House Storch

Width at front: c. 3.2 metres

The Storch was built in 1533 for Josel, son of Gumprecht from Worms. It stood on land which had formerly belonged to the Schwarzer Ring and had been subdivided. Before the Judengasse was built in 1462, when the Jewish quarter of Frankfurt was still on the southern side of the cathedral, there was a house called Storch which was occupied by Jews and was the finest and bestknown house in the old Jewish quarter. Its occupants were killed with the rest of the Jews in the pogrom of 24 July 1349, when Frankfurt's entire Jewish community was massacred. For two centuries a branch of the Worms family lived in the Storch, and the members of this branch took the name Storch from their family home. In the 16th and 17th centuries the Storch family was very prosperous, dealing among other commodities in cloth and silk and acting as moneylenders and moneychangers. Wolf Storch, who died in 1682, held office as a "master builder". However, there were also poor occupants, for example Efraim Oberländer, who died in January 1692: his burial was not allowed to be announced, as he died in shameful circumstances. The house was destroyed in the fire of 1711 but soon rebuilt. In 1864 the city took over the house for demolition .