Alte Fleischschirn

Width at front: c. 5.66 metres
It is impossible to establish clearly when the Alte Fleischschirn (old meat market) was built. The dates given in the histories vary, some dating the building at the start of the Frankfurt ghetto in 1462 while others say it was first mentioned a hundred years later. As the name suggests, the house was originally used for the sale of meat in the Judengasse. Hygienic precautions were largely unknown in those days, and conditions in the alte Fleischschirn would have reflected this. It is reported that the dying children were laid out there during the plagues without interrupting the sale of meat. Meat sales in this building were finally stopped and transferred to the new market, built in 1628 at the southern end of the Judengasse. After this, the house was used as a dwelling. With a frontal width of over five and a half metres it was one of the larger houses in the Judengasse, and its location directly opposite the synagogue was very central. As a result it appears to have been much soughtafter. By this time its occupants included a branch of the rich and powerful Kann family. In the great fires in the Judengasse in 1711, 1721 and 1796 the house was destroyed three times. It was rebuilt after the first two fires, but after the 1796 fire it was decided to redevelop the entire northern end of the Judengasse on spacious lines, in the course of which the house disappeared finally.