The villa at Friedrich-Ebert-Strasse 42 was built in 1924/25 for the silk merchant Richard Merländer (born 1874 in Mülheim/Ruhr). The architect was called Friedrich Kühnen.

Richard Merländer was a bachelor and lived with his staff in the peculiarly designed building. Because of his Jewish origin, he was persecuted by the National Socialist state after 1933. He had to give up his shares in the company, and his middle-class existence was destroyed. He was forced to sell his house. Instead, he had to move into a "Judenhaus" in 1941.

The Judensteg was a wooden footbridge over the river Kaczawa. The name of the bridge "Judensteg" has its origin in the fact that in the immediate vicinity on the right bank of the river is a Jewish cemetery. In 1903-1904, the "Kaiser Friedrich Brücke" was built in place of the "Judensteg".
 

The cemetery was established at the instigation of the then Rabbi Elias Grünebaum. In the Middle Ages there had already been a cemetery, but it is no longer known where it was located. In the meantime, the Jews of Landau were mostly buried in Essingen near Landau. More than 800 Landau Jews are buried in the cemetery. There is an older part and a newer one. During the Nazi regime the Jewish communities were forced to sell their cemeteries to the respective municipality.