City walk Friedrichstadt at the Eider river

The beginning and the end
. This walk through three centuries of Jewish history begins at Friedrichstadt's Marktplatz. For the Meier family, it ended here in November 1938, as told by three Stolpersteine at Markt 6.

The foundation stone for Friedrichstadt's first house was laid in 1621 at Fürstenburgwall in the southwest corner of the city. To this day, the rectangular layout of the old settlement area between the Eider and Treene rivers can still be seen. It had been made arable by a system of sluices and canals. In the middle of the road network the market place was laid out: Next to the town hall, the historic town houses dominate, and a central church was dispensed with. The iron poles between the "Green" and "Stone" markets bear witness to the horse markets that took place here twice a year. In the middle of it was the house of Leopold Meier (1893-1941?): In 1919 he had taken over his father's raw products business at Markt 6. He lived here from 1920 with his wife Therese, née Levin (1899-1941?), and their children Rolf (1921) and Rita Helene (1926). The parents were involved in the bowling club "Neuntöter", the father also in the board of the Jewish community. From 1933 everything changed: the children were teased at school, the business was boycotted, devastated in the November pogrom of 1938 and immediately "Aryanized". In 1939 the family moved to Hamburg. The emigration failed. Leopold, Therese and Rolf were deported to Minsk on November 8, 1941. Only Rita survived through a Kindertransport to Great Britain.

A schoolhouse for all denominations
. In front of today's parish hall, two stumbling stones commemorate the Heymann brothers.

At Kirchenstraße 2, the community school was built in 1851. It existed - like the Jewish school - until 1905. After that, all children, regardless of their denomination, attended the municipal citizen school. This also applied to the Heymann brothers, Heinz (1907-41?) and Kurt (1912-43). Their parents came from old-established Friedrichstadt families: Leopold Heymann was a horse dealer and Henriette "Henny" Clara (née Levy) was the daughter of Joseph Levy, a manufactory goods merchant. Both brothers completed commercial training, Heinz worked as a cloth merchant. In 1935 he was denounced by the mayor for "racial profanity". In 1937 he moved to Hamburg. The emigration to Shanghai failed. In 1941 he was deported to Łodz with his mother. Kurt was murdered in Auschwitz in 1943.

"Speciality footwear of the finest kind"
. In Friedrichstadt's "Doppelgiebelhaus", Prinzenstraße 23, was the tobacco and shoe store of the Heymann family until 1938. Across the street, the Jewish community met for the first time in 1676...

From Kirchenstraße the path leads to Prinzenstraße: here once stood the "cradle" of the Jewish community of Friedrichstadt. After the Spanish king had initially prevented a settlement of Sephardic families by means of a trade treaty (1627), a letter of protection was first granted to an Ashkenazi Jew, Moses Marcus Levy, in 1675. In 1676 he had a first prayer room set up in the rear part of his house - presumably at the level of today's Prinzenstraße 24. Here the small congregation met, hidden from public view, until it moved to the Fürstenburgwall in 1734. Just across the street, in the famous "Doppelgiebelhaus" (double gable house), lived one of the last Friedrichstadt community leaders, Adolf Heymann (1873-1942?), along with his wife Rieckchen (Ricka) née Rosenthal (1873-1942?) and their children Edith (1903) and Rudolf (1910). Until 1938 the Heymanns ran a tobacco and shoe store here. German-nationally minded and highly respected as a court juror and "Ringreiter," it was all the more shocking for the father that the Sturmabteilung murdered his son in Kiel in 1933 and robbed him of his livelihood in the November pogrom. From Hamburg, Adolf and Rieckchen were deported to Theresienstadt and on to Treblinka in 1942. Edith managed to escape to New York.

The first synagogue of Friedrichstadt
. Friedrichstadt's first house stood at the Fürstenburgwall / corner of Binnenhafen - until the canonade of 1850. From 1734 to 1847, the city's first public synagogue was located here.

September 24, 1621 is considered the birthday of Friedrichstadt: on that Friday, in the southwest corner of the city, between Fürstenburgwall and Binnenhafen, the foundation stone was laid for the first house built for the merchant Willem van den Hove. At the same place, since 1971, a plaque commemorates the great event and the promise of religious tolerance, then as now: "Stand fast in liberty" (Galatians 5:1). The old house - like 136 others - could no longer withstand the six-day cannonade to which Friedrichstadt was subjected at the end of the First Schleswig-Holstein War in the fall of 1850. A few years earlier, the Jewish community had gathered here: As early as 1734, they had been able to acquire the two-story house and convert it into their first public synagogue with a women's gallery. At the same time, the first prayer leader or rabbi took up his duties. In the 19th century, the congregation grew to become one of the largest on Danish territory: in 1845, it had 421 members, and space was becoming scarce. Of course, it took another two long years before a new synagogue was completed: on December 28, 1847, after a final service, the Torah was solemnly brought, along the canal, to Inland Port 17...

"...much more got away from us and we also have to carry it." (Protocol to the report of theft by Rosa Hirsch, November 21, 1938)
In the Westerhafenstraße 10 was until 1939 the manufactory goods shop of the Levy family. Today, any reference is missing here - including the 2004 laid Stolperstein for Rosa Hirsch (1886-1942?).

On the way to the new synagogue, it is worth making a detour to Westerhafenstraße 10. Today, the three-story brick house houses a heating and plumbing company - hardly a destination for tourists. At the end of August 2004, a stumbling stone was laid here as part of Gunter Demnig's international art project in memory of Rosa Hirsch. Still in 2010, this was listed in the leaflet "Stolpersteine in Friedrichstadt. A city walk", in the meantime it is missing. The following is known: Rosa Hirsch was born in Kirchberg (Hunsrück) in 1886. When she came to Friedrichstadt is unclear. As an unmarried nurse she found employment in the house of the Levy family. The latter ran a manufactured goods business at Westerhafenstraße 10, and the aged mother, Helene Levy, was in need of care. In the November pogrom of 1938, the residential and commercial building was devastated and looted - a traumatic experience for Rosa as well. Only on November 21 was she able to bring herself to report the theft, without any result. The Levys fled abroad, and Rosa found work at the Israelite Hospital in Hamburg from April 1939. From there she was deported to Łodz on October 25, 1941, and presumably murdered in Kulmhof in 1942. A second Stolperstein has been set for her at Oberstraße 5 in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel...

"With dignity and with courage we will know how to endure the pitiless measures of Germans against Germans on our own native soil." (Willi Wolff, advertisement in the "Friedrichstädter Zeitung" of April 3, 1933)
. For generations, the kosher butcher shop of the Wolff family in the Westermarktstraße 17 belonged to the Friedrichstädter city life, until 1938. Since 2004, three Stolpersteine can be found here - representative.

About the Binnenhafen leads the way to another private house in the Westermarktstraße 17. Until today, a butcher's shop is recorded at this address, but a good 80 years ago under the name Wolff: For generations, the family was resident in Friedrichstadt - last the master butcher Emanuel Wolff (1855-1908) and his wife Betty née Behrend (1855-1940) were buried in the New Jewish Cemetery. The eldest son, Julius Wolff (1887-1941?), and his wife, Bertha, née Schloß (1890-1941?), continued the Jewish family business. The observance of Kashrut and Shabbat were of course part of it. Julius acted as shochet of the community and chairman of the men's funeral society. The marriage remained childless, and so other relatives always lived in the house with, including Emanuel's siblings Michael and Auguste. Julius' younger brother, Willi Wolff (1891-1941?), was also temporarily registered here with his wife and children until they moved to Westerhafenstraße 14. The April boycott of 1933 already hit the family hard, and in 1938 the butchery's business license was revoked. In 1941 Julius and Bertha moved to Hamburg, from where they were deported to Minsk on November 8. There their trace is lost. Only Willi's son, Emil Wolff (1917-99), returned to Friedrichstadt in 1945.

"Great be the honor of this house..." (Donor plaque above the entrance to the New Synagogue, 5607/1847)
At the Binnenhafen 17, the second Friedrichstadt synagogue was inaugurated in 1847. The building survived - the congregation did not. Since January 2003, it has been home to a cultural and memorial site.

The foundation stone for the new Friedrichstadt synagogue was laid in 1845. On December 28 1847, it was consecrated by Altona Chief Rabbi Jakob Ettlinger, as reported in the journal "Der treue Zions-Wächter." As before in Rendsburg and Elmshorn, the construction was made possible by an endowment (1839) from Isaak Hartwig von Essen of Hamburg. A plaque with his name was emblazoned above the entrance. The room - without a women's gallery - was designed for a good 100 seats, but the congregation soon shrank. In 1932 it had only 32 members. In winter, a small prayer room was used. In the November pogrom of 1938, SA men from Husum set fire to the synagogue with hand grenades, but for safety reasons the mayor had the fire extinguished. The interior was completely destroyed and the inventory was sold to the old goods dealer Koch in Tönning. After interim use as a grain warehouse, the building was converted into a residence for a Kiel SS officer in 1941. His daughter, the Hamburg journalist Heike Mundzeck, learned of this only in 1989 at the dedication of the memorial stone across the street. She eventually accompanied the conversion of the former synagogue into a cultural and memorial site (2001-03) with a film project. Externally, only the metal frames in the form of the old round-arched windows remind us today of the former use...

"Wanted Cultusbeamter (Religionslehrer, Schauchet, Chasan)." (Advertisement in "Der Israelit" from 7.8.1893)
. Right next to the synagogue was the community school and the rabbinate. In 2003, the first Friedrichstadt stumbling stone for the daughter of the last rabbi was laid at Westermarktstraße 24.

The new Friedrichstadt synagogue formed with the Israelitische Gemeindeschule (Am Binnenhafen 18) and the rabbinate (Westermarktstraße 24) including backyard-Mikwe a structural ensemble. On March 12, 1845, the community had acquired the property, the old salt factory of Juda Mendel. A separate elementary school had already been established in 1837/38 in the house at Am Mittelburgwall 44. It was intended to provide both religious and secular education. Around 1841, 80 children were already being taught there, and so the community school moved to the Binnenhafen in March 1845. After various vacancies (from 1852) and a decline in the number of pupils, however, it was closed in 1885 and completely disbanded in 1905. After that, all children attended the citizen school; religious instruction continued to be given separately. While the teacher also acted as prayer leader and sometimes shochet (between the school and the synagogue was the "Schächtgang"), the congregation was subject to the Chief Rabbinate in Altona. It was not until 1928 that Benno Cohen (1895-1944) was appointed rabbi for the Friedrichstadt-Flensburg district. He was to remain the last: in 1937 the family moved to Hamburg, Cohen last visited the rabbinate on November 8, 1938. At the end of 1938, they initially managed to escape to Amsterdam. In 1941, however, the Cohen family was deported to Westerbork and in 1943 to Auschwitz.

"...and ask to respect the dignity of the place." (Contract of the city of Friedrichstadt with the Jewish community leader Israel Behrend, 1939)
. The first Jewish cemetery of Friedrichstadt was established in 1677 on the banks of the Treene in the northwest of the city - in 1939 it had to be filled. Until 1985, even its own Nazi history remained largely taboo.

From the inland port, one reaches - via Kuhbrücke and Westersielzug - the northwest corner of the city. Here, on the area between Flachsblumenstraße and Am Treenefeld, Moses Marcus Levy was able to acquire a small burial ground on the Treeneufer ("Op de Klint") in 1677. This was subsequently extended several times. In 1850 it took serious damage when Danish soldiers used the gravestones for cover during the canonade of Friedrichstadt. By 1886/88, the area was largely occupied, and so the congregation sought a new location on Schleswiger Straße. Individual burials still took place thereafter. There is no evidence that the old burial ground was brutally desecrated as early as 1936. However, in 1939 - under pressure from the city - all gravestones had to be moved and filled in with earth in order to make the cemetery "no longer appear as such to the outside world". The request of the community to "respect the dignity of the place" was ignored: After the creation of allotment gardens, industrious hands dug up the disturbing stones again, and as late as 1954 the sale as building land was threatened. After protests from the Jewish side, the city had the last gravestone fragments - without pedestals - placed in a circle around a memorial plaque. It was not until 1985 that a second memorial stone followed at Westersielzug, outside the grounds. Until then, the city's own Nazi history remained largely taboo.

"Friedrichstadt lets Jewish mortuary decay" (Dienstaufsichtsbeschwerde gegen die Bürgermeisterin der Stadt Friedrichstadt, November 2010)
. The New Jewish Cemetery was established in 1887/88 on Schleswiger Straße - in 1940 the last burial took place here. 68 gravestones have been preserved, but the old Tahara house requires repair.

Passing the Stadtfeld, the path leads to the Holmer Tor and across the Ostersielzug - to the Schleswiger Straße. Here, east of the old town, directly beside the Lutheran cemetery, the Jewish community could put on 1887/88 a new burial ground including mortuary. As early as the beginning of 1886, the mayor had received an application for purchase, but the approval process dragged on: The district physicist, Dr. Schacht, rejected the "Parzelle No 12" in question in the northeast corner on Eiderallee as being too wet and too loamy. In June 1887, permission was finally granted. In early 1888, work began on the Tahara House, a plain building with a gable roof, four small round-arched windows, and portals on the narrow sides. In November 1888, the police administration announced the official acceptance of the new cemetery. Exactly fifty years later, in the November pogrom of 1938, it miraculously escaped desecration. The last burial took place in March 1940. The mortuary had been converted into a transformer station earlier, and its original function was forgotten. In 2010, for example, the press reported on an official complaint that "one of the last testimonies of Judaism in the city and the surrounding area" was being left to decay. Restoration is still pending to this day.

"Fewer and fewer Jews" (Report of the "Husumer Nachrichten" from Friedrichstadt, June 1936)
. In the house Gartenstraße 2 Moses and Henny Behrend wanted to spend their retirement. Moses died in 1936, the house was forcibly sold in 1939 and Henny was murdered in Treblinka in 1942...

From Eiderallee, it is worth taking a detour to Gartenstraße 2, where the married couple Moses Behrend (1862-1936) and Hendel (Henny) née Heymann (1873-1942) lived. Both came from old-established Friedrichstadt families. The couple themselves remained childless. In Westermarktstraße, they ran a grocery store that offered a large assortment of chocolates, perfumes, and soaps to its mostly Christian clientele - especially at Christmas time. Around 1900, they moved their store to the "Treppengiebelhaus" at Markt 17, but sold it in 1907 to Israel Behrend, Moses' brother. The name stood for quality. The merchant Moses Behrend was also known in town as a court juror and prize skat player. After 1933, everything changed: On June 5, 1936, Moses died at the age of 74 (Husumer Nachrichten reported), leaving Henny alone in the house at Gartenstraße 2. In the course of the "Aryanization" she had to sell it in 1939 to a merchant from Friedrichstadt and moved to Hamburg-Eimsbüttel. She found a new, final home in the retirement home of the Jewish Religious Association (Jungfrauenthal 37). In 1942, Henny Behrend was deported to Treblinka via Theresienstadt and murdered there - shortly before her 69th birthday. Two Stolpersteine, in Friedrichstadt and in Hamburg, remember her.

"May there be peace within your walls..." (blessing from Psalm 122:7)
From 1929-38, the Friedrichstädter was located at Ostersielzug 7 - a unique example of religious tolerance for Germany.

Along the Herzog-Friedrich-Strasse you get back to the Ostersielzug. It once formed the city boundary to the east. Just here, on the plot south of Brückenstraße, the Remonstrants 1909/10 built their new parish hall with pastor's apartment according to designs by the architect Jan Verheul - one of the few surviving buildings in Friedrichstadt in the Dutch style, which with its ornate staircase gables, the flight of steps and the entrance portal is more reminiscent of a mansion. (Today it houses a private clinic for plastic surgery.) The basement of the Remonstrantenhaus also housed a public bath. After the new district rabbi Benno Cohen took office (1928), he tried to find a new mikvah for the Friedrichstadt community - and finally found one at Ostersielzug 7: Under a lease agreement dated March 20, 1929, the resting room of the basement bath could be converted and used for religious purposes until 1938. The basin of the groundwater Mikwe could be covered with a wooden plate. The construction has survived to this day - as the only known example of a Jewish ritual bath in a Christian community center in Germany.