House Wechsel

Width at front: 3.70 metres

The Wechsel was built in 1579 on a site that had previously been a Wechsel or path down to the former city moat. This was the origin of the house name.
Some of the occupants were related with the Cahn family at the Haus zur Pforte, and a member of the Kulp family, another rich and prominent Frankfurt Jewish family, also lived here. The Kulp family were leaders in the power struggles within the Jewish community around 1750, known as the Kulp-Kann disputes. 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.