City walk Mannheim

The marketplace is located in the center of Mannheim, which was founded as a fortified city in 1607. The first Jews*Jewesses arrived around 1655, attracted by the settlement policy of Elector Karl Ludwig: "All honest people from all nations" were to settle in Mannheim and rebuild the city destroyed after the Thirty Years' War. The Jewish community grew rapidly; Princess Liselotte of the Palatinate exaggeratedly formulated in one of her famous letters in 1720 that "as they say, more Jews than Christians should now live in Mannheim". A Frankfurt traveler reported in 1731 about Mannheim: "When looking at the present city (I) also had to wonder about the amount of Jews living here in particular freedom."

The Ashkenazi or "German" Jews*Jewesses enjoyed legal and economic privileges through the concession of the Elector of 1660 as in hardly any other German city. Nevertheless, they too remained second-class citizens, their status being that of Schutzbürger, i.e. they had to pay a protection fee. Even more extensive rights than the German Jews enjoyed the Sephardic, the so-called "Portuguese" Jews, who were usually wealthier and more respected.

When Elector Karl Philipp moved his residence from Heidelberg to Mannheim in 1720, he accepted the offer of Emanuel Oppenheim to live in his city palace until the residence palace was ready for occupancy. Oppenheim was the son of the imperial court Jew and chief factor Samuel Oppenheimer in Vienna. The stately house served as an interim residence for the electoral court until the palace was ready for occupancy in 1731. In its place in R 1, 1 stands today a modern building.

The economic form of mercantilism favored the situation of Mannheim's Jews*Jewesses. Jewish merchants provided the financing of the Palatine manufactories, the export of the goods produced there and the import of foreign raw materials. Jewish court factors satisfied the tremendous financial needs of the court.

The cloisters, founded by court Jews in the 18th century, were places of Torah and Talmud study. Of the three institutions of this kind, the Klaussynagoge mit Lehrhaus im Quadrat F 1 was the most important.

Lemle Moses Reinganum (c. 1666-1724) was Electoral Palatine "court and chief militia factor." His legendary wealth enabled him to endow a hermitage. Elector Johann Wilhelm granted him that the six to ten rabbinical families living in his Klaus should not be counted among the 200 Jewish families permitted in Mannheim. The Klaus buildings in square F 1 with the later designations F 1, 2 and F 1, 11 were inaugurated in 1708.

After his death, Lemle Moses left the unusually high sum of 100,000 guilders to secure the existence of the Lehrhaus in perpetuity. Through this and through the idealistic and material commitment of many Jews*Jewesses of Mannheim, the Klaus remained the religious center for more than two centuries. Important scholars worked in the yeshiva, for example Jakob Ettlinger, who was Klaus rabbi in 1825-36. These in turn attracted numerous students to Mannheim.

In the 19th century, the Klaus served as a synagogue for the Orthodox members of the community. After the inauguration of the new religious liberal main synagogue with organ, they found their religious home here. Thus, the Klaus prevented the secession of the Orthodox part of the community and contributed to the unity community.

The Klaus buildings were rebuilt in 1888 in the New Islamic, "Moorish" style, and in 1930, during the tenure of Orthodox Rabbi Dr. Isak Unna, they were transformed into a modern house of worship in the New Objectivity style.

In the November pogrom of 1938, the Klaussynagoge, unlike the main synagogue, was not completely destroyed. Provisionally repaired, it served from Passover 1939 the service of the entire community. Community life was now concentrated in F 1, 11, until the deportation of more than 2000 Mannheim Jews*Jewesses to Gurs on 22 October 1940 put an end to this traditional institution.

The house number F 1, 11 has disappeared today. On the west side of F 1 is a memorial plaque, in front of the current synagogue in F 3 a memorial stele. In front of the former address F 1, 11 is a stumbling stone in honor of the last rabbi Dr. Franz Rosenthal.

A "shul" is mentioned in the first Jewish concession of 1660. Alternately, services were held in this synagogue according to Ashkenazi and Sephardic rites. A "kindige wollgebawete sinagogue" is mentioned by Liselotte von der Pfalz. It was destroyed in the 1689 war and rebuilt around 1700. The simple building in F 2, 13 had, as it says in 1824, some "Hebrew inscriptions [...] In the center are the chairs of the precentors with decorations. The women have their own school; from which barred windows go into the main school, in order to withdraw it from the men's looks, and so that no part disturbs the other in the devotion."

The building was demolished in 1851, leaving only a wrought-iron transom grille depicting Joshua and Caleb. Castings can be seen today in the round arches of the entrances to the community center in F 3.

After the dedication of the magnificent main synagogue in F 2, 13 on June 29, 1855, the architecture was enthusiastically received by the press: "There is certainly no one whom this adornment of the local town does not fill with admiration, on whom the harmony in the proportions and the consistency of the style have not made the most pleasant and uplifting impression [...]".

The style of the building, the "Byzantine" or "round-arched" style, was intended to recall the common building tradition of Jews*Jewesses and Christians and to emphasize integration into the Christian environment. The spatial program was based on Protestant churches. The organ in particular met with fierce rejection from Orthodoxy. "The consecration of the temple became the birth of religious liberalism in Mannheim," is how the congregation's chairman Julius Moses paraphrased it 75 years later. Other Baden congregations imitated the Mannheim example and introduced the organ in church services.

80 years the main synagogue served its purpose. In 1933, it was raided by SA men. From then on, the Gestapo monitored the services. On the night of the pogrom on November 10, 1938, the fire department let the synagogue burn and protected only the neighboring properties. What remained in F 2, 13 was smashed or looted.

The initiatives of the post-war city administration to build a prayer hall in the massive walls for the small post-war community or to preserve the ruin as a memorial failed. In 1955, it was demolished. Today, a somewhat hidden memorial plaque is located there, and a memorial stele stands in front of today's synagogue in F 3.

The return of the Jewish community to the center was desired by the city administration, the ruined plot Quadrat F 3 in the former Jewish residential area offered itself. Construction began in 1985. The inauguration of the synagogue and community center, built according to the plans of Karl Schmucker, took place on September 13, 1987, in the presence of the former Mannheim rabbi Dr. Grünewald, who had traveled from the USA.

The five-story residential building complex surrounds the synagogue in a horseshoe shape. The square laid out in front of the synagogue, called Rabbi Grünewald Square since 1993, has become an atmospheric resting point of the lower town. From there, one enters the synagogue area through one of the two round-arched entrances, whose Hebrew inscriptions translated read: "This is the gate of the Lord, the righteous will enter there (left); For my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations (right)." The biblical scouts Joshua and Caleb in the arched grates are copies of a pre-1851 synagogue component.

The centerpiece of the complex, which includes many community rooms, is the synagogue. The cubic service room seats 228 visitors on the first floor, and the surrounding gallery with 98 seats is often used by guests. Under the side galleries are the women's seats, in the middle and under the west gallery are the men's seats.

The Aron Hakodesh in the interior is a work by Tel Aviv artist Frank Meisler. Its arched field shows the walls, gates, domes and mountains of the Holy City in relief. Of strong expressive power are the leaded glass windows of the synagogue. The blue tones of the windows, which darken towards the top, contrast, together with the blue of the dome and the pillars, and with the red tones of the architectural elements.

As it was before the war, the Jewish community of Mannheim was and still is a unified community in which all religious directions come together. The order of prayer follows the traditional tradition. The community offers religious education for elementary school students, a youth center for children and young people, the Maccabi sports club, a senior citizens' club and much more. The annual spring ball is attended by citizens from all over the city. The Jewish community center developed into an intellectual and social focal point, not only for the approximately 500 Jewish citizens of Mannheim.

In 1711 the Jewish community in E 5 bought the house to the city of Strasbourg. It served her as a hostel for transients and for the reception and feeding of sick Jews*Jewesses. The purchase of land in 1722 and 1798 made extensions possible. 1722 could be set up here a Shabbesofen and a Schranne, a sales magazine of the Jewish butchers.

In 1831, the community decided that the house should accommodate not only sick Jews*Jewesses, but also the wealthy and the "Pfründner*innen" (pensioners). Additional rooms were gained by preparing the "completely dilapidated 2nd floor". The building now served as a hospital, a poorhouse and an old people's home.

In 1843-1844, the building was fundamentally rebuilt and a third floor was added. The butcher's granary and the community baking oven were moved out and  in the building the administrator's apartment, a doctor's room, the kitchen and a dining room, sick and a dead room as well as rooms for the warden were established. On the 2nd floor were housed the benefactors' apartments. In the courtyard, a garden was created instead of the shabbos oven.

Also in the 1890-ies a generous rebuilding took place, which was appreciated by a visit of the Grand Duchess Luise of Baden. Non-Jewish patients*who wanted to make use of the improved surgical services or the good catering were now also admitted. Between 1910 and 1918, an average of 30% of the patients were Christian. The total annual number of patients rose from 124 in 1910 to 428 in 1929.

The demolition of the entire square E 5 forced the relocation of the hospital in 1936. It was moved, under the direction of its matron Pauline Maier, to part of the Jewish old people's home on the Neckar River built a few years earlier. On E 5 soon rose the technical administrative building of the city, whose National Socialist architectural style has dominated the square ever since. Today it is the city hall of the city of Mannheim.

The Liederkranz emerged around 1840 from a male choir that accompanied the Kaddish prayer and the lifting in and out of the Torah from the bima in the main synagogue. The "Israelitischer Singverein" was under the direction of the Christian teacher and organist Eberhard Kuhn. Perhaps out of consideration for the religious sensibilities of the Orthodox, a men's singing society split off, which from 1858 took the name "Liederkranz" and also cultivated secular songs. In addition, the synagogue choir remained active.

Increasingly, the Liederkranz cultivated the classical "German song." The number of its singers grew. The Liederkranz opened a spacious social center with event halls, social rooms and a café in 1880 in E 5, 4. For its concerts, it engaged soloists from all over Europe. He was firmly anchored in the musical life of the city.

After World War I, the association increasingly performed compositions with Jewish character and biblical themes. In 1931 they performed the hymn by Jehuda Halevy "In Eternity" composed by Heinrich Schalit, the symphonic psalm "King David" by Arthur Honegger, in 1932 Joseph Haydn's "The Creation" and in 1933, delayed by the Nazi takeover the oratorio "Samson" by Handel.

New, urgent tasks fell to the Liederkranz. It strengthened the Jewish identity of its members, on the other hand, it fulfilled a substitute function at a time when Jews*Jewesses were excluded from cultural life. Only here could they become artistically active themselves, only here could Jewish audiences enjoy culture. The number of members rose to 800 by 1936.

In 1936, the Liederkranz lost its society house, but in Q 2, 16, cultural activities were resumed in the with 500 audience seats.  Oratorios such as "Saul" and "Judas Maccabeus"  by Handel and "Judith" by Mozart or with operas such as "La serva padrona" by Pergolesi and "Bastien und Bastienne" by Mozart.

Two days before the November pogrom in 1938, the Liederkranz in Q 2, 16 was attacked by thugs and destroyed on November 10, 1938.

In search of a better future, Jews*Jewesses coming from the Tsarist Empire or Austrian Galicia also emigrated to Mannheim since the end of the 19th century. Some of them attended the Klaus or the main synagogue. However, many of them remained faithful to their religious tradition and visited the "Betstübel". The passion and deeply felt atmosphere of their Hasidic services was impressive.

Several Eastern Jewish associations came into being. The register of associations names the association "Ahawas Schulem", love of peace, since 1907; the "Sfard-Verein Schomre Schabbos", guardians of the Shabbat, since 1912; and the "Vereinigung der Ostjuden in Mannheim", since 1919. The Ahawas Shulem members maintained a prayer room in F 3, 13a before the First World War. This was continued in the early 1920s by the association "Linas Hazedeck", Stätte der Gerechtigkeit.

In 1920, the Association of Eastern Jews acquired a house at F 7, 16, in which Ahawas Schulem established a prayer room. In the summer and fall of 1929, two ceremonial Torah dedications took place here, with the participation of the community's rabbis and cantors. The "Association of Eastern Jews" opened a prayer room in F 7, 11 in 1923.

In G 7, 30, Shomre Shabbos had rented the first floor rooms for a prayer room in 1929. At the end of 1932, the association moved it to the rear building of F 3, 13. The services were held by the prayer leaders Aronsfrau and Kanner. The special atmosphere of the services in the prayer rooms attracted visitors. Especially on Simchat Torah, the children of the community liked to attend the joyous celebrations of the Eastern Jews* to experience the traditional dances and to catch sweets. They also remembered the communal meals on Shabbat afternoons, usually a herring dinner, during which vodka was also consumed. The celebration was spent in the prayer room with pious Shabbat songs, learned disputes and dancing.

Hungarian Jews*Jewesses are said to have run a prayer room in U 1.

In 1933, the Ostjuden*Ostjüdinnen were the first on whom the hatred of the National Socialists was unleashed. Their associations had to dissolve under pressure from the police headquarters at the turn of the year 1933/34. The few prayer rooms still maintained on a private basis were brutally smashed on November 10, 1938. In the courtyard of F 3, 13 Nazis burned the furnishings and the Torah scrolls.

The community acquired a place for its cemetery in 1661 "in the bulwark behind the Hüttersche Brüderhof" in today's square F 7.  The following families signed the purchase contract: "Macholt, Hertz, Läser, Simon, Isac, Salmon, Zallel, Mosis, Mannus and Daniel, all sampt of the German, benebenst Emanuel Carcassone, Abraham and Moise Astroucg of the Portuguese Jewry" (Berthold Rosenthal 1938).

The cemetery was occupied from 1661 to 1842 and expanded several times by purchases from neighboring properties. A total of 1,113 gravestones of 3,586 dead crowded an area of 28 acres. When the city planned the construction of the main cemetery around 1840, the Jewish community also decided to establish a new cemetery next to it. Since 1842, burials were no longer held on F 7, but the cemetery was reverently preserved. Since then, the members of the Chewra Kadisha gathered for their twice-yearly cemetery visits alternately in the old and the new cemetery.

The cemetery in F 7 was the oldest cultural monument in the city. Tenement houses were built in its vicinity, hidden behind tree canopies in the summer. In 1907, Friedrich Walter called the cemetery "an interesting and atmospheric remnant of Old Mannheim." But as early as 1933, the Nazi press polemicized against the "antediluvian Jewish cemetery in the middle of the city," and the Nazi city administration urged the community to abandon the cemetery. Mayor Renninger threatened to take up the question of eliminating all Jewish cemeteries in Berlin if it continued to cause "difficulties." With a heavy heart and to avoid further mischief, the community decided to rebury the dead. In the summer of 1938, its members gathered at the old cemetery to say farewell with Rabbis Dr. Lauer and Dr. Richter. Contrary to religious laws, they dug up the dead and buried them in a collective grave in the new Jewish cemetery.

In 1960, the city built an infant day care center on F 7 and laid out green spaces. Later, a hotel was built on parts of the former cemetery. A memorial plaque and a commemorative stele refer to the history of the site.

The task of caring for elderly parishioners and those in need of care became one of the most pressing problems for the community during the Nazi era. Due to the emigration of their relatives, many elders were left to fend for themselves. The Jewish old people's home on the Neckar River, opened in 1930, was overcrowded. The Jewish banker Gustav Würzweiler transferred his house B 7, 3 to the Jewish community in 1936. Soon it was filled to the roof with old people, sick people, people in need of care and homeless people. Most of them were expellees from the surrounding area; there were floors for Palatine and for Baden Jews. A synagogue was built on the upper floor, and a mikvah in the basement. Rooms in the neighboring building B 7, 2 were also used by the Jewish community. They took in Jewish patients from mental hospitals, later the Jewish school.

On October 22-23, 1940, 56 people from B 7, 3 were deported to Gurs. In the city, only a few hundreds of the more than 2,000 Jewish people remained. In B 7, 2 and B 7, 3 the life of the remaining community took place. The remaining children received schooling in B 7, 2. At the end of 1941, the Jewish hospital on the Neckar had to close. After the relocation of the sick, B 7, 3 also became a hospital.

In 1942, the deportations from Mannheim led directly to the East. In April, eleven people from B 7, 3 were deported to Izbika, and in August at least 52 people were deported to Theresienstadt. The resident Helene Waldeck, mother of Mannheim's honorary citizen Dr. Florian Waldeck, took her own life shortly before her planned deportation on August 21, 1942. She wrote: "I voluntarily depart from the life I can no longer endure. It is too much for a person of 80 who always went through life decently. Hopefully I will succeed in my plan, I have had the tablets with me for many years, already with the suicide of my daughter, with whom I should have gone at that time, I would have been spared a lot. I thank the home where I was last cared for everything, the nurses, the gentlemen, the doctor were caring and good to me, but against the rush they were powerless."

Today, a plaque on the facade of the house commemorates the events in this building.

In 1843, newly immigrated Jews in the USA founded the "Independent Order Bnei-Brith", "Sons of the Covenant" (U.O.B.B.). The aim of the association was to bring Jews*Jewesses of different origins together for the "advancement of high humanity goals", to alleviate hardship and to help victims of persecution. The U.O.B.B. was founded in Mannheim in 1896. It was given the name of the politician August Lamey, the creator of the law for the legal equality of Jews*Jewesses in Baden.

According to its statutes, the August Lamey Lodge had "the purpose of bringing the purest principles of philanthropy to bear, to actively participate in the cultural tasks of our German fatherland, and to strive for their preservation and strengthening through the cultivation of the imperishable ideals of Judaism." In the Lodge, members could gather casually and, as Lodge brothers and sisters, treat each other's opinions with respect. Sophisticated lectures and discussion events were among the Lodge's regular activities, with guest lecturers such as Dr. Martin Buber and Dr. Leo Baeck.

The social work of the Lodge was extensive: it included the "Caritas" Sisters' Association, which worked within the framework of social welfare, the Boys' and Girls' Shelter, the care of school-age children up to and including their vocational guidance, help for needy families, and the Association of Jewish Nurses. The Welfare Office of the community, opened in 1926, took over many tasks previously performed by the Lodge and benefited from the experience of the Lodge brothers and sisters.

The Lodge building, erected around 1900 at C 4, 12 on Zeughausplatz, housed the Lodge restaurant, the Temple Hall and other function rooms. The kitchen was not strictly kosher. On the High Holidays, the premises served for additional services, such as the upper hall for the side and youth services on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

In 1937, the Bnei-Brith orders were banned, and the house C 4, 12 was closed by the Nazis. The house was destroyed during the war.

Several Jewish societies facilitated social gatherings. The largest society with this goal was the Resource Society, which grew out of the Jewish Recreation Society founded in 1817 and was re-established in 1828 under its French name. In its charter, the society called itself "an association for the purpose of social entertainment and recreation." In 1839, the society was able to acquire the former nobleman's palace C 1, 2. An extension carried out in 1924 created more spacious premises and the resource could offer its members "mainly the cultivation of sociability after the day's strenuous professional work". Here, however, "community issues were also frequently discussed over coffee and games," as the chairman of the community Julius Moses detailed in the Israelitisches Gemeindeblatt of March 20, 1929 - this was where the representatives of the community leadership met. A rich library with over 6,000 volumes was available.

From the spring of 1938, resource members could meet only with prior registration with the Gestapo. In 1939, the association was deleted from the register of associations.

At the end of June 1945, about 50 Jewish survivors returned to Mannheim from Theresienstadt, who had been deported there as late as February 14, 1945. In March 1946, the small post-war community moved into the former Jewish orphanage at R 7, 24, which had survived the war. The building had been opened in 1893 by the Jewish Orphans' Association and "sold" to the city after the deportation of the orphans and the couple who ran the institution in October 1940. After the end of the war, it was made available to the community again.

The community chairman Max Keller reported in 1947: "With great effort and diligence the rebuilding went on. A new temple - holding 200 people - had arisen, and when the dedication of this house took place in March 1946 [... ], everyone felt that he will never forget the solemn hour [...] But our parish hall is also available for other purposes. Rooms for overnight stays are available, and so we can offer accommodation to Jews passing through in our city, which is 80 percent destroyed. For this purpose, 20 beds are available, everyone gets breakfast and, if desired, lunch and dinner, as we are able. Monthly we have about 250 overnight stays, and it is a great satisfaction to us to be able to serve the mostly poor people - coming from the East ." In addition to a few surviving families of the pre-war community, the so-called Displaced Persons (DPs), mainly from Eastern Europe, were among the community members.

The prayer room set up on the first floor with the character of a provisional building and the public traffic on the floors did not provide a worthy setting for church services in the long run. The congregation sold the former orphanage to the city. Today it is privately owned. A commemorative plaque is attached to the facade.

The congregation preferred to rebuild the destroyed main synagogue in a simplified way rather than accepting the offer of the city administration to build a new building on a plot of land in the eastern part of the city. The financial means for the new building at Maximilianstr. 6 came from the sale of the house R 7, 24 and from grants from the Upper Council, the Jewish Restitution Successor Organization (JRSO) and the city. The formal dedication of the new synagogue took place on May 19, 1957, on Lag Baomer of the year 5717. Still in the opening year of 1957, Harry Perlstein and Doris Herzberg became the first wedding couple to enter the chuppah here.

The prayer room was entered through the anteroom with a hand-washing sink. The rows of benches on the left were for the women, on the right for the men. The wooden almemor, the bima from which the Torah is read, stood in the front third of the room. The Aron Hakodesh, the Torah shrine, was set into the east wall. The gold embroidery of its red velvet curtain showed two lions holding the crown of the Torah. Above it were the stone tablets of the law set into the wall, which had already crowned the Torah closet of the main synagogue in F 2, 13 as well as that of the prayer room in R 7, 24.

An extension built in 1964/65 in the garden of the community center provided the community with a large function hall. In the courtyard space created between this hall and the synagogue, the sukkah was built annually and the Feast of Tabernacles was celebrated.

The membership doubled in 1957-1987 from about 160 to 385. As it was before the war, the Jewish community was a unitary congregation where all religious directions came together. The orientation followed the traditional tradition. In addition to a few surviving families of the pre-war community, the community members included Displaced Persons (DPs), especially from Eastern Europe.

For 30 years, the synagogue in Oststadt served its purpose. In 1987, the congregation and the synagogue returned to the city center. Rabbi Dr. Grünewald held the last service in Maximilianstrasse on the Shabbat of September 11-12, 1987.

Separated from the main cemetery by a wall, the Jewish community established its new cemetery in 1842. The old cemetery in F 7 was closed. As the first member of the community Bär Weilmann was buried in the summer of 1842.

In 1898, the city council introduced the provision that deceased persons must be laid out in public mortuaries. The "mortuary compulsion" was the reason for a new building. In place of the old entrance building, a new entrance complex was built starting in 1900, connecting a prayer hall, a mortuary with ten cells, dissection, waiting and reception rooms, and an attendant's residence. The three parts of the complex were connected by corridors; the domed prayer hall in the center acted as an eye-catcher. The facades showed forms of a Romanesque-Gothic mixed style.

In the November pogrom of 1938, the buildings were blown up by Nazi hordes. Gravestones were also damaged in the process. The family of the cemetery warden living in the warden's house was deported to Gurs in 1940 and murdered in Auschwitz in 1942.

In 1954, the city had only the mortuary rebuilt in a simplified form. Upon entering, one catches sight of a stone bowl on each side of the main walkway. They come from the old Jewish cemetery in F 7 and were used for ritual hand washing.

On the right side of the main path is the collective grave, where the bones of over 3,000 dead, transferred from F 7 in 1938, are buried. Of the original 1,113 gravestones in the old cemetery, 31 surround the collective grave. Among the centuries-old gravestones of the collective grave, the rectangular stele of Lemle Moses Reinganum, the founder of the Klaussynagogue, stands out. An ellipse-shaped medallion shows a little lamb, Lemle's name sign. There are also stones from F 7 on the left perimeter wall of the cemetery.

In addition to the collective grave, the cemetery contains 5,590 gravesites, including 379 children's graves. Over 8,000 dead are buried here. The graves located on the central path are often reserved for representatives of the community. The rows along the perimeter walls were preferred by well-off citizens. Here are the graves of the Ladenburg and Hohenemser families, owners of important banks, of Bernhard Herschel, the founder of the Herschelbad, of the Eberstadt family, which produced important bankers, politicians and artists, of the Lenel family, which provided three generations of chamber of commerce presidents, and of the jurist Dr. Max Hachenburg. Mannheim owes its economic and cultural rise to them, the business promoters, politicians, artists, patrons and honorary citizens.