City walk Erfurt

Equipped with episcopal letter of protection, Jewish families may have lived in Erfurt already before 1100. The oldest cemetery at the Moritztor and the Old Synagogue including Mikwe testify to this.

The first written evidence is the "Erfurt Jewish Oath" from the tenure of Mainz Archbishop Konrad I (1183-1200). How fragile the granted protection could be, however, is shown by the plague pogrom of the citizens of Erfurt in 1349, during which the first Jewish community was wiped out. Such a catastrophe was to befall the Jewish population of Erfurt twice more: with the expulsions of 1453/54 and with the National Socialist terror. In front of the house at Domplatz 23, one of Erfurt's DenkNadeln has been commemorating Günther Max Beer (born 1938) since 2009. His mother Irma and grandparents Gitta and Siegmund Klaar lived here until 1942 on the second floor as subtenants with the sisters Cäcilie and Henriette Satonower. The father Kurt Beer was already in the Netherlands, but could not bring his family back. On May 1, Günther was still celebrating his fourth birthday in Erfurt - on May 9, they were all deported to the Bełżyce Ghetto via Weimar, and in September to Majdanek. None of them returned.

Not far from the old Waidspeicher is the house Große Arche 17. Once acquired by a safflower trader, it was Jewish-owned in 1939 - and remained so even after the "Law on Tenancies with Jews" was enacted. In 1941, it was converted into one of Erfurt's "Judenhäuser" by order of Mayor Walter Kießling. Until the start of the deportations in 1942, several families had to live here together in a very small space. A reference on site is missing until today...

In the cellar of the "Steinernen Haus" on Benediktsplatz, the finds from the oldest Jewish cemetery at Erfurt's Moritztor are piled up. The area of the cemetery was leveled after 1453/54, the stones obstructed...

From the Great Ark it is only a few steps to the Marktstraße, which was once part of the trade route "Via Regia". It ends at Fischmarkt, the medieval city center, where you can find Erfurt's city hall (1869-82) as well as some magnificent town houses (after 1550). Just behind it, facing the Gera River, was the old "Jewish quarter" with both synagogues and the mikvah until the expulsion of the second Jewish community in 1453/54. The Stone House at Benediktsplatz 1, built around 1250 and today home to the Erfurt Tourist Information, was also already in Jewish possession around 1300. The gateway leads to a display depot in the basement, where the preserved gravestones from the medieval Jewish cemetery have been kept since 2018. This cemetery was probably established before 1200 at the Moritz Gate in the northwest, south of today's Große Ackerhofsgasse / corner of Moritzstraße. After 1453/54 the area was completely leveled and built on with the municipal barn, then from 1465 with the granary. The gravestones were misused as building material. As was the case when the city fortifications were demolished in 1873, various fragments came to light during the renovation of the old city after 1988/90. The two oldest gravestones date back to the years 1244 and 1245. The show depot is so far only accessible within the framework of a guided tour.

The Old Synagogue Erfurt testifies to the presence of a Jewish community since the 11th century. In 1349 it was completely wiped out. The building was preserved. Only after 1988 it was rediscovered...

From the Stone House on Benediktsplatz it is only a few steps along Michaelisstraße to the Old Synagogue Erfurt. Today, it is a highlight of any tour through Erfurt's old town. It is also the oldest synagogue in Central Europe preserved "from cellar to roof". Until the plague pogrom of March 21, 1349, the heart of the first Jewish community beat here. After that, the building was rebuilt several times and used as a warehouse or inn, most recently as a bowling alley and ballroom. In the front building (Michaelisstraße 3-4) you can still find an "Altthüringer" pub. The original function of the rear building was only rediscovered during the renovation after 1988/90. Since 2009, it now houses a municipal museum. The first floor provides information on the building history: In fact, the oldest parts of the west facade indicate that the first synagogue was built before 1100 - long before the "Erfurt Jewish Oath". Two successor buildings were erected on the same site until the congregation was completely wiped out in 1349. Shortly before that, hundreds of coins, silver bars and jewelry, including a beautiful wedding ring, must have been hidden in the house at Michaelisstraße 43. Discovered in 1998, the "Erfurt treasure" can now be seen in the basement of the Old Synagogue in Erfurt. The upper floor is dedicated to the 15 "Erfurt Hebrew manuscripts". They bear witness to the former importance of the Erfurt community. The originals are now stored in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin.

"Inter Iudeos - Among the Jews"
In the "Kreuzsand" on the banks of the Gera, Jewish and Christian families lived door to door - until the expulsion in 1453/54. Five centuries later, the medieval mikveh could be excavated there as of 2007.

Just a few steps away from the Old Synagogue, in today's Kreuzgasse, is another mosaic stone in the tourist network Jewish Life Erfurt: the mikvah (ritual bath) of the Jewish community from the 12th/13th century. It was not until 2007/08 that it was rediscovered here, on the west bank of the Gera, during excavations, and from 2011, protected by an enclosure that can be seen from above at all times, it was made accessible to the public. Guided tours inside are offered weekly. The Erfurt mikvah was first mentioned in writing in 1248/49, but archaeological investigations of the south wall (facing the Krämerbrücke) indicate a first construction before 1200, which was subsequently expanded (floor area: approx. 3 x 9 meters). The plunge pool was located along the shorter east wall (facing the Gera River) and was fed by groundwater and river water. Light came through a niche in the north wall, the entrance was in the west, facing the Kreuzgasse. From there one could reach the Old Synagogue directly. Even before the plague pogrom in 1349, the densely built-up residential area was known as "Inter Iudeos" ("among the Jews"), and even after resettlement in 1354, Jewish and Christian families lived here door to door. The mikvah was still used until the expulsion of 1453/54, after which it was filled in and misused as a cellar. After the devastating city fire in 1472, the western part of the area even served as a cemetery for the nearby Benediktikirche. The front of the houses facing the Gera River was finally demolished in 1944/45 and the Kreuzsand was turned into a green space in 1960. The Jewish history remained buried underneath...

"[...] a beautiful, German chorale, the prayer for king and fatherland, a Weiharie, [...] from the choir with trombones trefflichst exekutirt." (Press report on the inauguration on July 10, 1840)

Behind the Erfurt City Hall stood until 1453/54 the second medieval synagogue. Diagonally opposite, on the banks of the Gera, the "Small Synagogue" was inaugurated in 1840 - today a meeting place. Via Benediktsplatz and Rathausgasse you reach the winding old town alley "An der Stadtmünze". Its former name "An der Judenschule" (At the Jewish School), erased from the Erfurt street directory by council resolution in 1939, referred to the medieval synagogue of 1357, which had been made available to the second Jewish community when it resettled (from 1354) behind the town hall - along with its own terraced tenement houses. Converted into an armory after the expulsions of 1453/54, the building burned down in 1736. The old location, to the left of the "Haus zur Narrenschelle" (No. 13), is now covered with garages. The keystone was found in 2012, archaeological excavations are still pending. In the immediate vicinity, from 1806, after more than 350 years of absence, the third Jewish community of Erfurt also met in a small prayer room in the "Haus zur Weinkrause" (No. 5). In 1823, the community chairman Dr. Ephraim Salomon Unger [his father had been the first to receive municipal citizenship in 1810] had the house purchased and expanded along with the mikvah and community apartments. Due to dilapidation, it was decided in 1838 to build a new building on the same site. On July 10, 1840, the Small Synagogue was consecrated by Rabbi Ludwig Philippson of Magdeburg. The Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums reported. The congregation continued to grow, and so in 1884 the Torah scrolls were transferred to the Great Synagogue on Kartäuserring. The old building was sold in 1885 to the Erfurt distiller Carl Römpler, who used it for the production and storage of essences and spirits. From 1918, the city had apartments built in... It was not until around 1988 that the former synagogue was rediscovered, listed as a historical monument in 1992 and developed into a meeting place by 1998 as part of the Erfurt Jewish Life Network.

"No refuge, nowhere."
At Anger 30-32, the Jewish community found a new home in 1945. Across the street, one of Erfurt's DenkNadeln commemorates the Dublon family. In 1939, she fled to Cuba on the "St. Louis", and later, however, had to turn back...

Midway from the Small Synagogue to the Great Synagogue, one reaches the Anger, Erfurt's main shopping street. Once a communal pasture, wool, wheat, woad and wine were traded here as early as the Middle Ages. From the 19th century onwards, the business premises of Jewish merchants were added, including that of Isaak Lamm (Anger 54), the founder of Erfurt's ready-made clothing industry. The shoe trading company Dublon (founded in 1898) had its headquarters at Anger 46. The Salamander shoe store diagonally opposite (Anger 27) also belonged to it. Since 2012, one of the Erfurt DenkNadeln commemorates the family: brothers Erich (1890-1942) and Wilhelm Dublon (1889-1944?), his wife Erna née Beermann (1903-44?) and daughters Lore (1927) and Eva (1933). In 1938, the company's trading license was revoked. Emigration to the USA failed, so the Dublons opted for Cuba. On May 13, 1939, they too boarded the "St. Louis" in Hamburg, with a total of 937 refugees. Erich kept a diary. They were turned away in Havana Bay, and so the "odyssey of the St. Louis" ended back in Europe via Florida. The Dublons found refuge in Belgium, but there they fell into the clutches of the Gestapo. In 1942 Erich von Mechelen was deported to Auschwitz, in 1944 also Wilhelm, Erna, Lore and Eva. They were all murdered. - In June 1945, only 15 former community members returned to Erfurt. A first prayer room was established in the commercial building at Anger 30/32. The congregation grew at first, but in view of new anti-Semitic tendencies in 1952/53 most of them decided once again to emigrate...

"Pitchu-li Scha'arej Zedek - Open to me the gates of righteousness" (Psalm 118:19)
At today's Yuri Gagarin Ring, the first and only new synagogue building in the GDR was inaugurated in 1952. On the same site, the Great Synagogue had been burned down in the November pogrom of 1938.

From the Anger one arrives at the Juri-Gagarin-Ring via Neuwerk- and Eichenstraße. It marks the old course of the "Wild Gera", south of the medieval city wall. After the construction of the flood ditch, it was filled in in 1898 and the Ringstraße was created. Today, the street is dominated by prefabricated buildings. At Juri-Gagarin-Ring 21, in "Wohnscheibe C" at Löbertor, there is the cultural and educational center of the Jewish Community of Thuringia. After almost being threatened with dissolution before 1990, it currently has 700 members again [as of 2018]. The majority of them are families from the former Soviet Union. The weekly services are celebrated across the street in the New Synagogue at Juri-Gagarin-Ring 16. On September 4, 1884, the Erfurt community had already inaugurated the Great Synagogue on the same site, an ornate domed building in the Moorish style, designed by the Frankfurt architect Siegfried Kusnitzky. The new organ was so controversial that the Orthodox part of the congregation met in a separate prayer hall. As early as 1923, the synagogue was repeatedly the target of anti-Semitic attacks until it was looted, vandalized, and burned down by the SA in the November 1938 pogrom. The costs for the destruction and fencing had to be borne by the community itself. In 1939/40, the town erected a coal shed here. It was largely thanks to Max Cars, the first chairman of the community that was reestablished in 1945, that the property was returned to the Jewish community in 1947. An initial design by the architect Willy Nöckel was rejected as "too sacral". On August 31, 1952, the New Synagogue on what was then Mao-Tsetung-Ring was finally inaugurated. It was to remain the first and only new synagogue building in the GDR, because shortly afterwards (around the "Slánský trial" in Prague) a massive wave of refugees began. What was left behind was the building and the small Erfurt regional congregation, the only one in Thuringia...

From 1811-78, the dead of the Jewish community initially found their final resting place on Cyriakstraße. In 1926 the "Old Jewish Cemetery" was desecrated for the first time. The wounds have not healed to this day... 

For those who still have time and desire, a visit to the two modern Jewish cemeteries is recommended. The first was created in 1811 on today's Cyriakstraße. Between house 3 and 4 a footpath leads there up to the Gera. Soon the area became too small, but only in 1878, after various resistances, a second burial ground could be opened in the south of the city. The old cemetery also remained a thorn in the side of many. The brutal desecration of the cemetery in 1926 caused a national and international sensation: During the night of March 12-13, three members of the "Wikingbund" destroyed 95 of the 130 gravestones still standing. The perpetrators were caught and sentenced to long prison terms, and their names and addresses were published in the press. The second major desecration followed in November 1938 - this time without legal consequences. During the Nazi terror, the area had to be ceded to the city in 1939, and in 1944 the gravestones were removed. After restitution in 1948, the property was again transferred to the city in 1951, which leveled it in 1952 and built garages on it in the early 1960s. As late as 1989, the Jewish community protested against the use of individual gravestones as foundations. In 1996, a first memorial stone was placed on Cyriakstraße. A discussion about the restoration of the cemetery followed. It was not until 2007-2009 that the site was cleared, fenced, and redesigned with the 24 surviving gravestones. Not far away, in today's Straße des Friedens 13, is one of Erfurt's DenkNadeln for Blondina Schüftan, the widow of Erfurt's Rabbi Max Schüftan. It was in her first floor apartment that the congregation last met after the November pogrom in 1938. On March 2, 1943, Dina was deported to Auschwitz.

Just over five decades after the establishment of its first cemetery on Cyriakstrasse (1811), the growing Erfurt community set out again on a search: to the east of the Schützenhaus, on today's Werner-Seelenbinder-Strasse, a second, larger burial ground was finally acquired in 1871. The use of the site met with massive resistance from the neighbors, the Erfurt Citizen Rifle Corps. Only after a sanitary police report was presented, according to which no "poisoning" of the groundwater was to be feared, could the New Jewish Cemetery be inaugurated on September 10, 1878. Initially, two cemeteries were laid out along a central avenue of trees (uphill to the south), where numerous Erfurt personalities also found their final resting place. In the mid-1930s, a third field was opened up to the east. Towards the west, the cemetery seems strangely shortened: in 1939-42, part of the area was built up with the "Thüringenhalle" by order of the Bürgerschützenkorps. At the end of the main avenue there is the mourning hall, built in 1894 by Hugo Hirsch in Moorish style. Desecrated in the November pogrom of 1938, it was listed as a historical monument in 1994, as was the entire cemetery, and restored as of 1998. In the entrance area, two name plaques commemorate the fallen of the First World War. On the left, below the stairs, a memorial stone from 1948 commemorates the victims of the Shoah. East of the mourning hall, until 2009, there were also 28 gravestones that could be saved from the destroyed cemetery on Cyriakstraße. After the immigration of many Russian-speaking Jews from the former Soviet Union, the cemetery was expanded several times after 1990 in an easterly direction to its current size of about 1.44 hectares. Each of the now more than 900 graves tells its own story...