GENERAL (NATIONAL & REGIONAL)
Extensive and detailed web site of an association dedicated to researching Jewish history and built heritage in southern Germany and neighboring territories. Links to hundreds of cemeteries, synagogue buildings, museums, mikvaot, etc, with photographs, maps, documents, and more. The site includes a comprehensive overview in English by Dr. Joachim Hahn: Tracking Jewish Heritage in the State of Baden-Württemberg. The web site even allows you to send digital postcards with images of Jewish heritage sites.
Jewish communities in German-speaking lands
Extensive resource, with the history of Jewish communities — and their heritage sites — for hundreds of places in Germany, Austria, etc
Jewish museums, restored synagogues, exhibitions in Bavaria
A compendium of Jewish heritage sites and exhibitions, by the Museums in Bavaria portal
An extensive web site about Jewish history — and heritage sites — in the northern German region of Mecklenburg. It provides information on 44 synagogues (destroyed and still existing) and 58 Jewish cemeteries in 73 places that once had a Jewish community.
1700 Years Jewish Life in Germany — 2021
Events and resources for the year-long initiative in 2021
JEWISH CEMETERIES
Epidat: An Epigraphical Database and Archive of Jewish Cemeteries, Inscriptions and Tombstones
Online database of epitaphs and inscriptions from more than 130 Jewish cemeteries in Germany: inventory, documentation, editing and presentation of epigraphic collections.
Material from the Central Archives for Researching the History of Jewish in Germany — a database, arranged alphabetically and by state, with lists, addresses, literature, extensive bibliographies and other material and documentation on Jewish cemeteries in Germany.
Jewish Cemeteries in Bavaria (German language site)
Alphabetical listing of sites, plus other resources and links. Much of this material is available in English on the International Jewish Cemetery Project page for Bavaria.
Jewish Cemeteries in Brandenburg
History and documentation project of the Jewish and Religion Studies Institute of Potsdam University that encompasses about two dozen Jewish cemeteries.
Photographs of Jewish Cemeteries in Germany (Wikimedia Commons)
The site has lists of photos arranged by region and town.
SYNAGOGUES & MIKVAOT
German Synagogues Destroyed on Kristallnacht
A web site that serves as a memorial to the synagogues attacked on the Kristallnacht pogrom in November 1938. It includes “1400 histories of each community and its synagogue that had been attacked.” It does NOT include information on the approximated 600 “synagogues or prayer halls, defunct or operating, that were not damaged on Pogrom Night itself, unless they were attacked at an earlier or later date.”
Synagogues and Former Synagogues in much of Germany
Part of the Alemannia Judaica project — links to a wealth of material on hundreds of sites.
Network of Historic Synagogue Sites in Swabia (Bavaria)
Founded in 2004, and coordinated by the Jewish Museum of Augsburg, the Network comprises institutions, municipalities, initiatives, and associations in 18 towns whose aim is to “strengthen and deepen knowledge of the once rich Jewish existence in the region and want to convey Jewish history as part of local history through joint projects.” The 18 member towns of the network are: Altenstadt, Augsburg, Augsburg-Kriegshaber, Binswangen, Bopfingen-Oberdorf, Buttenwiesen, Fellheim, Fischach, Hainsfarth, Harburg, Ichenhausen, Kempten (Allgäu), Krumbach, Memmingen, Mönchsdeggingen, Nördlingen, Oettingen in Bayern and Wallerstein.
Information about more than 2200 German and Austrian synagogues, including photographs, drawings, documents: “With this archive we want to remember more than 2200 synagogues that were closed, desecrated or destroyed in Germany and Austria during the Nazi regime. At the same time, we want to inform the user about what happened to the buildings that remained standing after 1945 and to other former sites.” The site has many links, as well as a rich bibliography of both general publications and publications about individual synagogues. (NOTE: it is not clear if this archive is still online.)
Synagogues in Germany, a Virtual Reconstruction
In this project, the CAD Department in Architecture at the Technical University of Darmstadt has digitally reconstructed synagogues that were destroyed by the Nazis in 1938. The reconstructions, carried out under the direction of Prof. Manfred Koob and Dipl. Ing. Marc Grellert, record the cultural lost and, at the same time, call to mind the historical importance of the buildings, and also investigates how new forms of cultural remembrance can be developed with the help of information and communication technology.
Edythe Griffinger Portal, Leo Baeck Institute
Photographs of synagogues — destroyed or still standing, mainly in Germany but also in other countries.
Photographs of Synagogues in Germany (Wikimedia Commons)
Photos of dozens of synagogues and former synagogues, arranged alphabetically by state.
Peter Seidel’s photo gallery of historic Mikvaot
Seidel’s photographs include images of several medieval mikvaot in Germany
INDIVIDUAL SITES
There is a vast amount of information on Jewish heritage in Germany available online. You can find links to most sites in the web resources listed above. Here below, we provide information on a number of places that have their own web sites or other online information, and also aggregate local links. Also please see the listings in the other sections of the Germany pages.
BAYREUTH
Synagogue
Münzgasse 2
Dating from 1759, the Baroque stone synagogue, which has a mikveh, is believed to be the oldest still functioning synagogue in Germany. A geniza was found in its attic.
Click for a video presentation on the synagogue and geniza (in German)
Click for a PDF brochure of Jewish heritage in Bayreuth
Click for the web site on the Geniza, with index and photos
BERLIN
Jewish Community of Berlin web site
The web site of the established Jewish community in Berlin has detailed information on eight synagogues and the city’s four extant Jewish cemeteries
Jewish Berlin information web site
Lots of information for Jewish tourism, on the official Berlin city web site.
Friedhof Weißensee
Herbert-Baum-Str. 45
13088 Berlin
Tel: +49 (0) 30 92 53 33 0
Fax: +49 (0) 30 92 37 62 96
Covering 42 hectares (nearly 100 acres), Weissensee, established in 1880, is believed to be the largest — in area — Jewish cemetery in Europe. It has 115,000 graves. A documentary film about the cemetery, In Heaven Underground, was released in 2011. Click here to download a pdf brochure called 111.628 Berliners about the cemetery and its comprehensive survey project.
New Synagogue (Centrum Judaicum)
Oranienburger Str 28/30
10117 Berlin
Museum, Archives, and study/education centre in the restored part of the imposing New Synagogue on Oranienburger Strasse. It was built in 1866 and seated 3,200 people — Europe’s largest synagogue. It was damaged but not destroyed on Kristallnacht, but was severely damaged by Allied bombing. The ruined sanctuary was torn down in the 1960s. The front section was left standing in ruins, marked after 1966 with a memorial plaque. The communist government kicked off a multi-million dollar restoration project in 1988, the 50th anniversary of Kristallnacht. It was completed after the fall of communism by the newly reunited Federal Republic and rededicated on May 7, 1995 as part of events marking the 50th anniversary of the end of WW2.
Jewish Museum Berlin (Jüdisches Museum Berlin)
Lindenstraße 9-14
D-10969 Berlin
Tel: +49 (0) 30 25993 300
Fax: +49 (0) 30-25993 409
Email:info@jmberlin.de
One of the world’s major Jewish museums, opened in 2001. Its main space in an iconic sculptural building by Daniel Libeskind. A new permanent exhibition opened in 2020.
Topography of Terror (Exhibition and Foundation)
Niederkirchnerstraße 8
10963 Berlin
Tel: +49 30 254 509–0
Fax: +49 30 254 509–99
Email: info@topographie.de
Permanent exhibition at the site where the headquarters of the Secret State Police, the SS and the Reich Security Main Office were located during the Third Reich.The complex Includes the Nazi Forced Labor Documentation Center and an extensive Library that can be consulted online.
COLOGNE (KöLN)
Archaeological Zone/Jewish Museum Project
Since August 2007 excavations have been under way in the city’s Town Hall Square. This is where, in the Middle Ages, one of the largest and even then, oldest urban Jewish Quarters was located. A Jewish museum is under development here.
The excavations, covering 10,000 square meters, have revealed that the oldest synagogue north of the Alps known to date was located in Cologne. Recent findings indicate that it can be dated back to the first half of the 11th century. The synagogue is built on a classical structure from the fourth century. Also discovered was a mikvah also dating back to the first half of the 11th century. More than 250,000 artifacts and important inscriptions have been found during the dig.
ERFURT
Three synagogues: Old (c 1270, with foundations dating probably to the 11th century), Small (1840), and New (1952). Medieval Mikveh (discovered in 2007 and now open to the public). A museum opened in the Old Synagogue in 2009.
The Medieval Jewish heritage was added to UNESCO’s Roster of World Heritage in September 2023.
There is a Jewish cemetery dating from 1871 and still in use. Plus site of destroyed Old Cemetery. Also, several dozen preserved gravestones from the medieval Jewish cemetery, which had been used as building material after the cemetery was razed following the expulsion of Jews in 1458, are preserved and displayed at the Old Synagogue.
The web site of the Jewish Life in Erfurt Network provides extensive information on all these sites. Jewish Life in Erfurt contact:
Landeshauptstadt Erfurt
An der Stadtmünze 4/5
D-99084 Erfurt
Tel: +49 (0) 361 655 1666
Fax: +49 (0) 361 655 55 7221
Email: altesynagoge@erfurt.de
The Alte Synagoge of Erfurt: From Community Centre to Museum and Vice Versa
Click to watch presentation by Anselm Hartinger or the Erfurt History Museums, at the conference Jewish Heritage Tourism in the Digital Age, October 23, 2017
ESSEN
The imposing domed Alte Synagogue, built in built in 1911-1913, was one of the few major building standing in downtown Essen after WW2. Long used after the war as a technology museum, it is now a House of Jewish Culture with a permanent exhibition and events. The local Jewish community uses a small, dome-shaped synagogue built in 1958-59 and designed by the architects Dieter Knoblauch and Hans Heise.
Alte Synagoge Essen – Haus jüdischer Kultur (House of Jewish Culture)
Edmund-Körner Platz 1
D- 45127 Essen
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday 10 am to 6 pm
Audioguide in English and German available
Email: info@alte-synagoge.essen.de
Tel. +49 201 88 45 218
FELSBERG
A Synagogue on Ritterstrasse in the center of the town dates 1847, designed by the master builder Augener from Melsungen. It was used as a pizza restaurant until 2013.
It has been undergoing renovation as a house of worship and Jewish cultural center and is currently used by the Progressive Jewish Community of North Hessen, which works in cooperations with the Association of the Felsberg Synagogue Center, a citizens’ group founded in 2012.
There is also a historic mikveh in the town.
FRANKFURT/MAIN
An active Jewish community; Jewish cemeteries; synagogues; memorials.
A Virtual Tour of Jewish Frankfurt (juedisches-frankfurt.de)
Comprehensive site that encompasses the Jewish community and main Jewish heritage sites, including Jewish cemeteries, museums, monuments, educational institutions and private buildings
The Jewish Museum Frankfurt comprises two parts: the main building at the Rothschildpalais and the Judengasse museum. The Rothschildpalais location reopened in 2020 after being closed for five years for a total reorganization, expansion, and redesign of the exhibition.
Frankfurt’s Jews were forced to live for over 400 years in the city’s’ s Judengasse, with a population of about 3,000 in the 16th century. The street was torn down during urban renewal in the later 19th century, and a big, new synagogue opened in 1882 in the new Börneplatz. The synagogue was destroyed on Kristallnacht and the area left derelict after World War II. In the 1980s, archaeological remains were uncovered during the construction work for a municipal utilities center. After widespread, heated debate, some of the remains were preserved as a museum.
Of the original 195 houses, 19 foundations were found – today five of them can be seen at Museum Judengasse, an annex of the Frankfurt Jewish Museum, and are used to present everyday life, living conditions and religious customs. The museum includes the foundation walls of the five houses, two ritual baths, two wells and a canal. The Judengasse web site offers further information including a brief history of the former Jewish Ghetto, the Judengasse, its inhabitants, the houses, and life in the ghetto down through the centuries.
There are 12 Jewish cemeteries in and around Frankfurt.
The Old Jewish Cemetery on Battonnstrasse dates from the middle ages, with the oldest gravestones from the 13th century.
The site of the Börneplatz synagogue, destroyed on Kristallnacht, is a Holocaust memorial, located near the Old Jewish Cemetery on Battonnstrasse and the Judengasse museum.
The Holocaust Memorial has a digital component, where you can search for information about the 12,000 victims from Frankfurt.
FRANKFURT/ODER (AND SŁUBICE, POLAND)
The town straddles the Oder River that forms the border between Germany and Poland, with the German part called Frankfurt and the Polish part called Słubice. Most Jewish sites are in the German side, though the Jewish cemetery is in Poland. (A similar situation exists in Gorizia/Nova Gorica, on the border between Italy and Slovenia.)
A Virtual City Walk though Frankfurt/Oder and Słubice, Poland
A project of the Institute for Applied History e.V. at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt/Oder as part of its program “Youth for diversity, tolerance and democracy – against right-wing extremism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism.” The online guide includes a map and lists of sites. Audio guide headphones are available at the local Tourist Office, and there is also a downloadable guide in MP3 format. The online guide shows a variety of Jewish heritage sites and also maps the location of the “Stumbling Stones” monuments that mark the houses where Jews who were killed in the Holocaust once lived.
Jewish Frankfurt/Oder web site and guide
FREUDENTAL
The former Synagogue, dating from 1770, is used as a cultural center — the Pädagogisch-Kulturellen Centrums Ehemalige Synagoge Freudental,which has many programs and activities related to Jewish history and culture.
The Jewish Cemetery dates from 1811, after the closure of an earlier cemetery, and has 436 gravestones.
The epitaphs have all been digitized and uploaded to Epidat.
Access Epidat for the history of the “New cemetery” and digitization.
Access Epitade for the history and digitization of the “Old Cemetery”
HAMBURG
Jewish Hamburg (Das Jüdische Hamburg)
A vast and comprehensive web site with articles, photos, links and more on the 400-year Jewish presence in Hamburg and area. A project of Hamburg’s Institute for the History of German Jews.
Jewish Cemetery in Altona: Sephardic and Ashkenazic
Eduard Duckesz House (Reception and information center)
Königstraße 10a
The oldest Jewish cemetery in Hamburg and the oldest Portuguese-Sephardic Jewish cemetery in northern Europe, protected as a historic monument since 1960. Between 1611 and the 1870s, there were some 9,000 burials, here, 2,000 in the Portuguese-Jewish section and 7,000 in the German-Jewish Ashkenazic part of the grounds. There are more than 6,000 German and 1,600 Portuguese fully or partially preserved gravestones. The Sephardic gravestones in particular are noted for their elaborated carved decoration. The web site includes a wealth of information as well as links to databases, pictures, inscriptions.
Downloadable PDF Detailed Document on the Cemetery
Prepared in 2012 as part of the nomination of the cemetery for the UNESCO world heritage list.
Jewish Cemetery in Ohlsdorf
The Jewish section in the vast Ohlsdorf cemetery was opened in 1883. It comprises some 11 hectares and includes about 18,000 graves. There is a large memorial to German Jewish soldiers killed in World War I.
HüRBEN/KRUMBACH
Detailed illustrated lecture, viewable online, about this cemetery
MAINZ
In the Middle Ages, the German towns of Worms, Speyer, and Mainz were known collectively as “Shum” — an anagram of their initials. Their rabbis were a central authority in Jewish religious, liturgical and legal issues, whose teachings remain influential today. Worms has a rebuilt medieval synagogue; a Jewish museum, and the oldest surviving Jewish cemetery in Europe.
Mainz retains remnants of an old Jewish cemetery (Mombacher Strasse) with gravestones dating back to the 11th century but also is the site of a striking modern synagogue, designed by Manuel Herz and built in 2010. The five characters of the Hebrew word Kedushah are used in an abstracted way to shape the silhouette of the building, whose facade is faced by glazed ceramic.
Synagogue
Synagogenplatz
(Ecke Hindenburgstraße/Josefsstraße)
55118 Mainz
Click to see a detailed architectural documentation and description of the synagogue
Mainz Jewish community web site
Mainz on the Shum cities web site
Detailed info on Mainz Jewish cemetery on alemannia-judaica.de
MEMMELSDORF
Rural Synagogue built in 1728/29 – the oldest remaining synagogue in lower Franconia (a geniza was found here). Jewish cemetery established in 1835, with 113 graves; the remains of a mikvah. The synagogue was devastated but not destroyed on Kristallnacht; the Jewish community sold it to the municipality in 1939. Privately owned since 1968, the synagogue was used as accommodation, and as a workshop and storeroom; an aviary was installed in one corner. An association to rescue the building was established in 1993 and acquired the building in 1995.
The synagogue underwent renovation and preservation that was completed in the summer of 2004. This did not reconstruct or restore the building to how it was before WW2, but maintained the traces of the intended and alternative use conserved as far as possible.
Detailed web site of the Association of Patrons and Friends of the Memmelsdorf Synagogue
MONDORF AM RHEIN
Web page with aerial view, map, photographs and other detailed information about this cemetery.
REXINGEN
This small town has a synagogue (now serving as a church and Holocaust memorial) and Jewish cemetery. A local volunteer association maintains a web site with much information about the Jewish heritage sites in Rexingen and other nearby locations, including the possibility of Jewish heritage tours.
Synagogue
Built in 1837 to replace an earlier synagogue, the building is a simple structure with arched windows. It was devastated on Kristallnacht, and lafter World War II it became a Protestant church in 1952. The building now is an active church but also a Holocaust memorial and hosts cultural events as well as an exhibition that tells the history of the building and displays images from the life of the pre-war Jewish community.
Jewish Cemetery
Founded in 1760 and located on a wooded slope above the western edge of town, it is one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in Baden-Wuerttemberg, with more than 1,100 burials. The earliest legible gravestone is from 1765, and there is a large gate. There are also monuments to the Shoah as well as to local Jewish soldiers who fell in World War I. The care and maintenance of the cemetery is the responsibility of the Office of the City Cemetery Horb.
Web site of the Former Synagogue volunteer association
SOLINGEN
Web site with extensive information on the cemetery, located on Esterweg, which was founded probably in the early 18th century and whose oldest surviving gravestone dates from 1820 — it is that of Sprinz, daughter of Jizchak Halevi. The last burial took place in April 1941.
Since 1987 the cemetery has been maintained by a school, the Alexander-Coppel-Gesamtschule (former name: Solingen Comprehensive School). A school project group takes care of the gravesites and the cemetery area at Estherweg. To date, more than 300 students have dealt with the history and the culture of the former Jewish community.
NOTE: There is no public access to the cemetery. Michael Sandmöller, leader of the project group ‚Jewish cemetery‘ at the Alexander-Coppel-School, usually offers guided tours to the cemetery twice a year. (Check the web site for dates.)
STEINSFURT
Synagogue
The small brick synagogue, designed by Wilhelm Dick (1874 – 1904) from Hoffenheim, was inaugurated in 1894. The Jewish community dwindled over the decades as Jews moved away, and only a small number remained in Steinsfurt in the 1930s. The few remaining Jews sold the synagogue under duress to a private owner in October 1938 — this enabled it to survive Kristallnacht and further major damage. The new owner used it as a storeroom for agricultural goods, including fertiliser and pesticides. It was threatened with demolition in the 1980s.
The Old Synagogue Association was established in 1992 with the aim of restoring the building in a way that maintains evidence of the damage it underwent. The synagogue was listed as a cultural monument in 2003, and the leasehold of the building was acquired by the Association in 2007. Restoration work began in 2008.
On the web site is a 3D Digital Tour of the synagogue
WORMS
In the Middle Ages, the German towns of Worms, Speyer, and Mainz were known collectively as “Shum” — an anagram of their initials. Their rabbis were a central authority in Jewish religious, liturgical and legal issues, whose teachings remain influential today. Worms has a rebuilt medieval synagogue; a Jewish museum, and the oldest surviving Jewish cemetery in Europe.
Originally built in 1034, it was was replaced by a new synagogue in 1174/75. A women’s synagogue was added to the structure in 1212/13. The synagogue was remodeled and rebuilt several times over the centuries. It was destroyed by the Nazis and totally rebuilt in the 1950s, rededicated in 1961. Today is can be visited (along with the neighboring Jewish Museum) and is also used by the small Jewish community.
Next to the synagogue there is a centuries-old mikveh.
Willy-Brandt-Ring 21
67547 Worms
The oldest extant Jewish cemetery in Europe, it has around 2500 grave markers. The older, lower part of includes some 1,300 headstones, with the oldest gravestones dating from 1058/59. The upper section, used for burials from 1689 onwards, includes around 1,200 gravestones.
City web site with historic and architectural information on the synagogue and mikveh
Shum Cities on the Rhine Association
An association aimed at promoting the history and heritage of the Shum cities.