Ingelheim on the Rhine

Ingelheim am Rhein was created in 1939 by merging Ober-Ingelheim, Nieder-Ingelheim and Frei-Weinheim. During the Hohenstaufen period, a bourgeois settlement existed next to the imperial palace in Nieder-Ingelheim. Presumably Jews were resident here in the 14th century as a 14th century Ingelheim court book contained an oath to the Jews and 1368 a Judengasse is mentioned. After the persecutions of the Jews in 1348/49, in connection with which, however, Ingelheim is not mentioned, in 1424 Jews (one family) are documented for the first time in Nieder-Ingelheim. Later, a Jew with the surname Bacharach lived here (1434). In the 15th century Jews named after Ingelheim are mentioned in Bingen and Mestre near Venice. Nothing is known about an expulsion of Jews from the town. Thus, possibly from the 16th century to the first half of the 20th century, Jews lived almost throughout the city. 
  
In 1719 five Jewish households were registered. In 1803 the 56 Jewish inhabitants reached a proportion of about 4% of the total population of the town. In 1824, 128 Jews lived in Ober-Ingelheim and 21 in Nieder-Ingelheim. The highest number of Jewish inhabitants was reached in Ober-Ingelheim around 1850 with 200 persons, in Nieder-Ingelheim around 1926 with 60 persons. After that, the number decreased in both places. Until the beginning of the Nazi era, the Jewish inhabitants of the town played an outstanding role in economic and cultural life.

In1933 there were still 134 Jewish people living in Ober- and Nieder-Ingelheim. A larger part of them was able to emigrate in the course of the consequences of the economic boycott, the increasing restrictions and anti-Jewish measures of the National Socialists in the following years or moved to other places in Germany. In September 1942, the last Jews from Ober-Ingelheim were deported.