House Buchsbaum

Width at front originally c. 11.70 metres, later reduced
The Buchsbaum was one of the houses built during the creation of the Judengasse in 1462. The house name Buchsbaum is also one of the few already used for a Jewish house in earlier periods when the Jews still lived around the cathedral in the Middle Ages. The family that occupied the Buchsbaum by the cathedral also lived in the house of this name in the Judengasse. This was a family of rabbis Epstein. In 1499 a family expelled from Nuremberg migrated to Frankfurt and settled at the Buchsbaum. They took the house name as their family name. The Buchsbaums were a highly respected and wealthy family. One of the family members played an important role in the Pfefferkorn book confiscation around 1509. The Buchsbaum family later branched. They were apparently closely related with the rich Goldschmidt-Kassel family, which also lived in the Buchsbaum and in neighbouring houses. Another branch of the Buchsbaum took the name Doctor. This name came from the family's main occupation, as doctors. The family (and the Buchsbaum) in fact produced several generations of Jewish doctors. 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.