Medieval Jewish Cemetery (Erfurt)

During excavations at a construction site in the area between Andreasstraße, Großer Ackerhofgasse and Moritzstraße, 20 more pieces of medieval Jewish gravestones were found, including the oldest surviving gravestone from 1259 for "Frau Dolze, Tochter des Herrn Ascher."  Erfurt now has a total of 58 Jewish gravestones and gravestone fragments from the Middle Ages. Three of them are on display in the Old Synagogue. The newly discovered pieces will initially be housed in the stone depot of the Angermuseum.
 The Jewish cemetery on today's Ackerhofsgasse, which was already destroyed in Erfurt in the 15th century, is now present with a virtual representation on the website on Jewish life in Erfurt. In the Middle Ages, the Jewish rite demanded that the dead be buried outside the residential quarter. 500 meters from the Jewish quarter was the cemetery, which after its destruction was built with a municipal granary still standing today. 
The fact that in many places in the city remains as well as completely preserved gravestones of this cemetery were found, so one had used them with the granary or with the extension of the city fortification as building material, brought the good place again more strongly in the consciousness. Through the defortification in the 19th century, some of these medieval gravestones could be uncovered again. 
The director of the Old Synagogue Erfurt, Ines Beese, had the idea of this type of presentation for some time. The cataloging of the stones and the translation of the inscriptions have now made the realization possible. The site at the former Moritz Gate appears on a city map from 1675. The interactive plan not only shows the medieval cemetery and important urban landmarks, such as the cathedral and the Krämerbrücke. Other places that can be associated with Jewish burial and mourning rites are also recorded here. Exemplary for the 120 known and 30 preserved medieval gravestones in Erfurt, five of the stones from the 12th and 13th centuries are illustrated. With brief background information, users can learn about aspects of Jewish burial culture. 
Access to this information can be found on the homepage Jewish Life Erfurt under the keyword "Medieval Jewish Cemetery" on the left side of the page. By opening this subpage, access to the virtual cemetery appears on the right. 
On the website about Jewish life in Erfurt, a computer animation about the construction phases of the Old Synagogue has just been put into operation. The side becomes by these attractively converted additions an important pool of information also over the medieval Jewish cult community.