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Historical Jewish ghetto in Frankfurt, Germany
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The Frankfurter Judengasse (lit. "Jews' Lane") was the Jewish ghetto of Frankfurt and one of the earliest ghettos in Germany. It existed from 1462 until 1811 and was home to Germany's largest Jewish community in early modern times.
At the end of the 19th century, most of the buildings in the Judengasse were demolished. The area suffered major destruction during World War II and reconstruction left no visible signs of the ghetto in today's townscape of Frankfurt.
Post-war usage of the area included a car park, a petrol station and a wholesale flower market. The decision to build an administrative complex triggered a public discussion as to what should be done with the archaeological remains uncovered during the excavation in 1977. The foundations of 19 buildings were found and five of these can be seen at the "Museum Judengasse" which was incorporated into the new building.
The ghetto was located outside the city walls east of the medieval city wall (Staufenmauer) and formed a slight curve from today's Konstablerwache to Börneplatz, near the river Main. The street was about 330 meters long, three to four meters wide, and had three town gates. The gates were locked at night as well as on Sundays and Christian holidays. Due to the narrow street and the limited access, the Judengasse was destroyed three times by fire in the 18th century alone, in 1711, 1721 and 1796.
Initially, some 15 families with about 110 members lived in Frankfurt's Judengasse when they were forcibly removed from the city and relocated to the ghetto by decree of Frederick III in 1462. By the 16th century, the number of inhabitants rose to over 3,000, living in 195 houses. The ghetto had one of the highest population densities in Europe. Contemporary documents described it as narrow, oppressive and dirty.
It is likely that Jews were amongst the earliest inhabitants of Frankfurt. On 18 January 1074, Henry IV granted the citizens and Jews of Worms, Speyer, and Mainz (called the ShUM-cities) and other locations, including Frankfurt, certain privileges relating to reductions in fees and import duties. Eighty years later the Mainz based Rabbi Elieser ben Nathan (who died between 1145 and 1152) mentioned the Jewish community in Frankfurt in his book Eben ha Eser. Most likely the community was still very small at this point.
Until the Late Middle Ages, the Frankfurt Jews lived in the present-day old city, between the Saint Bartholomew's Cathedral, Fahrgasse and the Main River. This prosperous section of the city was also the center of political life in Frankfurt. The town hall, the mint and a mansion of the Archbishop of Mainz were located in this area. During this time the Frankfurt Jews were allowed to travel throughout the city, which was an unusual freedom in the Holy Roman Empire. Additionally, many non-Jews lived in the Jewish section of town.
In May 1241, a pogrom, known as the Judenschlacht (from the German; Slaughter of the Jews) took place in Frankfurt, brought on by conflicts over Jewish-Christian marriages and the enforced baptism of children of such marriages. The Annales Erphordenses recorded that a few Christians and 180 Jews died during the pogrom. It also records that 24 Jews avoided death by accepting baptism, while under the protection of the city fathers. During the attacks, the synagogue was plundered and the Torah scrolls were destroyed. All of this occurred despite the fact that the Jews had been protected by the Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor since 1236, and had a royal appointee running much of the city government.
It seems possible that the Judenschlacht was organized rather than spontaneous. One reason presented is that the fighting lasted more than a day. Secondly, a fortified tower where 70 Jews had taken refuge was captured. Finally, a qinah or Jewish dirge records that archers attacked a rabbi and his pupils in their school. All three events imply a measure of planning and the presence of soldiers or a strong militia.
Exactly who may have been responsible for the Judenschlacht is unclear owing to the scarcity of sources. The theory that it was led by the Dominicans, who had a papal order to fight heresy, is questionable. Another theory is that the pogrom was actually an attack against the Hohenstaufen led by Frederick II.
Frederick II ordered an investigation into the Judenschlacht that lasted some years. In 1246 Conrad IV, on behalf of his father Frederick II, issued a document pardoning the citizens of Frankfurt. It declared a pardon without payment on damages because the pogrom occurred, "from carelessness rather than deliberation." The general pardon is an example of the weak political power of the Hohenstaufen in Frankfurt.
By the 14th century, Frankfurt was granted the status of a Free Imperial City by the Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian and Charles IV. As a Free Imperial City, Frankfurt was only responsible to the Holy Roman Emperor and not to local princes. The city operated as a virtual City-state with limited control from the Emperor. This new wealth and freedom led to the total domination of city government by a few wealthy patricians.
In the mid-14th century, renewed violence was directed against the Frankfurt Jews. Ludwig the Bavarian (Luis IV) arrested some members of the Jewish community for alleged crimes. Reacting to the arrests, many local Jews fled the city. The Frankfurt Jews had paid a special tax to the Emperor for his protection and support. When a large number fled the city, he lost a source of income. To make up for this loss, he confiscated houses of those who had fled and sold them to the city of Frankfurt. Those who returned to the city were allowed by the Emperor to negotiate with the city of Frankfurt to repurchase their belongings.
In June 1349 the Emperor Charles IV transferred the special Jewish tax to the city of Frankfurt for 15,200 pounds. The responsibility for protecting the Jewish population thereby shifted from the Imperial Representative to the town council of Frankfurt. Technically, the Frankfurt Jews were no longer subjects of the Emperor but of the city council. Nevertheless, the Emperors maintained an interest in the Jewish population until the end of the Empire.
The Frankfurt Jews were promised, by the Emperor and his descendants, the right to administer their own homes, cemeteries, synagogues and all the easements. In view of the growing number of pogroms – Jews were held responsible for the Black Plague in 1348 – the Emperor included a statement in the promise that turned out to be fatal. The Emperor stated that Frankfurt would not be held responsible if the Jews were killed as a result of sickness or riots. It also stated that the belongings of the deceased would revert to the city.
Two weeks after the Emperor left the city, on 24 July 1349, all the Jews of Frankfurt were beaten to death or burnt as their houses were set aflame. The exact number of victims is unknown, but is estimated to have been 60. In older historical sources, fanatic flagellants are believed to be responsible for initiating the murders as a response to the plague.
However, modern research questions this. Charles IV appears to have given the city of Frankfurt tacit approval for the pogrom, as mentioned above. Additionally, the plague did not reach Frankfurt until autumn 1349. It appears that some local leaders saw the loss of imperial protection as an opportunity to clear their debts and acquire new property. The church yard of St. Bartholomew's Cathedral, for instance, was expanded into what had been Jewish property.
In 1360 the Emperor again granted the right for a Jewish settlement in Frankfurt. The Emperor claimed the right to taxes raised from the newly resettled population. The right to half the taxes was then sold to the Archbishop of Mainz, who then sold the rights to Frankfurt. An Imperial representative was sent to Frankfurt to collect the taxes and safeguard the rights of the Jews. In 1372 the city purchased the office from the Emperor for 6,000 marks. This put the control of Jewish taxes back to the city.
By the end of the 14th century, the Jewish community had grown large enough to establish a new synagogue, where the Jews participated in services, conducted business, swore judicial oaths, and heard proclamations from the emperor or the town council. Following the service, the rabbi would collect owed taxes and dispense punishments for minor offenses. Recent archeological excavations have revealed a 5.6 square meter (60 sq. ft.) area under the synagogue. This area was deep enough to reach the underground water level and most likely served as a mikvah, or ritual bath.
The largest area of Jewish owned property in the city was the cemetery. The cemetery had been used since about 1270 and is first mentioned in a purchase document from 1300. Until 1333 when Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian expanded the city, the cemetery lay outside the city walls. It bordered on some gardens of Saint Bartholomew's Cathedral and was walled very early in its history. In 1349, during a Succession Crisis for the Holy Roman Emperor, the city of Frankfurt declared for Günther von Schwarzburg against Charles IV. When they expected an attack from Charles, the Jewish Cemetery was fortified with eleven oriel windows. Later, in 1388 during a war between Swabia and the Salzburg Archbishop, the cemetery was again fortified.
The term Judenstättigkeit refers to the set of special regulations which defined the rights and restrictions applicable to a Jewish resident from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. Before the slaughter of the Jewish community in 1349, Frankfurt's Jews were listed in its municipal Bürgerlisten (German, lit. "Citizens' Lists", lists of people who lived in the city and were granted any rights and privileges due to that city). However, the second community, rebuilt in 1360, had a different and lower status. Each individual had to individually negotiate an agreement with the town council which included how long they would stay in the city, the amount of tribute they would pay and the regulations they must follow. In 1366 Emperor Charles IV instructed his representative Siegfried to prevent Jews from becoming guild masters, from setting their own laws or holding their own courts. In 1424 the town council collected all the individual regulations into der Juden stedikeit (the Jewish regulations). The regulations were read each year in the synagogue.
In the 14th century, Frankfurt lacked a powerful mercantile upper class. Despite the fair, which already existed, trade was less established in Frankfurt than in other German cities. Therefore, many Frankfurt Jews worked as bankers and provided loans to craftsmen, farmers, and nobles from the area surrounding Frankfurt. As a side business, they often bought and sold pawned goods. This led to a small trade in horses, wine, and grain as well as cloth, dresses, and jewelry. Because of the limited market, these enterprises remained small. Based on the amount of tax paid by the Frankfurt Jews, the wealth of the community was inferior to that of the Jewish communities in Nuremberg, Erfurt, Mainz or Regensburg.
At the end of the 14th century, the Frankfurt Jews were subject to increased restrictions. Legislation of 1386 forbade the employment of Christians and restricted the number of Jewish servants in a household. A general cancellation of debts owed to Jewish creditors was issued by Emperor Wenceslaus in 1390, hurting the Jewish money lenders to the benefit of their Christian debtors. At the same time, the town council used a rigid new tax law to restrict the growth of the community. Between 1412 and 1416, the number of Jewish households dropped from about 27 to about 4. In 1422 the town council rejected the imperial Heretics Tax, claiming that only they had the right to tax the Frankfurt Jews. This action, which the Jewish population had little influence over, caused the entire population to be placed under an Imperial Edict and forced them to flee Frankfurt to avoid punishment. Only in 1424 were they allowed to return after the Emperor acknowledged that the Frankfurt Council was correct in rejecting the Heretics Tax.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Frankfurter Judengasse”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.