Residential Neighborhood

In Gera, a Jewish community existed already in the Middle Ages. Jews were first mentioned in the city in 1331: Emperor Ludwig confirmed to the bailiff Heinrich von Gera the rights over the Jews in his territory. The persecution of the Jews during the plague in 1349 also affected the Jews in Gera. One survivor was possibly the Jew Abraham of Gera, mentioned in Erfurt in 1357. 

The medieval Jewish residential area was located in the area from Ackerhof to Benediktsplatz until the persecution and destruction of the community during the plague.

The Jewish families initially lived together in a Jewish part of the village (in the area of the Zehnhof and Hinterdorf). However, they could use the local facilities such as wells, paths, bakehouse together with the Christians. In 1808, 19 Jewish families were counted in the village. They were under the protection of three different local rulers (14 families under the Imperial Knights of Stein, three under Old Wuerzburg rule and one family under the noble family of Kalb).

The living quarters of the first Jewish families were the houses in the so-called Judenhof or Judenbau (early manor house), a district separated from the Christian living quarters. Even in 1851, two thirds of the Jewish inhabitants lived in the Judenhof.

In Frankenhausen Jews lived already in the 14th century (first mentioned in 1303). The Jews in Frankenhausen were also affected by the persecutions in the plague period (1349). The Jewish settlement was near the upper church in the upper town. Here was the still at the beginning of the 19th century called "Judengasse", which is believed to be today's Oberkirchgasse.

The Judenhof Speyer was the central district of the medieval Jewish quarter of Speyer and was probably founded in 1090 by privileges of Emperor Hainrich IV. It consisted of the ritual and communal buildings of the medieval communal center. Thus, it was the second Jewish quarter of Speyer, a first Siendlungsbezirk was located in the suburb of Altspeyer, where the Jewish cemetery continued to be located. The Judenhof consisted of the synagogue (ca. 1100), the women's school (ca. 1250), the oldest preserved mikvah in Central Europe (ca.