Rudolstadt, former Schwarzburg princely residence and today a small Thuringian town, houses an interesting Judaica collection from the 17th and 18th centuries at Heidecksburg Castle. A small Jewish community with only a few families settled below the castle during this period, whose members were able to operate quite freely as merchants on the basis of a princely trade concession and were recognized as an equal religious community by Prince Ludwig Friedrich II of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt in 1796. After the dissolution of the ever-shrinking community in 1870, the precious remains passed into the private possession of the Callmann family, who donated the collection to the Städtische Altertumssammlung in 1911. At Heidecksburg Castle, it was possible to hide it in the archives during the Nazi regime and preserve it to this day. The approximately 30-part synagogal collection is considered particularly valuable because, among other things, textile elements could be dated back to the 16th century. Comparable Torabinder could be examined so far world-wide only three other times scientifically. The research of the Rudolstädter Judaica is not yet locked.
.Schlossbezirk 1
07407 Rudolstadt
Germany
Lüderitz, S. & Unbehaun, L., Jüdisches Leben in der Residenzstadt Rudolstadt, in Heimat Thüringen 27(2020), 2, S.15-17.
Thüringer Landesmuseum Heidecksburg (Hrsg.) & Unbehaun, L., Rudolstädter Judaica : Zeugnisse jüdischen Lebens aus dem 18. und 19. Jahrhundert, Rudolstadt (2009).
Ullrich, R., The handwritten notes in books and manuscripts of the judaica collection Rudolstadt, in Stützebecher, M. (Hrsg.) & Bergmann, C. D. (Hrsg.), Ritual objects in ritual contexts (2020), S. 138-147.
Unbehaun, L., "Rudolstädter Judaica": eine Ausstellung des Thüringer Landesmuseums Heidecksburg vom 26.10.2009 bis 3.1.2010, in Rudolstädter Heimathefte 55(2009), 11/12, S.284-287.
Schlossbezirk 1
07407 Rudolstadt
Germany
The historic residential palace of the Princes of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, later the seat of the Municipal Antiquities Collection and since 1950 the Thuringian State Museum, has kept the Judaica of the former local Jewish community in its archives since 1911. After the death of Hildegard Callsmann, who was the last member of the community to be buried in the Jewish cemetery in 1911, her family donated the community's possessions, which passed into the possession of the State Museum after the First World War. Secured in the archive's storeroom, the donation survived the Nazi and GDR periods without public awareness and is now one of the most valuable holdings of the castle. A total of 37 objects, including precious books, large-format prayer boards and synagogal textiles, such as curtains or Torah cloaks from the 16th to 18th centuries, have been preserved and bear witness to religious life in the small residential town. Due to the overall good and comprehensive state of preservation of the collection, which was able to remain in the local frame of reference for centuries, the Rudolstadt Judaica represent a great specialty for historical research.
Markt 8
07407 Rudolstadt
Germany
At the street corner of Markt 8 / Ratsgasse 2 was the residential and commercial building of the Callmann family, who came from Dessau.
In 1784, merchants Isaac Callmann and Marcus Aron received trading concessions in Rudolstadt for 40 thalers and soon brought their families to join them. They settled in the Thuringian residential town in a rather enlightened, tolerant and foreigner-friendly milieu, in which Prince Ludwig Friedrich II (1793-1807) promoted science and culture, and Goethe, Schiller and Humboldt, among others, found themselves as guests in the town on the Saale. In 1794, the families were admitted as protective relatives of the merchants in Rudolstadt and their children were allowed to attend higher schools. From 1802, the private house of the Callmann family housed the prayer and meeting room, where the community property was also kept.
While around 1800 five Jewish families are recorded in Rudolstadt, around 1820 only two families are said to have been resident. The economic situation, clearly worsened by financial burdens and looting by French troops, prompted the Callmanns to close their cut-meal store, the reopening of which also failed in later years due to the resistance of other merchants. The gradual introduction of trade money from 1848, the abolition of protection money in 1868 and the advancing emancipation of Jewish citizens*, which enabled them to move to economically stronger regions from 1871, favored the migration and dissolution of the Jewish community in Rudolstadt.
Brückengasse 3
07407 Rudolstadt
Germany
Shortly after Marcus Aron and Isaac Callmann had already settled in Rudolstadt, David Hirsch Schwabe, who also came from Dessau, also moved to the residential town. He not only received a trade concession, but was appointed Rudolstadt s court factor in 1784. In addition, he presided over Rudolstadt's Jewish community as chairman.
Burgstraße 2
07407 Rudolstadt
Germany
The Ludwigsburg, located only a few meters in altitude below the larger Heidecksburg, served the Schwarzburg princely house as an apanage seat, drawing school and natural history cabinet. In 1796, a mikvah with running water was established here and used until 1816. Due to structural substance damage this was then demolished, however, and the Jewish community had to look for a new place for the ritual immersion bath.
Burgstraße 16
07407 Rudolstadt
Germany
In Burgstraße 16, the Jewish community found a new place for the mikvah in 1816. On the private property of the carter Johann Christoph Schmerbauch, they were allowed to build and use an immersion bath for an annual fee of four talers.
The property was found partially built on 28.01.2021. However, the house is in a poor general condition.
Debrastraße 13
07407 Rudolstadt
Germany
Somewhat outside the town in the direction of Eisertal was the Jewish cemetery of the community. The plot was acquired in 1800 for 50 thalers and used until 1879 at very high interest rates until the community had dwindled to a few members and the site was gradually ceded to the factory owner Bohne. On September 22, 1911, the last burial took place here. In 1925 the cemetery was leveled.
.Unterm Hain 3
07407 Rudolstadt
Germany
Cause for discussion is the uncertain scientific research situation, which deals with the existence of a synagogue outside the Rudolstadt city walls. A place popularly known as "Judentempel" is suspected by some authors (among others Winker, Lutz 2009) in the area of the Haingraben and the Fischerstal. Should there have been a synagogue between 1796 and 1844, the Jewish community of Rudolstadt must have been much larger than is currently assumed, since at least ten men have to gather in the synagogue for prayer.
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