City walk Berlin East

On both sides of the New Synagogue, other administrative buildings of the Jewish Community of Berlin can still be found today. While Oranienburger Straße 31 housed the Jewish Museum from 1933-38, among other things, the extensive community library with 67,000 volumes was located in the community building at Oranienburger Straße 29. This was confiscated by the Nazi Reich Security Main Office in 1939 and the building was destroyed in the air raid of 1943. The building at Oranienburger Straße 28, to the right, where the administration for the once 160,000 Berlin community members and the "General Archive of German Jews" was located, was preserved. The files were confiscated by the "Reichssippenamt" in November 1938, and from October 1941 the community administration was forcibly involved in organizing the deportation of more than 55,000 Jews from Berlin...

At the end of 1946, there were an estimated 7,900 Jews in Berlin (of which around ¼ were in the eastern part of the city): 4,600 had survived in so-called "mixed marriages", around 1,400 in hiding and 1,900 had returned from the camps. From the very beginning, the old and new community center at Oranienburger Straße 28 was the central point of contact for all those seeking help. A second office was opened in Joachimstaler Straße in 1946. The extent to which the Jewish community in the Soviet sector of Berlin came under political pressure is shown by a rare picture of the community center with two Israeli flags on the occasion of the founding of the state in 1948. They disappeared into the closet of the community administration. The anti-Semitic campaigns of 1952/53, shortly before Stalin's death, finally triggered a mass exodus to the West, including the East Berlin chairman Julius Meyer. From then on, the entire community was divided into East and West. The construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 sealed the split. After the death of Rabbi Martin Riesenburger (1896-1965), his position remained vacant.

By the early 1970s, the East Berlin community had shrunk to around 450 members, and by 1986 to around 200 (2/3 of whom were over 60). However, from 1971 onwards, under the long-standing chairmanship of Peter Kirchner (1935-2018), the younger, mostly non-religious generation reorganized. In 1972, a "cultural space" was set up in the backyard of Oranienburger Straße 28, where the group "Wir für uns" (We for us) also came together from 1986. The Jewish Cultural Association Berlin emerged from this group in 1989/90. The community still meets there today. In 1977, a community library was reopened on the second floor, which, under the direction of Renate Kirchner, was very popular with Jewish and non-Jewish readers from all districts of the GDR, not least because of its "special permit to import literature from capitalist countries". By 1990, it had grown to 7,000 volumes.

In 1990, with the unification of the two post-war German states and Berlin, the two halves of the community in East and West also merged - under the chairmanship of Heinz Galinski (1912-92) until 1992. Berlin now became the fastest growing Jewish community in the world! The overall administration of the community returned to its original location at Oranienburger Straße 28-31 in 2006. The official restitution notices for the once expropriated properties had already been handed over in 1995.

Text: Johannes Valentin Schwarz

"Mistrust the green spaces." This is how Heinz Knobloch began his book Herr Moses in Berlin in 1979. And this may still be going through your mind today, standing at the presumed grave of Moses Mendelssohn (1729-86) - the only remaining stone in the Old Jewish Cemetery on Große Hamburger Straße, set back between rear buildings. As early as 1672, after the re-admission of Jewish families in the Mark Brandenburg (1671), the burial ground in front of the Spandauer Tor was acquired by Model Riess and donated to the new Berlin community. (A memorial plaque from 1884 can be found on the south wall.) When the cemetery was closed in 1827, around 2,800 graves were still there. The entrance was moved from Oranienburger Strasse to Große Hamburger Strasse, where the first old people's home of the Jewish community (founded in 1829) was located from 1844. The grounds were now used as a park and, from 1863, for teaching at the neighboring boys' school.

The original appearance can only be deduced from historical photos, as the cemetery was completely destroyed in 1943 by order of the Gestapo, the gravestones smashed, the bones disposed of and a splinter trench dug through the area. As late as April/May 1945, around 2,500 war victims were buried here in mass graves. (A plaque on the eastern wall commemorates this.) It was not until September 1948 that the Jewish community was able to take over the cemetery again as part of a memorial service, the gravestone debris was collected and a memorial plaque was erected - right next to some of the oldest epitaphs on the southern wall. (They were moved to the Weißensee Jewish Cemetery for restoration in 1988/89 and only reinstalled in 2009.)

In 1962, the East Berlin City Parks Department had a simple memorial stone erected at the presumed location of Mendelssohn's grave, which was then also used for events organized by the Jewish community - for example in 1986 on the 200th anniversary of Mendelssohn's death. The current gravestone (now in its fourth version and facing east again, based on a copperplate engraving by Wilhelm Chodowiecki from 1787) was unveiled by descendants of the family in May 1990, still in GDR times. The entire southern half of the cemetery had already been converted into a public park in the early 1970s and the northern part, towards the school, had been separated by a wall... It was only in reunified Berlin that the entire area at Große Hamburger Straße 26 was to be repaired with funds from the Senate, fundamentally redesigned and rededicated in September 2008. The green space had once again become a Jewish cemetery! It is closed on Shabbat and Jewish holidays.

Text: Johannes Valentin Schwarz

The Jewish community's first retirement home was opened at Oranienburger Straße 8 in 1829. In July 1844, it moved to a new building at Große Hamburger Straße 26 and was extended twice between 1867 and 1874 thanks to numerous donations - to a total of 120 places. Immediately behind it was the Old Jewish Cemetery (1782-1827), which could be used as a park for recreation; to the left of it, the new Jewish Boys' School was inaugurated in 1906. The year 1933, when Rabbi Martin Riesenburger also took up his post here, changed everything. In November 1942, the Gestapo confiscated both buildings - the old people's home and the school - and turned them into a prison-like collection camp: with bars, floodlights and monitored courtyards in the cemetery. Around 55,000 Berlin Jews were deported from here and elsewhere to Theresienstadt and Auschwitz. At the end of the war, the building at Große Hamburger Straße 26 was destroyed by bombing.

In 2007/08, in reunified Berlin, the cemetery and memorial site were once again completely redesigned with funds from the Berlin Senate and the Jewish Community of Berlin. The former burial area was fenced off, the site of the former old people's home was remeasured and the uncovered foundations were bricked up. With the old spatial structure, all historical layers are now visible on site again - including all the contradictions of commemoration in GDR times.

Text: Johannes Valentin Schwarz

Before heading to Prenzlauer Berg, it's worth making a quick stop in the immediate vicinity: the building at Große Hamburger Straße 27 is now home to the Moses Mendelssohn Jewish High School - hidden behind a steel security fence. If you look through it, you can still make out the ornate inscription "Boys' School of the Jewish Community" on the far left, above the main portal. Miraculously, it has survived the entire 20th century. The building, designed by community architect Johann Hoeniger, was inaugurated on November 26, 1906, but the history of the boys' school goes back further: to the founding of the "Jewish Frey School" in 1778, at that time still in Klosterstraße. The promise of enlightenment can also be found on the façade from 1906: education for all, food and clothing, even for the poor. In 1825/26, it was succeeded by the aforementioned boys' school of the Jewish community in Rosenstrasse. In 1863, it moved to Große Hamburger Strasse 27, and in 1906 to the new building by Hoeninger. In 1923, the school was converted into a public secondary school, and in 1931 it merged with the girls' secondary school (founded in 1835).

After 1933, under the management of Dr. Heinemann Stern (1878-1957) and finally Georg Feige (1877-1944), the number of pupils initially doubled to over 1,000 - until the school had to be evacuated in April 1942 and finally closed in June. Like the old people's home next door, the school building was turned into a deportation camp and later a military hospital, but survived all the destruction of the war.

A return transfer was initially out of the question after 1945. From 1960, the municipal vocational school for industrial clerks "Prof. Dr. Richard Fuchs" moved in here. There was no reference to the Jewish history of the school and its spiritual mentor, Moses Mendelssohn. A bust of Mendelssohn by Rudolf Marcuse had already been erected in the front garden in 1909, but was destroyed by the SA in 1941. Full of bitterness and irony, Heinz Knobloch therefore wrote in his 1979 book Herr Moses in Berlin - published in the 250th anniversary year of Mendelssohn's birth: "I ask loudly and audibly: Why was this school not named after its founder? Perhaps the early capitalist industrial businessman Moses Mendelssohn is not a role model for socialist industrial businessmen. But perhaps the man? "There is no memorial plaque for Moses Mendelssohn in our building", a terrible indictment that lacks the subordinate clause concerning six million murdered Jews, several thousand of whom went to school here, in this building, in these rooms. Civics..." On Knobloch's initiative, on March 18, 1983 - the 250th anniversary of Friedrich Nicolai's birth - the aforementioned memorial plaque and a portrait relief of Mendelssohn by Gerhard Thieme were finally installed on the building. Both bronze plaques can still be found there today.

From 1992, the former Jewish Boys' School was finally renovated. On 20 October 1993, the Jewish Secondary School (JOS) moved into the building - the first state-recognized Jewish community school in Germany after the Shoah. In 2012, it was renamed the Moses Mendelssohn Jewish Grammar School (JGMM). Heinz Knobloch (1926-2003) would have been delighted.


Text: Johannes Valentin Schwarz

The Neue and Alte Schönhauser Straße lead to Torstraße - once the old Berlin city boundary - and Schönhauser Allee (before 1841: Pankower Chaussee). It was here, in front of Schönhauser Tor, that the Jewish community acquired a new burial ground in 1824 after the existing one had become barely adequate. The new cemetery was consecrated on June 29, 1827 by Rabbi Jacob Joseph Oettinger with the first burial of Sara Meyer, née Benda. A separate mourning hall and buildings for ritual washing of the corpse were erected according to plans by the town planning officer Friedrich Wilhelm Langerhans. Until 1880, this remained the only burial site in Berlin with around 22,800 individual graves and 750 hereditary burials, as well as impressive individual and family graves along the cemetery walls.

On the east side, a gate still leads to the so-called "Judengang", a seven-meter-wide green strip between Metzer Straße and Knaackstraße. Without disturbing the royal carriage on its way to Schönhausen Palace, the cemetery could also be reached through the "back entrance". In GDR times, the residents of Kollwitzstraße were happy about the additional open space (a story that Jörg Benario also told us), but in 2003 the "Judengang" was restored as a garden monument.

After 1880, with the opening of the third Jewish cemetery in Weißensee, there were only a few burials in hereditary burial plots or reserved areas. From 1890, the old cemetery buildings at the main entrance were replaced by a new cemetery hall designed by Johann Hoeniger - including a separate mortuary, nursery, residential and administrative buildings. Right next door, in 1883, a foundation by the Moritz and Bertha Manheimer family at Schönhauser Allee 22 established the II. The Jewish community's second pension fund was opened at Schönhauser Allee 22. While this building survived the Second World War largely unscathed, the cemetery grounds were badly damaged: The entrance buildings were largely destroyed in 1943, metal parts were looted and melted down, trenches and splinter trenches were fortified with gravestones, and a bomb funnel served as a mass grave.

After 1945, the cemetery became increasingly neglected - not least due to further damage and theft, a lack of manpower and finances. It was not until the 1950s that the ruins at the entrance were removed. In 1961, in agreement with the East Berlin magistrate, the Jewish community had a memorial made of sandstone blocks by Ferdinand Friedrich erected on the site of the destroyed ceremonial hall: "Here you stand in silence - but when you turn, do not be silent." (In 2005, the memorial had to make way for the construction of the new Lapidarium. The text can now be found to the right of the entrance). Since the 1970s, a memorial plaque on the cemetery wall has also commemorated the history of the site: "This Jewish cemetery was dedicated in 1827. It was destroyed by the fascists between 1933 and 1945. It should be preserved as a reminder for posterity." Another plaque on a fenced-in shaft in the north-western part (Field L) honored some young deserters: "Not wanting the death of others was their death. Opponents of the war hid here at the end of 1944. They were discovered by the SS, hanged from the trees and buried here."

In 1975, the cemetery was finally listed as a historical monument. From 1977, volunteers from "Aktion Sühnezeichen" and church congregations worked to uncover the overgrown graves. Cemetery gardener Detlef Thieke helped to record them with his extensive knowledge. Serious conservation work only began in 1984/85 - now with increased state support. The brick wall on the west side was restored in 1988/89. Prior to this, well over 200 graves had been desecrated by right-wing extremist youths from the secondary school opposite in early 1988... Restoration work continued after 1990. They came to a temporary end with the inauguration of the lapidarium on June 10, 2005, built on the foundations of the war-damaged ceremonial hall.


Text: Johannes Valentin Schwarz

Renovation after the Nazi regime
The synagogue in Rykestraße was the only synagogue in East Berlin and therefore an important place for the Jewish population of the GDR. After the reunification of Germany, the synagogue had to be renovated several times. After its construction in 1904, the synagogue was misappropriated by the National Socialists a few years later. According to the BZ, the synagogue was used as a stable, but there is no evidence of this other than the article. The synagogue was also used as a warehouse and confiscated by the field post. The synagogue was the only synagogue in the GDR and was called the "Peace Temple". After the Nazi regime, the synagogue was extensively renovated, as the Nazis had added some damage. Between 1967 and 1978, the synagogue was renovated again due to storm damage.

Life in the Jewish community in the GDR
The synagogue at Rykestraße 53 in Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg district was built and consecrated in 1904. Among other things, it initially housed a religious school with up to 500 pupils, which then developed into a private elementary school until 1922. Until the Third Reich, Prenzlauer Berg was considered the center of Jewish life in Berlin. The synagogue was set on fire on Kristallnacht in 1938, although it was not completely destroyed. Rabbis and other members of the Jewish community were deported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. The synagogue building was then used as a camp for the Wehrmacht. Services were still held there until this time.
After the end of the Second World War, the synagogue was renovated and finally reopened in 1953 and consecrated by Riesenburger. The so-called "Temple of Peace" was the only surviving synagogue in East Berlin. From then on, it was the center of the Jewish community in East Berlin. The majority of Holocaust survivors, Jews originally from Germany, did not want to return to the land of the perpetrators. Some, however, decided to return, as they expected to live in a socialist and anti-fascist country and perhaps also to be able to help build it up. The only point of contact for these returnees were the Jewish communities. The communities' involvement was not limited to religious matters. The community in East Berlin, for example, also organized vacation camps for children and concerts. After the founding of the state of Israel and due to the increasingly hardening fronts between East and West during the Cold War, a new anti-Zionism developed throughout the Eastern Bloc, including in the GDR. As many Jews did not feel welcome, a wave of emigration from the GDR began in the 1960s. The congregation of the synagogue in Rykestraße had around 3,000 members in 1961. After the emigration, this number fell to around 200 members. One of the consequences of this was that the synagogue had to hire guest rabbis and guest cantors, often from West Berlin or Hungary, for services and holidays. The Rykestraße synagogue was further renovated in 1976 and from 1986 to 1987. After reunification, the synagogue once again became part of the Berlin community as a whole, and many Jews from the former Soviet Union immigrated to Germany, including to East Berlin. In 2015, 80% of the Berlin community members were Jews who had immigrated from the Soviet Union. As a result, the number of community members increased again and the board of the synagogue in Rykestraße was stable again. Today, the synagogue in Rykestraße is one of eight synagogues in Berlin.

Jörg Benario as a contemporary witness
We had a chat with Jörg Benario. He is a Jewish city guide in Berlin. We asked him the following questions: Did you ever go to the Rykestraße synagogue when you were young? "Yes, I went there to learn Hebrew," he replied. We asked ourselves the more general question of what it's actually like to be Jewish. "I belong to the so-called ethnic Judaism or halachic Judaism." He added: "I am not religious." Only when "religious acts take place" does Jörg Benario wear the kippah out of respect. Our last question was whether he was discriminated against in the GDR. "It was always difficult, you didn't know who brought up the person next to you." When Benario visited the Jewish community in the Rykestraße synagogue for the first time, he had a "homecoming feeling". When Jörg Benario wanted to do his Abitur, he applied in the 7th grade to transfer to a language-specific school for the 8th grade. At the time, he was "turned down by my principal, without giving any reasons, and there was nothing to be surprised about, that was normal in the GDR."


Authors: Justus Arms, Bruno Schwartz and Osgur O'Raghaill (Herder-Gymnasium Lichtenberg)

For many people of Jewish origin, the products of the kosher butcher's shop at Eberswalder Straße 20 were an integral part of their lives. Every 14 days, a butcher was flown in from Hungary to slaughter the animals in the traditional kosher way. What is special is that the butcher's shop was not a commercial enterprise, but was run by the religious community based in Berlin. In addition to people of Jewish origin, the clientele also included Muslims and Adventists (Christians).

At the end of the 1970s, around 1.5 tons of kosher meat were sold every month in the butcher's shop, which has since closed. The butcher's shop was presumably monitored by the Ministry for State Security. The butcher's shop has since been closed due to a lack of customers. Nowadays there are several kosher butcher's shops, but mostly in the west of Berlin.

Salomea Genin was one of the customers at the time. She was born in 1932 in the Jewish Hospital in Berlin-Wedding. She has been an atheist since the age of eight. In 1939, she emigrated into exile in Australia. There she joined the communist youth organization. She returned to Germany for the first time in 1951. Her entry process dragged on for nine years because the SED accused her of being a spy. Once she arrived in the GDR, she joined the SED. The ideology of the GDR regime developed into a substitute for religion for her. At this time, she regularly shopped at the kosher butcher's because "they simply had the best meat." (Interview with Salomea Genin on 20.03.2023) A photo of her certificate of authorization can be found in the collection of the Jewish Museum. This certificate authorized her to go shopping in the butcher's shop. At the age of almost 50, she realized that by joining the SED, she had helped to build a police state. She had suicidal thoughts in the meantime, but then decided against suicide because she couldn't bear that her parents would have to grow up without a mother.


Authors: Levin von Wedemeyer, Nikita Eckert and Tim Eichstädt (Herder-Gymnasium Berlin-Lichtenberg)

In the Weißensee cemetery there is a nameless grave, overgrown and almost impossible to find. It belongs to Anna Katz, a West Berliner who - despite the division between East and West Germany - wanted to be buried in the Jewish cemetery in the East. Her decision (and that of many other Jewish people in Berlin) was based on the influence of some very important people.

In 1953, the Jewish East and West communities were already separated. A few years later, in 1961, the construction of the Berlin Wall led to the apparent complete separation. Had it not been for Martin Riesenburger and Heinz Galinski, who ensured contact between the Jewish communities of the FRG and GDR. Estrongo Nachama, the head cantor, also connected the East and the West, as he was able to travel back and forth with his Greek passport. Martin Riesenburger had long been involved with the Jewish community as a regional rabbi. During the war, he helped to maintain the cemetery, and after the end of the war, he was the one who gave the first public sermon. His parents were also buried in the Weißensee Jewish cemetery.

Right at the entrance to the cemetery, you can see Herbert Baum's grave and a memorial plaque for those killed by the group in the row of honor. He also had an influence on the GDR. Herbert Baum lived from 1912-1942 and was a German-Jewish resistance fighter. After the National Socialists came to power, he founded the "Herbert Baum Group" together with old school friends. On May 18, 1942, they carried out an arson attack on an anti-communist propaganda exhibition, for which they later became known. However, most of the group, including Herbert Baum, were quickly arrested and sentenced to death. He himself hanged himself after being tortured almost to death. The street at the main entrance to the cemetery has been called Herbert-Baum Straße since 1951. In the GDR, Baum was seen as a symbol against fascism and was therefore idolized.


Authors: Henrike Leitow, Pauline Koscheljew, Jolina Garrasch and Elisa Louise Viek (Herder-Gymnasium Berlin-Lichtenberg)

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How did young people perceive the Weißensee cemetery during and after the Nazi era?

In June 1942, all Jewish schools in Berlin were closed. Many 13 to 15-year-olds were sent to the Weißensee cemetery for forced labor. At the time, the pupils had to weed, plant ivy, plant graves and much more. The strong boys had to carry out hard labor. They had to dig a 60 cm wide, 2 m long and 1.80 m deep grave every day. The work was generally very arduous and depressing for the youngsters.

The cemetery also served as a shelter for the young people and offered them normality. They were allowed to move freely and unconstrained on the huge grounds. The accumulation of young people created new friendships and love affairs in which the students supported each other.

The young workers were left to their own devices in the cemetery, as there were no teachers. Harry Kindermann, who was himself a young forced laborer at the cemetery at the time, reported the following about the summer of 1942: "Rabbi Heinz Meyer had made it his task to look after us Jewish children. He secretly brought gymnastic equipment, high jump stands and things like that from schools that were closed. There was a large open area of grass that ran through the cemetery where there were no burials. We could play soccer there and run around."

Harry Kindermann reports the following when he sees the black and white photo of the two girls: "Jewish children could laugh so heartily in 1942! But they could only do that in the cemetery because no one could forbid them!" Harry, who was 15 at the time, immediately fell in love with the girl on the left, Marion Ehrlich. She came from school in Wilsnacker Straße to do forced labor at the cemetery and became Harry's first girlfriend. However, they did not have much time left. In November 1942, Marion was deported to Auschwitz, where she was murdered. Harry named his first and only daughter "Marion" in her honor. The girl on the right, Ruth Preuss, also did not survive the Nazi era. She was killed in Riga just a few weeks after the picture was taken.

Michaella Panske talked about the time around 1980, when she was 11-12 years old. She liked to play hide and seek in the cemetery. "As children, we often spent time there because it was so scary. The cemetery was totally overgrown. If you looked along a path, all you could see at the end was a small bright dot."

It wasn't just children who used Weißensee for their adventures; the place also attracted more mature people. The wall of the cemetery bordered the beverage combine. Michaella Planske can remember how the older boys were drawn to the cemetery every evening: "It was all about those crates of drinks. And it seems to be intergenerational," she commented on the picture from the 1970s.

Conclusion: As you can see, the young people have fond memories of Weissensee cemetery. Although they were taken there for forced labor during the Nazi era, they still made the best of it. They laughed and had a lot of fun together. They formed friendships as well as love affairs. This place was like a secret hideaway where they could escape from the fear and horror of that time. Even after the Second World War, it was not only children and young people who had fun at the cemetery, but also the older generations. If it hadn't been for the Weißensee cemetery, the young people would probably have sunk into fear and sadness. In our opinion, this cemetery had a positive influence on the young workers and children and is associated with quite good memories.


Authors: Amina Dzafiv and Nini Gubeladze (Herder-Gymnasium Berlin-Lichtenberg)