, immediately to the right was house No. 19, behind it No. 18. In the pavement in front of it, four Stolpersteine were set in 2013 for the last Eberswalde rabbinical family: for Josef Wolff and his wife Ida and their children Betty and Erich. Since 1925 they lived here in the house of the Jewish Community until 1940. The parents and daughter Betty managed to escape to the USA. Erich was shot in Kaunas in 1941. As the "first servant of his community" Wolff had been inaugurated into his office, and indeed it became years of service and humiliation: After the synagogue fire in 1931, Wolff had to watch the house of worship go up in flames a second time in 1938. And this time, no one came to put out the fire. He was arrested and taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, but was released at the end of 1938: In Eberswalde his signature was still needed for the sale of Jewish community property. The houses Kirchstraße 18 and Schneiderstraße 14 were designated as "Jewish houses", from where the last Jewish citizens of Eberswalde were deported in 1942. The Jewish community was dissolved in the fall of 1942.

"Motto: The old happiness in the new home" (advertisement of the department store S. Goldschmidt, March 1911)
. In the residential and commercial building Kirchstraße 20/21 were once the Goldschmidts at home - until 1939. Today Eberswalde reminds several times of the socially committed couple, including in the museum around the corner.

In front of the house at Kirchstraße 20/21, two Stolpersteine including a memorial plaque commemorate another Jewish family that earned a high reputation in Eberswalde for their social commitment: the couple Emma and Salomon Goldschmidt. Born in Posen in 1874, the young merchant opened his first white goods store at Breite Straße 28 in 1901. He soon expanded his product range into a department store, which moved to Kirchstraße 19 in 1908, and three years later to No. 20 across the street. In an advertisement for the opening on March 18, 1911 ("Motto: The old happiness in the new home"), Goldschmidt thanked everyone for all their "trust and goodwill." Childless themselves, the couple tried to alleviate the hardships in the city by donating to families and social institutions, including the orphanage of the Vaterländischer Frauenverein. The Society for Jewish History and Literature also had its headquarters in their house - until August 1938, when the business was aryanized . Deeply disappointed, the Goldschmidts moved to Berlin in 1939, and in 1942 they were deported to Theresienstadt. Salomon survived and died lonely and blind in Switzerland in 1951. As late as 1949, he was surprised to learn that the former Junkerstrasse would henceforth bear his name. Today, a media station in the Museum Eberswalde (Steinstraße 3) tells of the life and work of the Goldschmidt family. A visit is worthwhile.

"However, the Jews must fence their churchyard at their own expense" (purchase contract with the Eberswalde magistrate, December 1751)
. The "Judengehege" on Oderberger Weg (1751) is the oldest surviving Jewish cemetery in Eberswalde. The time of National Socialism he survived relatively unscathed - but not the time after ...

Who still has time and strength after this walk, a detour to the oldest Jewish cemetery of Eberswald on Oderberger Straße is recommended. Today, it is located on the grounds of the Martin-Gropius Hospital, but is publicly accessible - just after the Breite Straße intersection - through a small gate in the fence. It is unknown where the medieval Jewish cemetery might once have been located. The Schutzjuden, who were readmitted after 1696, initially had to bury their dead in Biesenthal, 17 kilometers away. After years of negotiations, the magistrate only agreed to the sale of a small plot of land far from the town, still behind St. George's Chapel, due to an urgent emergency in the winter of 1751. The area on Oderbergischer Weg, popularly called "Judengehege", had to be fenced in at its own expense. It was extended in 1851 and surrounded by a brick wall in 1862. The official land register entry did not take place until 1925. Hidden on the grounds of the then "Landesirrenanstalt", the cemetery survived the National Socialist era almost unscathed, but was badly damaged during GDR times and was not restored until after 1988/90. Of the few surviving gravestones, the oldest dates back to 1784.

"Truth, justice and love are the guiding stars that lead us across to a better life." (Josef Wolff, speech at the dedication of the mourning hall, November 1929)
The New Jewish Cemetery was established in 1911 on Freienwalder Strasse, next to the municipal forest cemetery. Today, only a thoroughly cleaned up remnant area is left of it...

The new Jewish cemetery is located out of town on Freienwalder Straße, at the height of Saarstraße, to the left of the entrance to the communal forest cemetery. From the market, it is recommended to take the bus to the Freienwalder Strasse stop. 
After the Jewish community had been trying in vain to expand its old cemetery since 1881, it was finally able to acquire a new site in the south of Eberswalde, next to the forest cemetery, in 1911. The first burials probably took place from 1914, including those of 18 soldiers killed in the First World War. In 1920, the press reported a desecration of the cemetery. After years of planning, an impressive cemetery hall of its own was formally dedicated by Rabbi Josef Wolff on November 10, 1929. Badly hit during the Second World War, the ruins were demolished after 1945. The corresponding part of the cemetery had to be sold by force already at the beginning of 1939. There are contradictory statements about desecrations during the Nazi period, but after 1945 they are documented several times. Before and after 1990 the remaining area was thoroughly "rearranged": The 53 still preserved gravestones stand today lined up on the east and south side of the cemetery fence.