House Reuse

Width at front: c. 3.80 metres

The Reuse was built in 1558. Its house sign shows a bagshaped woven basket, a fishing trap of typical contemporary peasant construction. One of the families to move into the house was a branch of the Bing family, which took the house name (Reuß) as its family name. One rich man who lived and died here around 1700 was Löb Schuh, who was also called Speyer after a temporary residence in the Palatinate town of that name. Schuh was the son of Abraham Schuh. Both of them were involved in the tough internal power struggles in the Jewish community known as the Drach-Kann disputes. As a result of these Löb Schuh had to leave the city for ten years around 1670. When he was able to return, he moved into the Reuse. Here he regained prosperity and reputation, so that on his death in 1705 he was praised as "a courteous, pious and modest man". 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.